I’ve been playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 regularly for almost three years now, despite originally installing it as a joke. When I first heard about it I snorted at the idea of driving trucks at a reasonable speed around Europe, dutifully obeying the traffic laws. Then I lost 60 hours to it. As I often tell anyone who’ll listen, it’s a genuinely brilliant, well-made game, and the virtual road trips it’s taken me on are some of my fondest PC gaming memories.

So I was delighted to hear that a new expansion had been released this week by developer SCS Software. Vive la France adds 20,000km of new roads and motorways, 15 new cities, enhanced vegetation, a French tollgate system, and authentic roadside scenery including quaint rural villages and majestic chateaus. The perfect excuse (as if I needed one) to climb back into the driver’s seat of a virtual truck and go for a long, relaxing drive.

One of my favourite features in Euro Truck Simulator 2 is being able to tune into live radio stations from around Europe. For this journey I chose Nostalgie Rock, a French classic rock station that plays absolutely perfect trucking music. Bombing down the road to the sounds of Creedence, The Kinks, Canned Heat, and David Bowie… there’s no feeling quite like it. And the French adverts between songs add an extra layer of immersion.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is an surprisingly atmospheric game, despite the fairly mundane subject matter. My first experience in the expansion is driving through the countryside at night and seeing the glowing lights of farmhouses in the distance, and the silhouette of a grand chateau towering over them. The sense of place these little details give you is powerful, and in general the updated France map feels a lot more hand-crafted.

Because most of your time in ETS2 is spent on largely featureless roads, the moments when you see something—a plane taking off, a hot air balloon, a chateau, a bridge—are bizarrely exciting. I perk up like a dog having a treat waved in front of its nose. Look! A thing! And then it’s back to the grey road. And I love that. It triggers the same reward response I get from, say, loot spilling out of a boss in Diablo, but in a very different way.

And there’s plenty of that in the France expansion. I saw the cooling towers of a nuclear power plant poking out from behind some trees, which was pretty exciting. And I marvelled as I drove through a dense forest. Anyone who’s ever been on a long road trip will know how important having something to look at through the window is for keeping you sane, and the same applies here. Some jobs in Euro Truck Simulator 2 can take an hour or longer.

The ETS2 map has grown so much. Last year’s Scandinavia update added a huge amount of new country and some of the prettiest scenery in the game. And while Vive la France isn’t quite as dramatic as that, it’s a worthy purchase for anyone invested in the game. Paris feels more like a city, the addition of bespoke road signs, advertisements, and speed traps adds authenticity, and the extra roadside detail helps bring the world to life.

For me, ETS2 is the perfect expression of PC gaming. A weird, niche simulator that no big publisher would ever back, but that found success anyway. A rich modding scene that has added everything from multiplayer to snowy weather. And a passionate dev that’s still supporting the game long after release. If you still think pretending to drive trucks sounds weird, give the demo a shot and you might be surprised by how much you love it.

Buckle up, everyone, we're going to France! By "we," I mean digital big-riggers who own Euro Truck Simulator 2, and by "France" I mean the upcoming expansion Vive la France! that will add 20,000 kilometers of new rues and highways in the land of liberté, egalité, fraternité. 

"Discover famous landmarks, deliver to expansive industrial areas, navigate complex intersections and interchanges, enjoy visually unique roundabouts inspired by real locations," developer SCS Software said. "Transport a variety of new cargo to service new local French companies as well as connecting the region to the rest of Europe." 

More specifically, here's what's in store:

• Extensive map of France to explore
• 20,000 km of new roads and highways
• Famous landmarks, recognizable places
• 15 new cities
• Rural French villages and scenery
• Enhanced vegetation, new forest ecosystems
• New local companies to work for
• French tollgate system
• New industries including nuclear plants
• New cargoes to haul

"Get a job hauling nuclear waste through France's baffling autoroutes" is one of the most PC gaming-est box blurbs I've ever stumbled across, but I don't judge: If anything, I think it's great that no matter what your particular itch might be, somewhere out there is a game that can scratch it. Euro Truck Simulator 2: Vive la France! will be out on December 5, and will sell on Steam for $19/€19/£14.

