Euro Truck Simulator 2

[JudgeDredd]

Had a go of the demo. Interesting - but for how long I wonder? Buy online for £24 and play immediately or £15 from Amazon?

[Grim.Reaper]

Never played this game....but when faced with this question, I always choose the option that gets the game in my hands sooner since I am an impulse shopper:). Plus I am guessing amazon will add on shipping costs which will make the prices even closer.

[JudgeDredd]

Well Amazon offer 5 day shipping which is free, but that'll be next week before I had it.

If I get it, I'll likely plop for the download. I'm like you - impulse.

I'm having a few problems with my controls though. My steering wheel is old and I think showing it. around the centre it's really quite jerky. I'm feeling a new steering wheel for christmas.

[JudgeDredd]

lol - just bought it. £23.

I thought I might as well start my business.

[Grim.Reaper]

lol - just bought it. £23.

I thought I might as well start my business.

Only took 48 minutes to make that decision...too funny:)  I can't say much since I am the same way.

Never tried a truck game before, maybe I'll give the demo a try.

[GDS_Starfury]

Groghead Truckers : now on Discovery Channel

[JudgeDredd]

lol - I caved so fast! I am lame!  ;D

It's better than the train simulator I bought. At least on this you can steer!

It has a career mode - so once you get enough money hauling, you buy a truck and then start your own business. You can also hire AI truckers to get your empire going. If you're impatient, you can take a loan out. From what I've seen, doing jobs for yourself may pay more than doing jobs for others...so the loan, whilst expensive to pay back (£100,000 and pay £3000 a day), it may be worth doing.

Currently I'm hauling for others.

From what I've seen so far it's alright. The environment is quite alive with decent AI vehicles...though I've had the occasional car sit at a junction because I pulled out a little bit too much and I have had to take a wide berth round it. They overtake if you're too slow.

You get varied vehicles and loads...not that the loads "matter" in that you only go from A to B with them. There's "skills" you can spend XP points on. This opens up other jobs - things like allowing you to transport dangerous goods, fragile goods, travel further. As you gain XP companies trust you and more jobs and better pay(?) head your way.

The control of the truck good though my wheel has an issue. Give Ways are tough because you have to check left and right - but it's helped by being able to press a button to centre your view forward again.

Reversing these bad boys is tough - though when you turn up you can skip parking the trailer, though you won't get full XP for it

If you damage your vehicle you can call recovery. They'll take you to a city (auto transported there) for a fee where you can repair your truck. If your load is damaged, it stays damaged. There doesn't seem to be a way to "restart" a job and if you cancel it, it's VERY expensive. I was doing a £3000 job. I came round a bend and the traffic was at a standstill - so I braked and slammed into the central reservation. I wanted to restart but couldn't and I looked at cancelling the job and it was going to cost £12000!!

I was fined £150 for not having my lights on. I haven't tried speeding yet.

It's nice to see some details specific to countries. For example the difference between the types of lights in the UK and the Netherlands (where I'm based). Also signs and it was nice to see a Speed Camera sign in the UK - very typical here nowadays AND they had the big yellow "Average Speed Limit" cameras at the side of the road. So there's a fair bit of nice region specific detail . The graphics for these kinds of games have come on massively over the years and this does look quite sexy. I have all the graphics way up and there's decent frame rates.

I haven't filled up yet, though I see petrol stations on the road and rest stops where you have to take your rests in on a long jounrey.

So - it's all quite cool.

[JudgeDredd]

A couple of strange things of note:

• Speeding - I have broke the speed limit a couple of times and nothing's happened. I don't know if there has to be a police car about or not or be in a speed watch area
• Crashes - I have "strayed" over another lane on occasion (because my steering wheel is ropey!) and hit a vehicle - and nothing has happened. On the other hand, in the incident mentioned next, when I reversed I hti the vehicle behind me and I got fined £450
• Dead End - I wasn't paying attention (watching rugby) and missed my turn off - only to see a row of No Entry signs in front of me. Well - I didn't stop in time and hit them and came to a dead stop...no going through. My ONLY option was to reverese, so I did - hitting he vehicles that had gathered behind me and being fined for it...and only just managed to create enough space to spin my truck around. But I can see (as the trusk isn't "righted" itself) that there is the possibility of getting stuck in that position!
  

[JudgeDredd]

Meant to say - what would be cool is if it was similar to Air Hauler for FSX - where you started a job where you stopped last time (or near). At present, you just go to the jobs list and if you last dropped in Sheffield and took a job from Rotterdam to Berlin, then oyou magically start at Rotterdam.

[JudgeDredd]

Some more

[Cougar_DK]

Isn't it Jomni who liked the first?

[JudgeDredd]

Yeah - and he mentioned ETS2 was coming out in October - and I saw a post on SimHQ!

[JudgeDredd]

wow. I'm very surprised at the amount of time I've given this!

I've travelled 2372km, Level 4, £23,500, played 3.5 hours, delivered 9 loads and cancelled 1.

[JudgeDredd]

Some more pics

Night driving

[Grim.Reaper]

Does look impressive....still have to download the demo...but the cost of the game might be too much for me for this type...seems like $40 in US.