American Truck Simulator already has in-development DLCs which will see its 18-wheelers head to Arkansas and Missouri, but SCS Software have also commenced building a third: Iowa.
]]>American Truck Simulator is heading to Missouri for its next expansion. It'll be the first appearance of the Mississippi river in the beloved simulation game.
]]>American Truck Simulator will head to Kansas next week, with the release of its latest DLC on November 30th. Before that the truck driving and management sim has received a new update which adds improved weather effects, revised mountains, used truck deals, and the Moon.
]]>American Truck Simulator has, by my count, now added eleven extra states as DLC over and above the two it launched with. That means there's a long way to go before it completely unites the states as one country under 18-wheels, but SCS Software are continuing their efforts with the announcement of a third in-development expansion: Arkansas.
]]>Studios like Rockstar can capture the essence of New York in a video game, but New York is a city full of famous landmarks. SCS Software, by comparison, have become masters at capturing the essence of places of no significance. The long freeway, the vacant parking lot, the anonymous storage warehouse, the nowhere town; all are rendered with such care and detail in American Truck Simulator that they become as compelling to me as any virtual Times Square.
The latest example: Oklahoma, now available in ATS's latest DLC. Watch the launch trailer below and see if it doesn't make you want to take a road trip.
]]>American Truck Simulator's first released version included only the state of California, and its developers have been working their way eastward with each new state added via DLC. Work is currently ongoing on both Oklahoma and Kansas.
SCS Software have got better at replicating the long roads and countryside of the United States, however, so they've also been going back periodically and revamping their very first. Five cities in northern California were updated last year in a second update, and work is ongoing on a third phase of revisions that should arrive soon. SCS Software this week shared screenshots of their new Santa Cruz, which has been "revamped from the ground up".
]]>Our list of the best open world games on PC is for those who look at a forest and think about seeing what's in the middle. For the players who really do want to climb that mountain. Sure, the size of games these days means in some sense they all have an open world, but here we're leaning in to those games that want you to adventure, where the onus is on exploring and seeing what you find. These are the games where part of the destination really is the journey, and you can tell the devs wanted you to stop and look around every so often to see what you could find. They might not be for everyone, but if you're the sort of person who likes getting lost in a game for a long time, then these open world games will help you do that.
]]>American Truck Simulator hasn't yet received its already-announced Oklahoma DLC, but work is underway on the state that will follow it: Kansas. You'll find a reveal trailer filled with grassy fields and grain silos below.
]]>Straighten up your big rig’s neon signs and make sure you’re sitting comfortably, because American Truck Simulator devs SCS Software have sneakily revealed Oklahoma as the game’s next DLC. A store page for the Oklahoma expansion has popped up on Steam, although there hasn’t been an official announcement just yet. That’s most likely because today sees the launch of American Truck Simulator’s Texas DLC, so you expect to hear more about Oklahoma after that's out of the way.
]]>Last week I left the factory loading bay with the news that American Truck Simulator latest DLC had a release date, but it seems only fair I complete the job and deliver the news that: hey, American Truck Simulator's Montana DLC is out now.
]]>American Truck Simulator's tenth expansion is almost upon us. The freight simulator's Montana DLC was announced in November last year, and now developers SCS Software say it'll begin its journey on August 4th. There's a new trailer and a longer in-game video to watch below.
]]>Nerves have been sufficiently jangled as of late, not least thanks to the slew of action packed games that have landed in recent months. I crave an altogether more sedate beginning to next year, and so my mind turns to games in which violence, reflex or any other kind of unblinking attentiveness takes a back seat.
]]>American Truck Simulator has already added 8 stately expansions, and already has a 9th - Texas - announced. Not content, SCS Software have also announced a 10th, Montana.
]]>After adding official multiplayer modes to American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2, developers SCS Software have now made both support mods in multiplayer too. They're games many truckers mod with the trucks and decor of their dreams, so it'll be nice to show everyone your true truck self. I'd call this your drivatar but Forza has already claimed that.