Escaping the buzz surrounding Pok mon Go is, at this point, nearly impossible. Its greatest strength isn't that it's a good game, but that Pok mon Go challenges us to view our neighborhoods differently. Through the lens of your phone, that convenience store you never visit is now a 'Pok Stop,' and that memorial you pass by on your way to work is a 'gym.' But you don't have to play Pok mon Go just to have that kind of shift in perspective PC games have been tinkering with real-world locations for a long time. From the comfort of my computer chair, I've spent weeks discovering the joys of hauling dangerous materials in my Renault semi-truck between Poland and England in Euro Truck Simulator 2.

There's the prevailing myth that video games are often just a form of escapism, but Euro Truck Simulator 2 suggests just the opposite. Instead of running away from the real world, I'm gaining a unique understanding of it. Through the windshield of that truck, I'm beginning to see the twisting highways of Europe in a whole new light. With all of the tools that developers have at their fingertips, it's no surprise that most would want to spend their time bringing imaginary landscapes to life. But the subtlety of the world we live in can be just as memorable as the impossible realities dreamed up as backdrops for video games.

Euro Truck Simulator 2 certainly takes liberties in its recreation of Europe by decreasing its scale, but it has a masterful understanding of how something as mundane as a realistically modeled exit ramp can teach a lesson. Learning how to downshift through seven gears while simultaneously reducing speed and navigating an agonizingly tight turn has given me an appreciation for hauling a 20-ton trailer that I'd never have otherwise.

Real locations that inspire real understanding 

What's fascinating about Euro Truck Simulator 2 isn't the ways it can make a mundane activity like truck driving interesting, but the fact that time and time again I walk away with a new appreciation for a real-world activity that I might not have had otherwise. My dozens of hours spent hauling haven t given me the skills to operate an actual truck. But they have given me an understanding of the nuances of driving them that extends beyond what I consider as I pass semi-trucks on the highway and I'm much more sympathetic to when they're struggling to make it up a hill now, too.

More importantly, video games that play with our own reality offer us spaces to engage in a way we could never do otherwise. Anyone can remember how terrifying it was stepping behind the wheel and learning to drive for the first time because there were tangible consequences to making a mistake. My first accident in Euro Truck Simulator might not have cost someone their life, but that didn't stop me from blushing furiously and fighting the need to apologize to the other AI drivers. Sims like Euro Truck Simulator 2 excel at poking holes in the wall between real-world experiences and those we traditionally have in video games, but there's still lessons to be gleaned from games that don't aspire to simulate reality with the same determination.

The sprawling forests of Arma 2 and DayZ's Chernarus are modelled heavily after Bohemia Interactive's homeland, the Czech Republic, but there's a pretty good chance that you've never been there. Still, by taking a real world location and using it as the framework for a fictional country, Bohemia Interactive created a layer of authenticity that few other shooters can achieve. Instead of building an environment that caters to the kind of experiences the developers wanted players to have, both DayZ and Arma 2, like our own lives, feel like products of the environment they exist in. As you begin to understand the landscape of Chernarus, you also begin to adapt how you play. Once you've been sniped in the head in an open field a few times, you learn to see pastures and glades not as shortcuts but death sentences. You learn to stalk along the treeline to maintain cover. I'm a wee bit embarrassed to admit that I sometimes find myself instinctively doing the same thing when I go out hiking.

That silly habit I've developed also illustrates the way games that model real-life create situations that inform how we act in the real world and how we behave in a video game. DayZ, for example, doesn't have a magical user interface that shows you where to go. Instead you need to lean on your own awareness of your surroundings, landmarks, and, if you're lucky enough to find them, a compass and a paper map. Being able to navigate the forests of Chernarus is, in many ways, no different than being able to navigate a forest in the real world but with the added reassurance that making a wrong turn doesn't mean wandering into a hive of agitated zombies.

Of course, this has also inspired more than a few pilgrimages by dedicated fans to the parts of the Czech Republic that were used to create Chernarus. Aside from what playing in these environments can teach us, there's an undeniable allure to comparing the two, which in turn can give us a greater appreciation not only for the effort that went into building these worlds, but the real locations that inspired them. When it comes to a game like Tom Clancy's The Division, the greatest thing that it achieved was creating a Manhattan that felt authentic despite the state of chaos it had fell into.

