SCS Software sont… oh bugger it, I’ll spare you my broken French. Let’s start over.

SCS Software are busy trucking around America now, but they still have a folks who stayed home to keep an eye on Europe. The Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] team have announced they’re revamping and expanding France in a “major DLC expansion”, which sounds lovely. America’s wide skies may be a place of dreams for me, but I wouldn’t say no to pootling around Normandy either.

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We were somewhere north of Barstow on the edge of the desert – no, really, we actually were, I was so pleased – when awareness began to take hold. I rent squalid office space with two people from different companies, and they were baffled when the dull rock soundtrack of American Truck Simulator [official site]’s title screen began leaking from my speakers. Of all the games in the world, why would I choose to play this? Worst case scenario: every stereotype about PC gaming confirmed. Best case scenario: I was playing this profoundly boring driving simulator ironically. Mad Skill, No Plow, 360 Crop Rotation and all that.

By the end of the day, after hours of watching me drive through California’s forests and Nevada’s deserts, the three of us had grown appreciably closer. As night fell on San Francisco, we swapped rueful tales of love, sex and booze from our youth. As day broke over Reno, we sang in broken harmony to Gimme Shelter. As I rolled carefully into a depot in pitch-black Oakland after a long, long night’s drive, someone volunteered “shall I get some beers in?” We sat back in our seats and sighed contentedly. Our American road trip.

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American Truck Simulator [official site] has quietly been one of RPS’ most-anticipated games of 2016. Its predecessor, Euro Truck Simulator 2, has been an office favourite for a while – what, at a passing glance, might seem to be incomprehensible HGV nerdery is instead a therapeutic indulgence. The open road. The refreshing lack of urgency. The sky. Choosing only the jobs that take you where you wanna go. The tranquil click-click-click of the indicators. Freedom.

Transpose that to California and Nevada – small towns, big cities, bigger deserts and even bigger skies – and the promise is irresistible. The quintessential truck driver fantasy. Can it be true? I spent a few hours on the freeway to find out. … [visit site to read more]

Christmas is, of course, the time when Santa Claus comes to visit every lucky boy and girl. He does that in the form of a rosy-cheeked image, plastered across the side of a Coca Cola truck. Nothing says “goodwill to all” quite like an appropriated corporate mascot slapped on the flank of a vehicle delivering syrupy slugs of overpriced brown fizz to the masses.

There’s one truck that almost certainly won’t> be driving home for Christmas though. American Truck Simulator [official site]. And that makes this the worst festive season since the time a ghost told me that nobody liked me and that an undertaker would steal the pants from my corpse.

… [visit site to read more]

Have You Played? is an endless stream of game recommendations. One a day, every day of the year, perhaps for all time.>

Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] is one of my favourite games of the last few years. I think we’ve surpassed the point where I have to ensure that everyone understands that I’m not joking. I hope that people have started to realise that Euro Trucking is as valid and enjoyable a gaming habit as murdering, looting and doing a sport.

… [visit site to read more]

I’m always fascinated how people customise things, from pencil cases to player characters – and trucks, of course. Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] lets folks fancy up their rigs with fancy paint jobs, but now with new DLC opens a wonderful new space to blow cash on trinkets to make you happy, adding cabin accessories.

Nodding dogs, pennants, hula dancers, laptops, handbags, ice boxes, and fluffy dice are among the treasures truckers can now fill their cabins with, and yeah, I am keen to see the scenes people create. Have a look at all this junk:

… [visit site to read more]

I’ve been on holiday, which means I’ve spent more energy walking around and looking at things>, than I do when I’m at work. It’s a tricky thing, this holiday business. How am I supposed to enjoy the majesty of nature (and the cold pint in a country pub that waits at the end of nature) when my muscles are aching, the sweat is like an oil slick on my brow, and I’ve fallen into the habit of checking my maps every fifteen minutes because I’m convinced I’m walking in the wrong direction.

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Q: What is green and scaly, weighs 20 tonnes, has a fearsome roar audible a mile away, moves at up to 70km/h, and can haul a load of wood shavings from Felixstowe to Kiel in 14 hours?

A: A truck with a sweet prehistoric paintjob.

A pack of six really very swish dinoskins are now roaring around in Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] as a 1.59 DLC pack, which is both cheaper and more fun than Jurassic World>. “NICE” I shouted in the RPS treehouse when I saw them. On top of that, developers SCS recently dropped a respectable update adding a mod manager and more.

… [visit site to read more]

The worst music. The worst>. And yet, at the same time, the Beach Boys-as-muzak soundtrack to this new American Truck Simulator [official site] footage entirely fits the faintly awkward cheesiness of the sterling lorry driver series. I sort of love it.

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What are the best Steam Summer Sale deals? Each day for the duration of the sale, we’ll be offering our picks – based on price, what we like, and what we think more people should play. Read on for the five best deals from day 7 of the sale.>

… [visit site to read more]