]]>American Truck Simulator is continuing to chart the west as it heads to Wyoming tomorrow. The newest expansion takes you through ten cities in the big, open Equality State. There are jobs to haul across all sorts of industries, as ever, and quite lot of sights to stop and gander at. Along with the DLC's launch tomorrow, SCS Software are challenging players to really put some drive time in over the next couple months to earn some in game cosmetics themed after the new state. You'll be able to hit the open Wyoming roads tomorrow, September 7th.
]]>I used to watch a lot of trucking videos on YouTube. I'm not into big rigs, but the quiet drives through beautiful scenery made for great background viewing. So it is with the latest trailer for American Truck Simulator, which presents 20 minutes of quiet driving around Wyoming, the destination of its next expansion.
]]>You can officially hit the road with your friends in American Truck Simulator. Developer SCS Software added multiplayer convoys to the game today after a couple of months of beta testing. The new mode enables up to eight players (pals or otherwise) to truck together, doing tasks and admiring each other’s paint jobs on the long and open roads.
]]>As RPS safety officer and unofficial nonsense warden, I have to warn you to not operate heavy machinery while watching this video of someone operating heavy machinery. That would be silly. This first look at American Truck Simulator’s Wyoming update is a 24-minute jaunt along the chunky landscape of the American West. It’s a backdrop that can be both distractingly dramatic while still feeling like a brain massage.
]]>Euro Truck Simulator 2 and American Truck Simulator developers SCS Software are still at work on their official multiplayer support for both truck sims. The Convoy game mode will let up to eight players hop in a private session together to complete jobs on the open road with synced traffic and weather. It's still in an experimental state, SCS warn, but they've made the first version available on a beta branch for those who are determined to go on a test drive.
]]>The simulated states of American Truck Simulator look nicer than ever today, thanks to the new lighting system added in a new patch. It's meant to better reflect real-world lighting, with consequences including fixing the issue of even bright days looking a bit dim, adding more drama, and generally looking lovely. I'm certainly keen to revisit some of my favourite trucking routes now, taking my sweet time to enjoy the scenery - penalties be damned.
]]>Last week, SCS Software announced that Euro Truck Simulator is headed east in the upcoming Heart Of Russia DLC. Over on this side of the Atlantic, American Truck Simulator is headed someplace big too. SCS have properly revealed their planned Texas expansion along with some photos of their current progress. The lone star state is a huge place, so you're in store for everything from beaches to deserts to landmarks across the state.
]]>As American Truck Simulator continues to expand the map eastward across the United States with new DLC, the next stop will be in Wyoming. Ah, the Cowboy State! The tenth-largest state in the contiguous US yet the least populous. Gonna be so long lonely days on the trail, partner. But they might be lovely days, seeing as Wyoming includes parts of the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone national park. Not that I expect to be doing deliveries directly into hot springs. That would be an environmental disaster.
]]>Say what you want about the drivers in American Truck Simulator, but they're sparkling housekeepers. Sitting up there in their spotless truck cabs, with nary a crisp packet to betray the long hours spent at the wheel. It's all a bit sterile, really. Thankfully, this week's Cabin Accessories pack lets you vandalise the place with tacky nick-nacks and discarded meal deals, making your home on the road feel a little less sterile.
]]>Ultrawide gaming monitors can seem excessive compared to regular 16:9 gaming screens, especially when their demanding resolutions often require powerful and expensive graphics cards to make the most of them. Once you try one, though, there's no going back. I've been a big fan of ultrawide gaming monitors for years now, as their extra screen space not only makes them great for juggling multiple desktop windows, but supported PC games also look uttery fantastic on them - and to prove it, I've put together this list of the best ultrawide games on PC.
]]>Driving a virtual truck is a serious job, no doubt, but I make time to appreciate the view in American Truck Simulator. The haul 'em up tentatively introduced sightseeing spots with its Idaho expansion, a few spots where we can roll up to enjoy cinematic views of landmarks and landscapes, and now it's added more. Preset cutscene points are not the first-person wandering I ache for, but I accept that's beyond the scope of this game, and will settle for seeing more of Washington and Utah.