As video games get progressively better at realistically modeling our world and find increasingly more creative methods to interact with that world, they also create opportunities to discover new ways of understanding our own. Whether it's through the camera on your phone as you hunt for Pokemon, the windshield of a semi-trick, or a pair of binoculars as you scout through the woods of Chernarus, each one offers a unique perspective that can inform how we behave in real-life. The lens might change, but the truth stays the same: Our world and the ways it intersects with games has plenty left to teach us.

[Update: After publishing, members of the TSR community and the original interviewees reached out to clarify the origins of the radio station. The article has been updated to reflect those changes.]

For many, Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a stubborn rhetorical question. Why play a game that simulates work, the slow transport of goods across long stretches of pseudo-European highways? Players have to manage everything an actual trucker would: delivery schedules, fuel costs, road tolls, bank loans, and their careers in the cutthroat online trucking industry. Hauling 30 tons for hours at a time, avoiding accidents and obeying local traffic laws all the while can be lonely, stressful labor.

And yet, when you re playing with others, the open road inspires a calm camaraderie. Two of Euro Trucking Simulator 2 s most dedicated players know it best. Mark Watson (Mini in the online trucking world) joined a community effort to start TruckSimRadio (formerly EuroTruckRadio), an internet radio station made specifically for the trucking sim community (and the terrestrial counterpart to EVE-Radio). Later on, Ben Kingdon (Crumbs) came on to provide graphics for the official website and took up the reigns as head of the TruckSimRadio (TSR) virtual trucking company (VTC). With the help of the TSR community, they built something that could only happen on the PC: an amateur internet radio station dedicated to an unofficial multiplayer mod in a niche, monotonous simulation game.

Mini and Crumbs sat down over Skype to tell me how it all came about.

Breaker, breaker

Drivers in Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator can tune their radio any available internet radio station, but Mini felt there was something missing from the simulation. Calling into stations to request songs or send shoutouts to friends is like shouting into the abyss there s no guarantee friends are listening, and calling stations often means dialing another country. The station was created by a group of players active on the ETS2MP.com forums (no longer active) who quickly became passionate about the idea. Rick, the forum-goer with the initial idea, quickly recruited Mini, along with ETS2MP members Clare, Alex, and Mark.

There was a small group of us at the very beginning," says Mini, "about four or five of us got together, put down some money, bought a dedicated server box, put up a quick website, and started streaming live music.

As much as it sounds like a hobbyist s decision, Mini and friends weren t making the decision lightly setting up a legitimate internet radio station isn t like setting up a Tumblr. Besides the costs of setting up the server, license fees for station operation landed somewhere between 400 and 500. For personal reasons, Rick left the project after 18 months. Even Mini parted ways with the station, leaving behind the trucking scene as a whole. But the call of the open road let to his inevitable return, in which he took over TSR and lead the station to where it is today.

As a place for people looking to roleplay, amateur or not, trucking sims already attract a curious type, which makes them a great low risk place to stretch one s disk-jockeying skills Mini and Crumbs knew they d get applicants without any formal experience, but that s part of why they do it.

We like taking on people as if it's their first DJing role. says Crumbs. They re not the best to start off with, but our most recent DJ, when he started off, he didn t even know how to use the software, and he s doing three to four hours in the morning every day now and obviously he loves it. Actually he s part of the radio station management now. He started from the bottom. Now, TruckSimRadio has a regular stream of DJ personalities taking requests and shoutouts. Some show up every day during the same hour, a few come and go as they can, but the schedule is almost always filled with 10 or more hours of scheduled, hosted programming. They ll play music, hold contests, chat about the state of the game, or what they ate for lunch that day. It s an eclectic mix of amateurs and the experienced donating hours of their daily lives just to keep drivers company on the road.

The radio station was, and continues to be a hit. Mini claims they re getting about 200 or more listeners a day, and Crumbs talks up the growth of their Facebook group each week. Euro Truck Simulator 2 has around 13,000 active players at a time, an untold percentage of which use the multiplayer mod, which makes that audience pretty impressive. Because Mini and Crumbs found such a successful mouthpiece, they took the community evolution to its next logical step: public convoys.

