My Time At Portia 'livestock update' adds farm animals, horse riding, and improves dating

Early Access farming sim My Time At Portia gained several new features in a major update last week, namely the update's namesake: livestock. That's right: you can now keep, raise and breed your very own sheep, chicken, ducks and cows. 

The update also added the option to ride horses, though for now you have to rent a horse from MacDonald Farm. Developer Pathea Games says a future update will add the option to raise and ride your own horses. But hey, at least you can also ride your rent-a-horse with your romantic partner, which leads us to the livestock update's lovey-dovey additions. 

My Time At Portia is something of a distant cousin to Stardew Valley, and like Stardew Valley it lets you romance the locals. Thanks to the livestock update, you can now romance them by stargazing and chatting in the meadow, and once you've wooed your sweetheart—perhaps one of Portia's newly added new partners, like the buff furniture maker Paulie—you can now hug or kiss them anytime you want. 

Other, less romantic additions include a new desert dungeon and a museum where you can sell and showcase relics. Just as importantly, the update contributed some strong contenders for the strangest patch notes of 2018 (check out 2017's wonky list here), including such gems as: 

  •  Cat bed for Pinky. 
  •  Your spouse can sit on a chair at home. 
  •  Chicks and chickens will help Emily during sparring.  

You can view the full patch notes here.

My Time At Portia will launch from Early Access later this year. Lauren dove in last year and enjoyed her time in Portia despite making a total fool of herself—more on that here. 

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.