]]>It's time to update your American Truck Simulator road atlas, drivers. The big stateside truck 'em up heads deeper into the midwest today with American Truck Simulator - Idaho, adding miles and miles of the state's valleys, potato pastures and cold hard tarmac to haul your way across - and a new Viewpoints feature to give you a fresh perspective from outside the cab.
]]>Just ahead of the new American Truck Simulator's launch, developers SCS Software have injected a touch of nitro into the game engine with screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO). This technique for making shadows more realistic is not a mega-fancy and drastic modern technobell or cyberwhistle, but it is a welcome one. The scenery just feels more... present. So simply by downloading a patch, my game has become prettier. Nice.
]]>If you've been waiting for new roads to ride in American Truck Simulator you'll be climbing back in your cab soon. The American steer 'em up is headed to Idaho for its newest expansion which will launch next week on Thursday, July 16th. Catch a look at some of the landmarks you'll spot with the new Viewpoint feature in SCS Software's new trailer.
]]>As a frequent virtual tourist in American Truck Simulator, I am delighted to hear that developers SCS Software are adding feature catering to Sunday drivers like me who really want to admire the scenery. No, they're not letting us get out of our cabs and walk around the world, but they are adding little nodes you can visit in certain places to watch a cinematic scene of local highlights. A little tourism video for the town you're passing through. These 'Viewpoints' will debut with the Idaho expansion, so come enjoy this new video showing the small-town charms of McCall, population 2991.
]]>Kick the tires, whistle at the paint job, spin the keys on your finger like a revolver and then shoot the car with the little laser of unlocking. It’s time to get back on the road. What’s that? Entire country in a state of unprecedented lockdown? I see. Well, lucky for you, we concern ourselves here only with pretend cars, the indoor joy of fictional journeys on virtual roads. Here, my housebound friends, are the 9 best road trips in PC games. Seatbelts on, please.
]]>The simulated traffic of American Truck Simulator is now packing some satisfying upgrades under the bonnet, with a new sound engine helping make the world feel more real. Other vehicles sound more present as they trundle past, and I feel the wind whipping in my hair when I use another new feature: the ability to wind your windows down. It's nice, all this.
]]>Since the release of pivotal Half-Life: Alyx, virtual reality has been going from strength to strength, so we've put together a list of the best VR games you can play on PC right now. It's by no means a complete list, as there are now more great VR games than you'll ever have time to play, but if you've just bought yourself a virtual reality headset such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive Cosmos or Valve Index, then these are the VR games you should play first.
]]>American Truck Simulator is continuing its quest to digitally map America's highways, one state at a time. But before even bringing the great state of Idaho to completion, SCS Software have already announced their next addition to the expansive digital truck-a-thon. Get in gear, truckers, we're heading to Colorado. Land of the trees, home of the blazed, American Truck Simulator - Colorado's icy peaks and dusty valleys will be open for trucking by the end of the year.
]]>Oh, to visit Spokane on a bright summer morning. Bakersfield, Albuquerque, Reno and Salem. The evening sun shining across the surface of the I-10. In these locked-down times, American Truck Simulator is a chance to tour America, or at least its western edge, running from Washington in the north down to California in the south, and over to Utah and New Mexico in the east.
These states are articulated by highways and truck stops, industrial centres and sweeping multilevel interchanges. But that doesn’t mean their sweep isn’t glorious. America is, after all, built on trucking. The industry’s motto is, “If you bought it, a truck brought it,” and in ATS you get to experience mass haulage in a world which aims to mirror, as close as it can, the great American west. But it was built in Prague, on an engine that sometimes requires clever tricks to represent the scale of it all, by a team of map designers who are strangers to American culture.