We got a mighty (slow) convoy 

In most European countries, the highway code dictates that a convoy a group of vehicles moving in unison is to be treated as a single vehicle. That means other drivers aren t allowed to split the procession at any point, be it on the highway or moving through an intersection. In Euro Truck Simulator 2, convoys aren't exactly sanctioned, but they re not traditional convoys either. They re, as Crumb puts, controlled chaos massive online gatherings where dozens and dozens of truckers meet up to make the same drive. Drivers inch along, snaking their way across low-res Europe, proudly bearing their VTC colors, and chatting all the while. The most popular convoys are scheduled on ETS2C.com, and happen on Wednesday and Sunday, bringing in 80 to 150 drivers regularly. But when Crumbs talks about convoys, his voice strains for enthusiasm.

As it turns out, putting on a convoy isn t just a matter getting in line and hitting the gas it s a marvel that they happen at all. He s no longer in charge of keeping convoys organized, but feels for the two drivers who took over. I did the job they re doing for a couple of months and it was a nightmare, he says. And it s true. If one driver makes a wrong turn, then it s easy for others to follow suit, resulting in a splintered, lost, and frustrated group of 50-plus drivers.

Even so, they re not nearly as much of a mess as they used to be. TruckSimRadio and co. developed a few tactics to keep convoys in line, literally. Before every drive, TruckSimRadio deploys a convoy control team, whose members park near particularly confusing intersections and repeatedly point out which direction to go in the chat. To make it even easier to deploy the convoy control team, they use custom save files to get on point and respond to problems instantaneously. Crumbs came up with the idea to park at every vital convoy control point on the route ahead of time and make a save file for each. By distributing these files, control members are able to spawn at the designated control points simply by loading their appointed save. The files let convoy control team members teleport between save points without affecting the multiplayer server as a whole, because the files are saved locally and only affect the player that uses them they basically reset positional data.

Despite the ease they provide, Crumbs says the advances only turned unorganized chaos to organized chaos, but I d argue small doses of human error are part of a convoy s cryptic appeal.

Anyone can take part in a public convoy, but participating in the TruckSimRadio VTC is a more advanced process. They have a reputation to protect as one of the most popular and respected VTCs. To get in, you need to register on TruckSimRadio.com and then take a driving test as an official panel watches on. If they don t pass the first time we offer them a bit of training and whatever they need, and we get them to come back and do another test, says Crumbs. As soon as they pass that test they can drive as part of our company. It s the ShackTac of truck simulation, roughly.

There s a romanticism about road-tripping with friends, driving for long stretches, watching the plains spin up into mountains and the fog give way to blue skies but when it comes to making the cut, business comes first. There s even a dress code , so to speak, if you make it. Crumbs explains the truck decoration code like he s explained it a hundred times before. We ask that they have TSR VTC (TruckSimRadio Virtual Trucking Co.) in their name, and they drive if in solo, they can drive any truck any color they want. If they drive in a convoy of two or more trucks, they have to use the orange white and black paint scheme. It s fancy uniform.

While the paintjob is a banner of pride for many in the community, for Mini, it functions as a conversation starter and the hard-earned assurance that his crazy ideas are amounting to some good in the world. You can t drive along the road in the colors of TruckSimRadio and not be noticed. Mini s smile widens. They say oh, great radio, we listen in all the time! It s really great to get that kind of feedback and obvious we re doing things right if people are engaging with us in game.

Mini, Crumbs, and the TruckSimRadio VTC are still reeling at the success of convoys even if they can be a logistical nightmare as Crumb says, and now they ve found ways channel the chaos into tangible good. After the horrific attacks in Paris last November, TSR organized a truck gathering in ETS2 s virtual Paris, where every truck wore the colors of the French flag and they talked about the tragedy. What seems like a passive, incredibly closed off method for showing support was actually a somber educational seminar. Because a surprising number of kids and teenagers play ETS2, Crumbs believes that it s their community s duty to be positive role models. For younger people it s quite hard for them to know how to pay their respects, how to get involved in things. They talked with teens about a very sensitive subject in an adult way, something unheard of in most popular gaming communities.

Due to the radio s reach and the popularity of their VTC, TruckSimRadio is making a habit of charity work and educational outreach however they can. Just last October, they put on a 100 hour convoy in an effort to raise money for the BBC Children in Need fund. By the end their long haul, they made over 1000. Shipping goods and shipping good aren t so different for TSR.

