Gizmo

John Deere American Farmer

Cost: $20

Web: www.boldgames.com/johndeere.html

Review: Video games usually play out in spaceships, dungeons, battlefields or athletic fields. But farm fields? “John Deere American Farmer” is a new computer game that lets players sow digital crops, milk computerized livestock and raise virtual barns. It’s the first game licensed by Moline, Ill.-based Deere & Co., makers of the green-and-yellow tractors and farm equipment. A Deere & Co. spokesman said the game provides a unique way to learn more about the importance of agriculture in the U.S. economy. There are 11 modes of play, including one where you have to raise 10,000 hogs. In “Fixer-upper” mode, you have to dig your way out of $200,000 in debt and repair a dilapidated farm within five years.

Associated Press