]]>As American Truck Simulator continues to expand across the USA with new state expansions, it looks like Colorado will follow the upcoming Idaho. So far, developers SCS Software have only been talking about future states after finishing one but now they're teasing a new one before Idaho even have a release date. Does this indicate they might be speeding up the pace of releases? I'd certainly be glad if so! But even if this is just a shift in marketing plans, it'll be nice to know more about what's coming.
]]>Stock up on jerky and moisturiser, because American Truck Simulator is headed to Utah when its next expansion launches on November 7th, developers SCS Software have announced. The seventh state continues the truck 'em up's long journey east with another 3500 digimiles of virtuaroad. Watch the new trailer below for a peek at Utah sights including those iconic red rocks, a big hole in the ground, a hole in a rock, and A DINOSAUR DRESSED AS A COWBOY? I will overcome my physical discomfort at all this notseaness if I get to see a load of weird dinosaur statues and murals.
]]>After the soothing dampness of Washington, American Truck Simulator will depart for Utah in its next expansion. Developers SCS Software have now announced that will launch in November, and celebrated the news with a 17-minute video showing one Utah journey. That trucks from the Glen Canyon Dam in Arizona, over the river, across the border, through a small town, to the desert, and into the night to reach Salina. I prefer the moister zones of ATS, and have said Utah looks so dry it makes me feel physical discomfort, but I can't deny that damn, the desert looks lovely at dusk.
]]>I am a damp person. I was born by the sea, I was raised by the sea, I live by the sea, I swim in the sea, and if I'm lucky I'll die in the sea. I would describe myself as a bin bag full of sea water. I am still surprised to feel physical discomfort looking at American Truck Simulator's upcoming Utah expansion. One screenshot in particular shivered my spine and goosed my pimples. South of Salt Like City, a row of houses sit atop a lump of big red rock. Just there. Regular houses. People live there. In that arid environment. Like that's fine. Oh god.
]]>Like a doomed Junji Ito character, I cannot stop admiring the vast spiralling open-pit mine coming to American Truck Simulator in its upcoming Utah expansion. Kennecott Copper Mine cuts a spiral one kilometre deep and four kilometres wide across dozens of levels. Over one century old, it is a registered National Historic Landmark. It has caused more environmental damage than I can fathom. Developers SCS Software blogged about their digital version of the mine last week and every time the screenshots pop up in my RSS feeds, I pause, I admire them, then I mark the post unread so they'll come back round. I must visit this hole.
]]>Having hit Washington in American Truck Simulator's latest expansion, we've run out of contiguous USA to the north and must resume our trek eastward. Developers SCS Software announced yesterday, on American Independence Day, that Utah is the next state they'll add to their lovely haul 'em up. Utah! The Beehive State. Utah! From sandy deserts through rocky canyons to piney forests. Utah! Where orange hoodoos spike the skies. Utah! I like the name Salt Lake City. Here, see some of Virtuatah in the announcement trailer.
]]>After several days of thomping basslines and screaming industry professionals in service of games that won't be out until next year, tonight I am very much looking forward to a quiet drive through forested mountains. American Truck Simulator just launched its Washington expansion, adding another state to haul cargo through - a real pretty state at that. Sea! Mountains! Forests! Bridges! Logging roads! The Grand Coulee Dam! The Space Needle! Another city bearing the cursed name of Aberdeen! Places from Twin Peaks! Just me, the road, a riot grrrl playlist, and eighteen wheels of steel laden with logs that are already two hours late because I got distracted by a river and crashed into a tree.
]]>America would have you believe that California is the locus of important video game happenings next week with E3. Pish. The real American excitement of next week is American Truck Simulator's Washington expansion, which developers SCS Software today announced they'll launch on Tuesday the 11th. E3 be damned, I'm hopping in my virtuarig and driving out Los Angeles, up California and Oregon, past mountains, along coasts, through forests, and to that there Twin Peaks waterfall. Goodbye Geoff Keighley and hello Audrey Horne!