Keep on trucking

Despite the growing community, the charity events, and popular radio station, Mini and Crumbs make no buts about how uneventful trucking can be. Crumbs described another event they host, where companies meet up in parking lots to show off their most expensive trucks and chat. They sit in the same place for an hour, an hour and a half, and they love it, they love doing it. It s just one of those things. It sounds extremely boring and people love doing it.

Strip away the trucks, the simulation, and you re left with a group of friends hanging out. Their trucks are just expressions of themselves, tuned and designed to reflect their personality. In the real trucking world, drivers only meet in passing through a quick overtake on the highway or a conversation at the rest stop. A community exists, but it s ephemeral, coming and going as the drivers do.

In a VTC like TruckSimRadio, those artificial barriers of contact dissolve. Mini and Crumbs, with plenty of help, made one of the most unique, positive, safest places in PC gaming, and the closest we ll ever get to a trucker s utopia. It s a virtual reality in which traffic laws embrace the trucker, convoys, and the spirit of open road trust. Business obligations melt away leaving only the drivers with their trucks, each a personal, powerful force sliding through a live pastoral scene, a long monotonous drive with the radio calling their name and a crowded CB as company, exactly the way it should be.

'Ultimate wheel customisation'. That's what SCS is promising Euro- and American Truck Simulator players will accompany Steam Workshop support in the next patch.

Recently, the tyres and discs of your big rigs were split into separate components. SCS is extending the system to include hubs, hubcaps and nuts. That'll arrive for both games simultaneously, although the patch isn't dated yet.

After that, the options will be expanded still further with "a small but cool DLC", packing far-out nut designs and paintable components. Quite a nice complement for Euro Truck Simulator's multiplayer mod, I'll wager.

On a Venn diagram, the modding and trucking communities are pretty much one circle. What Truck Simulator player doesn't want to customise their rig or convoy with thousands of other drivers online? Yes, modding is alive and well in SCS' sims, but the devs are set on making things easier still by implementing Steam Workshop support.

The update will come as part of patch 1.23 for Euro Truck Simulator 2 and patch 1.2 for American Truck Simulator—they haven't been dated beyond "a couple of weeks" away yet, and they'll go through public beta tests before going live for good.

To foster the creative spirit, SCS is also putting together a Wiki full of guides and info to get your started in the modding business. That's in addition to a specialised SCS Workshop Uploader tool that'll help you get them online for the world to see.

Update! The keys have already been claimed! Thanks to all who entered and enjoy your goodies.

We're very taken with the gentle journeys of Euro Truck Simulator. Andy spent many hours travelling from Denmark to Norway, and only went slightly mad doing it. We gave ETS2 a fine score of 85, and enjoyed the most recent entry in the series, American Truck Simulator, almost as much.

Do you truck? Are you looking for a way to spice up your cabin with a few chic items? Today we're giving away just shy of 10,000 DLC codes that will add a mug, a windshield flag and a stack of PC Gamers to the shotgun seat, featuring American Truck Simulator as the cover star, naturally.

To grab a code, follow the instructions in the widget below. Please note: the prize requires that you already own a copy of Euro Truck Simulator 2. This is a Steam DLC code, so if you don't own the base game it won't work. Go to the accessories section of the upgrade shop to grab the PCG gear.

Don't worry if you miss out, the March issue of PC Gamer UK will include a code for every reader. If you're after some more extreme skins for your American Truck Simulator vehicle, swish steampunk ones are free to players who join the ATS Steam group. Truck on.

Andy loves him some Euro Truck Simulator 2, and a just-announced spot of DLC seems the perfect thing to inspire another road trip. The Cabin Accessories DLC adds, well, cabin accessories, letting you adorn your virtual truck with an assortment of physics-enabled tat. I don't see the option to recreate the British trucking experience, with a wilting, forgotten pasty and a wrinkled copy of The Sun, but you can add that wobbly hula lady from the Far Cry games.

An official comment under this Facebook post reckons the DLC will be released shortly after the forthcoming 1.21 update, which improves interior reflections, road collisions and more.

This article was originally published in PC Gamer issue 280. For more quality articles about all things PC gaming, you can subscribe now in the UK and the US.

My journey begins in Odense, Denmark—the southernmost city in Euro Truck Simulator 2 s new Scandinavia DLC. It s the third largest Danish city and was once ruled by Canute IV, the last Viking king. My road trip will take me through Denmark, over to Sweden, and up to Norway. There s no way to set the GPS in Euro Truck if you re not on a delivery, so I ll be navigating entirely with a map and road signs. I have no idea how long it ll take, but I m sure I ll see some amazing scenery along the way. Or maybe just a load of motorways. 

