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Physicist and Linux geek Igor Ljubuncic has posted a detailed game review for Euro Truck Simulator 2. He includes lots of screen shots and descriptions of game dynamics.
I have to admit, when I first heard about a game that is essentially a truck simulator, my first reaction was, what the hell? Why would anyone bother developing - let alone playing - a game where you lug heavy workloads across Europe at moderate speeds, snail-pace acceleration, and with long, boring slogs of roads between your source and destination? Ah, little did I know how crazy and addictive this idea was.
[...] Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a fantastic game. I'm so happy to have found it - and decided to play, as I had it in my arsenal for a year or two. It's got everything - a need for speed, a need for skill, drama, tension, you actually care, and the devilishly simple premise turns out to be full of twists and turns - literally.
This title blends strategy and simulation in a unique fashion. Some games manage to pull this off, but most either focus too much on one or the other. Yet, somehow, the seemingly most boring concept that could be has been designed into a thrilling, captivating game. Really splendid. I hear there's also American Truck Simulator. Well, you know what that means. A real convoy!
He does not cover acquiring and installing the game which happens via Steam, with the advantages and disadvantages that brings.
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Friday April 05 2019, @09:15PM (1 child)
"Convoy" [youtube.com] (1978 film)
and hat-tip to Futurama [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:39PM
Yeah it's in the game.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday April 05 2019, @09:46PM
I might have to check it out this weekend.
I usually play a bit of DOTA2 when I have a chance to play computer games, but I've been looking for a new game.
P.S. I love steam. I think it's great. I remember entering my Day of Defeat key into it 20ish years ago. That game is still in my steam library.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @09:53PM (3 children)
desert. bus.
greatest game evar!
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday April 05 2019, @10:19PM (1 child)
Canadian kids of the 80s might remember a game on AppleII computers called Crosscountry Canada'. This game is the spiritual successor to that.
Here it is: https://archive.org/details/msdos_Crosscountry_Canada_1991 [archive.org]
You can play it. It's pretty sweet.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @12:12AM
OMFG - this was an amazing game! The days, the nights! The fact that I could play it and not get in trouble - the school even provided the discs!!! (I forget if this had 2 diskettes or just we had multiple copies) Holy shit I had forgotten about this, what a gem it was!
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Saturday April 06 2019, @01:43PM
I've often wondered if the game is not somehow useful in training self-driving vehicles. Getting from point A to point B as mapped out by the GIS systems and GPS coordinates is more or less set, but there still remains the problem of how to deal with other traffic, among the remaining challenges. Letting the car- or truck-driving AI work its way through simulated trips would be one way of working some of the rough edges off of the technology.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Friday April 05 2019, @10:08PM
There is a demo available for this, and American Truck Simulator (by the same developer), on Steam.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @10:11PM (2 children)
Bah! Truck Simulator is ok, but it's not immersive enough. I'd rather play Star Citizen where my character has to take bathroom breaks every few hours, and if I want to play a female character, I need to keep tampons stocked in my ship.</sarcasm>
I've played the demo of the game, and it's been a long time since I drove truck, but it's faithful enough. Backing up without depth perception sucks. If I wanted to spend a fortune on VR and pedals (with clutch) and a gear shift it'd be decently immersive and iirc it supports all that crap, but trying to double-clutch with hands on keyboard instead of feet on pedals was a little beyond me. Felt like a wanker driving an automatic truck.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday April 05 2019, @11:54PM (1 child)
> and if I want to play a female character, I need to keep tampons stocked in my ship.
Future version of the game will require a special desk attachment, which will punch you in the gut at random times to remind you that it's time to check the stock of tampons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @12:16AM
Good idea! Gotta have muh immershun!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @10:30PM
Considering the only other truck games I know about is Big Rigs: Over the Road Racing... Yeah, sure it must be better... But I'll pass.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @04:54AM
A real Euro truck simulator would let you reenact the Truck of Peace that struck Nice, France.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by CZB on Saturday April 06 2019, @04:43PM
It makes me happy to see people enjoying any of the industrial vehicle simulators. But instead of the time and effort it takes to play the game, you could go out and do the real thing. It would take a while to work your way up to commercial long haul, but at the entry level there is forklifts, pizza delivery, snow plows, street sweepers, and seasonal farm trucking. Real money, real adventures.
I just got back from a round trip 2400 mile journey towing a wide load on the freeway. Its a blast! Also very fatiguing keeping alert and in your lane, and very satisfying to get home safe.
Do the video games have truck stop mini games where you find the bathroom and decide what kind of snacks to buy? And the locals are sitting there drinking coffee and making conversation about power lines, and finding dead bodies after the snow melts.