]]>If there's one game that has, for me, defined my last few years at RPS, it's American Truck Simulator. That singular nexus of deadly serious simulation and twinkly-eyed, chill-out road trip has helped hold me together at times when both the world and my own world threatened to fall apart, but it's also been a belated lesson that games need not be defined by skinner boxes and power fantasies. The magic of the ordinary, but the ordinary transplanted to another place, free from all pressures. Most of all, the peace and freedom of the road.
It's now time for me to say goodbye, to RPS and perhaps to the overall business of writing opinions about videogames. There's only one way to go out.
One last drive. And, thanks to some very kind folks at ATS developer SCS, I get to make that last drive in a work-in-progress build of the forthcoming Washington DLC - the state I've long been most desperate to drag 18 wheels across.
]]>Freewheeling haul 'em up American Truck Simulator will be expanding into Washington State sometime this year, allowing players to explore from evergreen forest to concrete cargo port, and to travel under the ever-watchful eye of Seattle's Space Needle.
Here’s a teaser trailer, though it has nary a truck in sight:
]]>It looks like the next American Truck Simulator expansion will go even deeper into the lands I long for, into the trees and mountains of Washington state. WA! Land of Twin Peaks. WA! Birthplace of riot grrrl. WA! Home of Frasier Crane. WA! Where Valve are. WA! With that nice Twitter account saying if Mount Rainier is visible from Seattle. WA! Where rain is good. SCS Software haven't formally confirmed Washington is the next state coming to their haul 'em up as DLC, but from the teasing screenshots they shared today it sure looks like it. WA! We may lose Alec to the woods around Snoqualmie Falls.
]]>For some American or Euro Truck Simulatorettes, as I've decided we pretend long-distance haulage fans should call ourselves, news of a new type of vehicle or trailer is reason to celebrate. For me, the most excited I've ever been about American Truck Sim patch notes is the declaration that they've just made rain better.
]]>Tomorrow, Euro Truck Simulator 2 comes (tragically) the closest it is ever likely to come to Eurovision Truck Simulator - with a wink and a smile, giving up on the idea that 'Euro' is any particular barrier to entry. I look forward to the surely forthcoming ETS2: Australia DLC. But for now, we get Beyond The Baltic Sea. Newbie ETS2 nations Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia are all EU member states, so fair dinkum there, mate - but not so much Russia, some of the more Westerly reaches of which are now also accessible on 18 wheels.
It's SCS's wonderful Truck Simulator series boldly embracing a whole new geopolitical region - and quite likely laying the groundwork for years of ongoing expansion, a la its splendid cousin American Truck Sim, rather than our getting a separate Putin Truck Simulator at some point. Question is, how different does St Petersburg feel from Swansea and Stockholm?
]]>As a tourist behind the wheel of American Truck Simulator, I'm interested in anything making the world feel more alive, and the latest DLC seems great for that. Out now, the 'Special Transport' DLC whacks in honking great oversized loads from to industrial machinery to houses, so large that we need to follow police escorts and the TV news might send a camera to watch us. Yes, thank you. Come, Americans, come watch me drive big things through your big country. Don't worry: I'm getting a lot better at remembering which side of the road you drive on.
]]>The highways and byways of The Beaver State are now open for business, as American Truck Simulator's Oregon expansion has just launched. Oregon is the fifth US state added to the cargo-hauling sim, and the most northerly so far. This means lots of lovely forest to haul lumber from, which pleases me as a trucking tourists, and of course Oregon's western edge is beautiful Pacific coastline. Clearly it's an expansion I've been waiting for, my scaled skin itching to get further from the desert.
]]>The big trees, wild coast, and many Portlandian bridges of Oregon are coming to American Truck Simulator on October 4th in its next expansion, developers SCS Software announced today. I'm very pleased to see the haulage sim venture farther north into the wet and wild of the Pacific Northwest that captured my heart on a road trip years ago, so absolutely I'll be trying to relocate my trucking business to a lonely trucking road. Heck, cover my fuel costs and I'll drive any load around Oregon for free. Here, come see some of the virtual state in this new trailer below.