My bright red DAF XF Euro 6—a modest but reliable truck—pulls away from Odense and I head east towards Copenhagen, or K benhavn as the Danes call it. To reach the capital I ll need to cross the Great Belt Fixed Link, or Storeb ltsforbindelsen, a bridge that connects the islands of Zealand and Funen. It s not long before I see its two great towers in the distance, and as I cross it, What a Feeling from Flashdance plays on the Danish radio station I m tuned to. I m feeling good. Spirits are high. 

I make my way across Zealand, the most populated island in Denmark. To cross into Sweden I ll have to take the resund Bridge, which anyone who s watched Danish/Swedish crime drama The Bridge will be familiar with. This leads directly from Copenhagen into the Swedish city of Malm . It s an impressive structure, and I switch briefly to a thirdperson view to soak in its majesty. Euro Truck is a game of mostly grey roads, which makes the moments when you see stuff like this even more exciting.

What a Feeling from Flashdance plays on the Danish radio station I m tuned to.

I arrive in Malm , a city with 470km of cycle paths. Not that I care in my massive gas-guzzling truck. I head through the city and southeast towards Trelleborg, the southernmost town in Sweden. When I get there, I have my first accident. I drive a little too quickly around a roundabout and my truck rolls over and falls on its side. If this was the real world, that would be the end of the road trip. But luckily I m able to call for help and magically respawn at a nearby garage. 

Karlskrona is my next destination. It s evening now, and the light is fading fast. The road between Trelleborg and Karlskrona is long and narrow, taking me through a picturesque slice of Scandinavian countryside. The sun finally dips below the horizon and I m surrounded by blackness on all sides. It s strangely eerie. I start designing a horror/ truck simulator game in my head. Silent Hill with heavy goods vehicles. Imagine it. Sympathy for the Devil by The Rolling Stones plays on the radio as I roll into Karlskrona, which is the headquarters of the Swedish Coast Guard.

My fatigue meter is almost full, so it s time to rest. I pull into a motel and get a few hours sleep. I wake up to a grey, rainy morning. I switch on my wipers and headlights and head northwest to the next city on my route, V xj . Surrounded by lakes, this beautiful city has promised to totally eliminate its use of fossil fuels by 2030. I show my appreciation by driving my big, smelly truck through it. I continue northwest and make my way towards the city of J nk ping, which is built on the banks of V ttern, Sweden s second largest lake. 

From here I head northeast to Link ping, a city that promises to be carbon neutral by 2025. The Swedish seem to care about the environment more than any other country, which makes me feel guilty about fouling the place up with my truck. Good thing virtual carbon emissions don t count. I ve been driving non-stop for an hour and a half now, and I m still only halfway through Sweden. I m finding navigation without the GPS surprisingly easy, but I ve become obsessed with checking the map every other minute to make sure I m not taking any wrong turns. 

I m heading towards Sweden s capital now, Stockholm. To get there I have to pass through S dert lje, which is home to truck manufacturer Scania AB. I wonder if any hardcore Scania fans will see me driving through their town in a Dutch DAF truck and throw eggs at me, but I emerge on the other side of the city unscathed. I continue northeast to Stockholm, an amazing city I ve had the pleasure of visiting a couple of times in real life. But, like all the cities in the game, its digital incarnation isn t quite as impressive. I take some time in the capital to visit a garage and repair my truck, which has suffered hundreds of bumps, scrapes and bangs since I left Odense. The total cost is an eye-watering 27,000 euros. Ouch. 

My time in Sweden is almost over. I ve noticed that Scandinavia is much greener than other parts of Euro Truck s map. It has a very different feel to other parts of the continent. The architecture, road signs and landscape feel unique, but I still haven t seen anything that s made me stop and go Woah! like Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted s Excellent Adventure. I leave Stockholm and head to V ster s, the sixth largest municipality in Sweden. From here I make my way to rebro, which is my route into the next country on my Scandinavian road trip: Norway.

