Euro Truck Simulator

I have been playing this game occasionally using the Steam version which was, I recall, more expensive than this edition. This is not an all-action or strategy game but it does take a certain amount of skill and attention to drive an articulated truck around Europe.

Much of the scenery or 'feel' of the road networks is accurate compared with my own experience of driving the same routes. The trucks themselves have enough difference to make it worth trying to get the best you can afford. Building up a trucking fleet earns you money more rapidly than going it alone but you can choose to stay as a one-man-band and just dip in and out of the driving experience. Additional facets to the game involve route planning, avoiding speed traps, planning fuel efficient driving and maintenance.

The graphics are at a comfortable level in terms of accuracy and quality but not too taxing on your GPU. Driving the trucks is not easy, especially reversing and there are enough camera angles to make is easier for beginners. Once you become adept, only in-cab and using your mirrors are the views to adopt to make the game most realistic. When I was a student I worked though uni. with a job driving busses and trucks and the physics of the game are pretty good in my experience.

It is a game I played avidly in the previous version until I learned how to edit the scores to give me loads of money. That ruined that version of the game for me. I was pleased to see this version with better graphics, physics and more interest in the game.

As for score, that depends on what you like. Think of it as an on-road equivalent to a flight sim with commercial aircraft or more recently of shipping. Taxing in terms of skill needed but not much else to grab attention. Unlike a flight sim there is no auto pilot to take you across Europe so it is all hands-on.