]]>The Beaver State is shaping up real perty in American Truck Simulator, going by new work-in-progress videos from the first-person trucker's Oregon expansion. I am, you may not be surprised to hear, particularly taken with its forests and rivers. I know where I'll be moving my base of operations when the expansion launches later this year. For now, come see Oregon in these new videos.
]]>On the one hand, I do like the sound of a truck-driving game that, so we're told, focuses more on the aesthetic appeal of a multi-tonne road trip than it does the simulatory side of hauling a big rig around. On the other, pretty much my favourite thing to do in American Truck Simulator is to flick the wipers on it when it rains and dip the headlights when there's oncoming traffic.
I just hope that upcoming rival Truck Driver, whatever poppier take on long-distance haulage it has planned, doesn't throw too many dashboard babies out with the suspension calibration and trailer manufacturer bathwater.
]]>I always enjoy when 'community challenges' have logical in-game consequences, when players pull together to change the world by perhaps shaping a story or opening a new area. In American Truck Simulator, virtuatruckers are pulling together to help clear a landslide and re-open a closed stretch of California's Highway 1. A real-world landslide last year blocked off sections of the beautiful coastal route near Big Sur, and developers SCS Software followed suit. Now the real-world route is closer to re-opening, SCS are preparing to do so in their simulated America too. The community challenge: when players have hauled enough loads to and from the landslide, Highway 1 will reopen.
]]>The enduring success of SCS's Truck Simulator series is no huge surprise, even if its initial ascent to fame was unexpected. The combination of light business management, relaxing, meditative repetition and gorgeously recreated environments make for an ideal chill-out experience for people who haven't done long, tiresome driving for a job already. Today, both American Truck Sim and Euro Truck Sim 2 get a little bit bigger, as Patch 1.31 arrives for both games, adding new roads and features to both.
]]>17 years a games journalist. I was there for the reveal of Half-Life 2, the comeback(s) of Deus Ex, the splendour of Spelunky, the rise of Plunkbat and that horrifying time that grown men wept when they heard they could hold two guns at once in Halo 2. And yet here I am, very probably more excited than at any other point in my ridiculous career, because I'm looking at screenshots of truckstops in Oregon.
American Truck Simulator, bliss-out game to end all bliss-out games, is gearing up to welcome us to its next state, and its greenest one yet. I am so ready for Oregon.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>I want you to do three things before you watch the below. First, I want you to reassure anyone else in your household or workplace that they are perfectly safe, no matter what they might hear. Then I want you to turn your volume up very loud indeed. Finally, I want you to imagine yourself not as the driver of the truck you will see, but as the driver of the small, cream-coloured car in front of it.
A lonely freeway, late at night. No sound but the thrum of your engine. And then.
]]>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.
]]>I've spent a lot more with American Truck Simulator than I have with its by-now much larger predecessor Euro Truck Simulator 2, mostly because a more distant land seemed more romantic than one I am already part of. But ATS, in its current South-Westerly configuration, is a game with a heavy reliance on rock and sand landscapes - evocative for sure, but while we await a hoped-for move to greener states such as Oregon, ETS2 is there to fill the verdant gap. This Mediterranean allure of this week's massively-expanded Italy DLC proved especially irresistible.
Three things: 1) it's remarkable how different ETS2 feels from ATS, despite broadly being the same game 2) Italia is the prettiest Truck Sim module yet 3) even so, the Truck Sim games now badly need a big visual overhaul.
]]>Recently, I ran our review of American Truck Simulator: New Mexico, the first paid DLC for my all-time favourite driving game, and which adds the Union's 47th state into the game, alongside the existing California, Arizona and Nevada. Though I consider it absolutely essential, in that it really makes ATS feel like a signficant part of a country, as opposed to simply that nation's greatest hits, I found it left me feeling a little bleaker than the other states. I admired the scenery but found the settlements oppressively characterless: this was not a place I wanted to be, as much as I might have enjoyed driving through it at speed.
