Earlier this week, my colleague, Alex Cope, wrote a bit detailing how a shock sport had circled his rising ailing emotions in direction of gaming. It resonated with me as a result of it mirrors loads of the identical emotions I’ve been having myself.
There’s an enormous collection of nice video games on the market, do not get me incorrect, however the entire state of the trade weighs heavy. Not to say I’m actually burned out on reside service gaming and the fixed grift.
Thanks to a different of my colleagues, Ben Wilson, I lastly opened up a few video games I’ve had sitting in my Steam backlog for precise years: American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2.
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I. Am. Hooked.
I’ve always known how popular these games are, but I finally get it. You’re given an enormous sandbox to play in, and you can make of it what you wish. Play the game, make your own game, change it with add-ons, or play with others on community servers.
These are old games but still get new content regularly and, at some point, will finally arrive on console, too. If you look at them and think it might be a tedious gameplay loop, you couldn’t be more wrong.
For me, it’s all about the drive
You can pretty much make of Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator what you want. There’s no campaign to speak of, and from the off you’re able to drive anywhere on any of the maps you own.
For me, it’s the driving that’s completely sucked me in. I could easily be making money faster, buying more trucks, hiring more drivers, and building my own virtual empire, but I’m not really driven that way.
It’s all about the road trips. Leveling up to open up bigger, more valuable cargo earns more monetary reward, but it also opens up longer drives. It’s one of the most relaxing video games I’ve ever played.
It can be challenging, too. Navigating tight roads gets the brain matter working, and I’m still not very good at reversing a trailer, but it also never feels frustrating. There’s a real sense of satisfaction when you do it right and don’t crash into everything around you.
Hours just fly past. Thinking, “Oh, I’ll just jump on and do a few short deliveries,” suddenly becomes driving across the entire map. I don’t even have all the DLCs for either of the games, but without consciously thinking about it, I’m accepting a 1,000-mile+ drive from New Mexico up to Oregon.
I’ve spent more time in American Truck Simulator than I have in Euro Truck Simulator 2 purely because I think the drives are better. I’ve seen plenty of real-life Europe in my years on the planet, and it’s nice, but it’s not quite the same as some of the spectacular scenery in the U.S.
It feels more like a real road adventure to me.
Both games have limitless potential for customization
Besides the quantity of official DLCs, both American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 have quite ridiculous mod support. Both from the Steam Workshop and exterior sources.
I’ve barely scratched the floor of this but, however it’s mindboggling how far you possibly can go. You can add real-life corporations to exchange the usual, pretend ones. You can obtain new automobiles, together with these not formally within the sport. There are graphics mods, physics mods, climate mods, mods to customise your vans, and mods to vary the site visitors.
If you possibly can consider it, there’s in all probability already a mod for it.
There are also ways to play with others. Inside the game, there are convoys that you can join in with, but there are also external options, with the most well-known being TruckersMP.
This is a mod that lets you drive on devoted servers alongside different actual folks reasonably than AI site visitors, and there is a entire neighborhood constructed round it. I have never but dipped a toe within the multiplayer waters, so I am unable to communicate with any authority, however the possibility is there.
Ultimately, you can also make the expertise your personal. If you need to go down the hyper-realism route, you possibly can. If you are joyful simply trucking by your self utilizing the official content material, you are able to do that too. Or any step in between.
Both Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator play nice on handhelds
Most of my time trucking so far has actually been spent on my Steam Deck, feet up on the sofa. One day I’m going to get more serious with a wheel and probably a button box, but it’s perfectly enjoyable with a controller and a handheld.
Both games actually have a native Linux version you can enjoy on the Steam Deck, and both are still being kept up to date with the Windows equivalent. I’ve been playing it through Proton instead, and I do think it’s a little better overall. But you don’t have to. They’re as pick-up-and-play as it can be on SteamOS.
There are limitations, and frame rate will drop in some of the newer DLCs and the bigger cities, but overall, it’s superb. I’m not even playing on the lowest settings, either. Some are set to low, but most are on medium, and it’s working just fine. It looks good enough to still feel impressive on those long drives through the countryside.
Both are perfect games to play on a handheld, and for me at least, I get added relaxation from moving away from my gaming PC. The one I spend all day in front of while I’m working. These two truck sims plus the Steam Deck are a perfect antidote.
Mostly, I’m wondering why I waited so long. I said the same about Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, too.
I’ve always loved games where you can explore, and what’s better than a huge open map to drive across as you please?
If you’ve ever been even curious, I definitely recommend checking out at least one of them. The base games are cheap, and while there’s a lot of DLC map add-ons, there’s enough road in each of the base maps to help you get a feel for it.
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