It s here, on the road between rebro and Norway s capital, Oslo, that the scenery starts to get much more dramatic. To the strains of Elton John s I m Still Standing , I pass a chain of gorgeous lakes surrounded by dense forest. I m so distracted by the scenery, spinning the third-person camera around my truck, that I slam into a passing car. The roads here are dangerously narrow. Luckily, no one seems to be dead, and I pull away with nothing worse than a 400 euro fine. I eventually cross into Norway, and by the time I reach Oslo, it s the dead of night. I find a nearby station to refuel, then park in a motel to rest.

Oslo has been the capital of Norway since 1814, when the country gained its independence from Denmark. It s one of the fastest-growing capitals in Europe, although if I crash into any more cars, that might no longer be the case. There are far fewer cities in the game s recreation of Norway than its version of Sweden, and so the drive west from Oslo to Bergen is pretty barren. But I don t mind, because it s clear from the moment I arrive in Norway that this is the most visually splendid part of the new DLC. The game s engine had to be upgraded for the scenery here, and it shows. It s much grander, and prettier, than anywhere else in the game.

The road to Bergen is long and mostly straight, but the countryside is so scenic that I don t mind. But, once again, I become so enamoured by my surroundings that I have an accident. I crash my truck face-first into a wall, but luckily I don t flip over and can continue driving. But then the dashboard starts blinking with a message: Seek service immediately! My engine is still running, but it s seriously damaged, and keeps turning itself off in the middle of the road. I m in the middle of nowhere, so I have no choice but to limp on to Bergen and find a mechanic there.

I m drawing closer to Bergen, but night has fallen, so I decide to rest again. My fatigue meter is fine, but I don t want to miss out on any of this Norwegian scenery. It s a bright, sunny morning and I continue my journey, past a stunning mountain range, down winding roads, and through a series of tunnels carved into the volcanic rock. I emerge from one of these tunnels and find myself in front of Hardanger Bridge, the longest suspension bridge in Norway. It s every bit as impressive as Sweden s resund, and leads right into Bergen itself. Rod Stewart s Maggie May blares triumphantly on the radio as I cross the giant bridge towards the city.

On the other side, there s still a bit more driving to go before I reach Bergen. The roads continue to snake through the mountains, with a few sheer drops along the way. There are more tunnels too, including a few underground roundabouts that I ve christened undergroundabouts . I can see why this Scandinavia expansion took so long to develop. It s absolutely massive, and the scenery is unlike anything else I ve seen in the game. As I draw closer to Bergen, I feel a bit sad that my journey is almost over. Euro Truck is a bizarre kind of therapy for me. It s a meditative experience that makes me forget all the troubles in my life. Not that I have any real troubles, but you know what I mean. It s pure escapism. With trucks.

Finally, I reach Bergen. It s known as the City of the Seven Mountains, because of the mountains that surround it, which makes it sound like a location from Game of Thrones. It s such a cool place that I ve decided to go there myself in real life. But probably not by truck. My truck, incidentally, is a wreck. I m low on fuel and I m several thousand euros in debt because of those repairs in Stockholm, but I made it. The journey was 1,257 miles in total. I could have taken a shorter route, but I wanted to see as much of the continent as possible. In the end, it took me just under three and a half hours of non-stop driving to get from Odense to Bergen. In real life it would have taken a significantly more time-consuming fifteen hours.

Combined with the Going East DLC, which adds Eastern Europe to the map, the Scandinavia expansion makes Euro Truck Simulator 2 a dizzyingly massive game. Even though I feel bleary-eyed and exhausted after my three-hour road trip, I m already planning my next one. Maybe I ll take things to the next extreme and drive across the entire map, starting in Scotland and ending in Bergen. I can only imagine how long that ll take. And maybe I ll do it with an Oculus Rift. Delivering cargo for money is the core of Euro Truck s structure, but next time you play it, don t bother. Just pick a destination, drive there, and enjoy the scenery along the way. It s more relaxing than yoga.

The world's best game about transporting wood shavings to Strasbourg is about to get a little bigger. As part of the upcoming 1.19 expansion for Euro Truck Simulator 2, the Going East! expansion will gain two additional Hungarian cities.

Szeged and P cs will be added to the Southern side of the country. You can see screenshots of the new areas below. As explained on SCS blog, "quite a few kilometers of new roads were created to provide good connection to the older section of the map.

Update 1.19 is currently in closed beta testing. No release date has been given, but a public test is expected soon.