But I was left with a creeping sense that I hadn't really seen the best of the place, and some of the comments on the review bore that out. Specific places were named, highlights in the mingled desert, forest and mountain landscape, and, perhaps, until I'd seen them, I could not claim to have had an accurate impression of 'the land of enchantment.' So here's what I did. Each day this week, I visited one famous or otherwise revered location in New Mexico, documented it and then reconsidered how I felt about the state as a whole afterwards.
]]>My friends, today I achieved the dream of dreams. I boldly went where no-one has gone before. I went behind American Truck Simulator's invisible wall. I saw the world that lay beyond the road. I saw views to take my breath away. I saw the land torn asunder. I saw the laws of physics collapse and invert. And then I met my doom.
]]>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.
]]>American Truck Simulator - New Mexico is the latest and first paid expansion for SCS Software's remarkable fusion of dreamlike roadtrip game and business simulation, which is one of my favourite videogames of all time despite my having almost no interest in motor vehicles. New Mexico adds one of the largest but least-populated states into the mix, with cities including Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Roswell. I've been playing it ahead of its release tomorrow.
This New Mexico is not the America of the movies - at least not all those cowboy movies and 60s road movies that are evoked by American Truck Simulator's initial California/Nevada/Arizona stomping grounds. New Mexico is more the America of modern television. There's the Breaking Bad connection, of course, given that Albuquerque is one of the major cities in this latest, state-sized expansion, but it's more than that. This is anyplace America, not a cinematographer's America.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>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.
]]>Have You Played? is an endless stream of game retrospectives. One a day, every day, perhaps for all time.
Still an ongoing concern - we really want to see those states, SCS - but I'm have-you-playeding it because I suspect many people moved on from it fairly soon after launch due to its somewhat small size. You know it's huge these days, right?
]]>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.
]]>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).
]]>Day seventeen of The RPS Advent Calendar, which highlights our favourite games of the year, takes us away from the red tides of murder and into absolute serenity. A driving game without races, a vehicle game more about what's at the side of the road than what's ahead of you. A state of mind as much as it is a videogame.
It's American Truck Simulator!
]]>America is now bigger than ever as American Truck Simulator [official site] has officially launched its rescaling, going from 1:35 scale to 1:20. This means longer roads and grander landscapes, and developers SCS Software have rebuilt a lot to be more interesting and varied too, including new landmarks. The new scale "transforms a great game into a sublime one", our Alec declared after playing a beta version, and I've certainly been impressed by it too. The update is now live so it should be waiting for you next time you slip on your "Keep on trucking" cap and crack open a Bud Light.
]]>It has been quite the year, politically and personally. I bend no truth when I say that, were it possible to spend 16 hours a day pretending to be a lorry driver in a computer game, I would seize that opportunity gladly. The simplicity of having to get from point A to point B, the slow-motion pressure-and-release of needing to refuel, a view of the world that is landscape-led, not people-centric. American Truck Simulator [official site] is not, first and foremost, a motorised vehicle simulation game. It is pure escape, genuine freedom via a screen, as close as it comes to a real roadtrip without the expense and discomfort.
Unfortunately, ATS' initial vision of America, as well as being thus far limited to California, Arizona and Nevada, was hyper-compressed. Journeys were measured in minutes, not hours, day/night flew by like nature documentary montages, and open land was but a quickly-drawn breath between suburbs and cities. I loved it, but it felt bite-size; America: The Trailer, not America: The Movie.
Things have changed, and beautifully so.
]]>The people have spoken, and they want America proper dirty gert big. Leading ideas in the office of President-elect Trump include switching to metric so distances sound greater, breeding miniature cows to mess with perspective, and raising the bedrock on pneumatic lifts so the ground is closer to everyone's eyes. Good ideas, okay, very smart. The biggest. You'll love them. But in American Truck Simulator [official site], developers SCS Software have simply made the whole dang land bigger. They've been working on rescaling the world of their haul 'em up, making it larger and more interesting, and players can see the results themselves now in an open beta.
