So many people love the hyper-specific simulator games about trains or trucks or cities or boats or building PCs. In general, I have questions about why these games don’t click with me, and perhaps my problem is that I’ve been trying to make these games click in the manner of traditional game experiences as opposed to being an entertainment experience entirely other. Which is why today’s interview with the team behind American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, as performed by our very own Adam Smith, is a video worth watching. I found my click, and you might find yours as well.

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So far, American Truck Simulator has encouraged safe and legal driving. Don’t speed, don’t crash, don’t run red lights, don’t drive through protected forests. But I have longed for the game to be a little flexible with rules of the road in the name of a pleasant drive and my dream is coming true. The next update will add a new road venturing into a place where commercial trucking is forbidden, driving through a national park just because. The new route goes through Yosemite National Park along the winding Tioga Pass, and it looks lovely. Read the rest of this entry »

Our Adam once told a story in the RPS treehouse about meeting with folks from Truck Simulator developers SCS Software, who were surprised and somewhat confused by how much we’re into their virtuatrucks in totally non-ironic ways as chillout games. We really are. (Well, when we’re not modding horns into alien wails.) You’ll get to see this encounter happen again live on stage in April at EGX Rezzed, the London games show run by our corporate siblings, as Adam will host an interview with two SCS fellas. Read the rest of this entry »

Euro Truck Simulator 2 developers SCS Software today announced a new expansion for their cheery truck ’em up, tentatively named Beyond The Baltic Sea. It will add new land to pootle around the Baltic sea, with the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, along with a chunk of Russia through to Saint Petersburg and a sliver of southern Finland. The expansion is still a way away but that just gives plenty of time to plan your honking holiday. Read the rest of this entry »

Ah, the American North, where the trees are tall, the roads are winding, and everyone feels just that little bit more relaxed, being closer to Canada’s soothing influence. It’s just a scientific fact; look it up.

After teasing it for a time, SCS Software have announced the next expansion for American Truck Simulator, latest in their freight-driving sim series. This time, you’re headed to the Beaver state, up to Oregon, in search of the fortune that the logging industry of such a green and lustrous land might bring.

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How can Father Christmas deliver presents to all the children of the world in only one night? Magic. However, Sinterklaas has been caning the peppermint schnapps and wouldn’t say no to a bit of help from truckers. American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 have launched festive events challenging virtuatruckers to haul gifts across Europe and Americky. That’s a great act of kindness, and Father Christmas of course loves that stuff, so in return the games offer honking helpers gifts such as truck paint jobs and cabin decorations including a real uncle-lookin’ snowman. Read the rest of this entry »

Europe’s lovely leg has been given a makeover in Euro Truck Simulator 2. Italy has been expanded and fleshed out in the new Italia expansion (and a bit in the base game), so if you’ve ever dreamed of spending your days transporting grapes and marbles up and down winding roads, you’ve got no more excuses for putting it off. It’s out now.

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While my trucking dreams took me to the big skies of American Truck Simulator, some still follow roads closer to home. Euro Truck Simulator 2 will revisit Italy in its next paid add-on, expanding and revamping the country. That will launch next Tuesday, the 5th of December, developers SS Software announced today. Perhaps, as our country tries to hack itself off Europe (accidentally severing several fingers with a Stanley knife and pulping its toes with a fumbled hammer in the process), Europe will seem fancier and I’ll soon find myself dreaming of these lands. For now, have a look at Italia in this trailer:

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Do you know the way to Santa Fe? I do. I drove there this morning. Albuquerque too (I only just learned how to spell ‘Albuquerque’, so expect me to write it a lot), plus Roswell, Farmington, Socorro, and indeed the whole state of New Mexico, which has now made its much-awaited debut in American Truck Simulator.
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It’s the greatest gaming news of the year, and I promise you that I make this claim with zero irony whatsoever: the latest American Truck Simulator add-on comes out just seven days from now. It adds the state of New Mexico, which means the delights of Breaking Bad heartland Albuquerque, the tinfoil enthusiast-pleasing Roswell, colonial era-styled cities such as Santa Fe, monumental rock formations, scrappy farms, humongous oil derricks and what looks like a much-needed step up in the zen driving game’s flora.

Most of all, I get the sense that this is the Truck Sim expansion where the penny has finally dropped and the devs are openly embracing the fact that people like I don’t play these games for nerdy vehicular simulation, but because they are blissfully atmospheric, state-of-zen road trip experiences. New Mexico looks so much more beautiful and surprising than anything they’ve done to date. Next week! I’m so excited.
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We still don’t have a release date for the upcoming New Mexico expansion for American Truck Simulator [official site] but developers SCS Software have said they are putting on the “finishing touches”. Eager to show off the sights of this map expansion, they’ve also released a trailer “to whet your appetite”. It’s got canyons, creeks and plane crashes. Read the rest of this entry »

Another corner of Europe is getting expanded and fancied up later this year, with the next Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] DLC off to Italy. Like the recent French expansion, Italia will expand and update the country with new cities and more unique features. The handful of Italian cities already in the game will be updated to match for free for everyone too. Read the rest of this entry »

A stretch of the iconic Route 66 in American Truck Simulator [official site] will play the song ‘America the Beautiful’ as we drive our trucks over it. The DLC adding New Mexico will include a real stretch of road near Tijeras which really does play a song, a real thing I haven’t made up. ‘Musical roads’ are a clever idea, similar to the rumble strips that make cars buzz as a warning but tuning them (by varying the distance between grooves) to play music. My dream ATS is filled with Americana and oddities so this is a real treat. Read the rest of this entry »

I like American Truck Simulator [official site] because it’s a dreamland version of the USA, one which looks a bit like the country does in movies but is quite separate from reality. This will soon change. Developers SCS Software have announced that ATS’s next update will soon close a section of its virtual Highway 1, reflecting the the real Californian landslide near Big Sur in May. If you want to haul cargo round that way in American Truck Simulator, you’ll need to take a detour. Read the rest of this entry »

Bendy double trailers are coming to American Truck Simulator [official site] and Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] this summer, which sounds a treat for serious truckers and a nightmare for me, an idiot who sees Truck Sim as a walking simulator following routes. To virtuatruckers, double trailers are a feature requested for years. To me, double trailers will surely be a way to crash and wedge even more as I try to turn and reverse, like a rambler who forgets they’re wearing a huge backpack and falls flat on their face every time their megabag bumps on a stile. Read the rest of this entry »

The next state being added to American Truck Simulator [official site] is New Mexico, developers SCS Software announced. The Land of Enchantment, locals call it. The Cactus State! Land of Sunshine! Mexico Plus! Mexico Gold! I Can’t Believe It’s Not Mexico! SCS’s recent update upscaling the continent “transforms a great game into a sublime one”, our Alec will tell you, and now they’re done embiggenning SCS have moved back to expanding. No word yet on when New Mexico will arrive but SCS do share a few pictures to peek at for now (hit the announcement for bigguns). Read the rest of this entry »