]]>It's been a week of unspeakable magnitude. Never mind the impending fall of society: the Peterbilt 389 has just been added to American Truck Simulator [official site]. The 389 is the updated model of the 379, a true legend of the road. I write that as though I know anything at all about trucks. I don't, apart this: Optimus Prime is a Peterbilt 379.
Well, he is now, in those frightful Michael Bay movies. Before that he was a Freightliner. It is extremely important to me that I have a choice of Optimii for my pretend lorry driving, and so it is that I bring you this unspeakably vital guide on how to introduce either classic, or 'G1', Prime or movieverse Prime into the wonderful ATS.
]]>The Big Spooky isn't until Monday but plenty of games are already celebrating Halloween with special events for people with nerves of steel and eyes in the back of their head. If you're feeling extra brave, check out our collection of spookyspoos going on this weekend. This isn't a definitive list, mind, just a fair spread of things you might fancy trying. Do share your favourites too!
]]>I've played a few games about roadtrips recently. It wasn't intentional, though I do love the idea of games about journeys, they all just happened to land in my lap at the same time. First up was Overland, a turn-based tactical post-apocalyptic game about travelling across a bug-infested America. Then there was The Crew, in which I competed with Brendan in a race. That also took me across the US. If you'd rather escape the US, check out the excellent Death Road to Canada, which is funny, short and sweet...with lots of guts and headshots.
And there's Jalopy, a game about car maintenance and travelling across the former Eastern bloc. Finally, I spun the Wheels of Aurelia, the most interesting of the three in many ways. That's a game about the conversations you have with people as you drive, rather than the driving itself.
]]>American Truck Simulator [official site] offers a fine bit of pootling but it's lacked three things I'd want in My Dream American Driving Experience: a grander scale; a steering wheel whose spokes were gleaming chromed revolvers with ivory grips; and actual proper redwoods. Well! It's getting close. Developers SCS Software have been working on upscaling ATS for a few months, and now they've released cosmetic DLC adding licensed recreations of flashy and absurd steering wheels made for actual trucks by Steering Creations. And heck yes it has a six shooter wheel.
]]>Dark days for the world. Maybe videogames can save us? Haha yes of course they can haha.
Here are some really good videogames, though. They'll take you to a better place for a while. These are the RPS team's 13 personal favourites from the current Steam Summer Sale: we believe in these games, and we believe that you should play them too.
]]>Truck driving games like American Truck Simulator [official site] and Euro Truck Simulator 2 [official site] are popular because they offer a routine, almost meditatively romantic simplicity — there's no lengthy checklist of deadlines to meet and stakeholders to please, no paperwork, no family to feed, no monsters to slay, nor anything else to raise your heartrate. Just you, the open road, and a cargo to haul somewhere.
For one group of players, however, the escapism offered by truck sims goes to another level. It's not just an escape from the chaos and stress of their everyday life, but also an escape into a former life. For retired truckers, truck sims are a way to return to life on the road — a life they loved. In virtual form.
]]>The dream of American trucking is big skies and grand vistas. American Truck Simulator [official site] is okay at that, especially since Arizona arrived, but it can feel a little dinky. Developers SCS Software have a plan. As well as adding extra states, SCS have announced they're making the whole game bigger by rescaling the world in a future free update. It'll go from 1:35 scale to 1:20, which SCS say will mean "75% longer roads outside the cities". They're also reworking the landscape for a bigger sense of scale and gosh, this is awfully exciting! Give me those grander vistas.
]]>The red dust, big skies, twisting roads, and dirty gert big hole of Arizona are now open to visit in American Truck Simulator [official site]. Creators SCS Software today properly launched their truck 'em up's free Arizona expansion, following a short stretch in open beta. Young Alec really enjoyed visiting Nevada in ATS.
]]>American Truck Simulator [official site] today opened up its fun-sized recreation of Arizona to everyone, launching into open beta. Our Alec jumped the state line to play early and enjoyed what he found, from twisting roads to the Grand Canyon. Here, a new trailer gives a nice short look at it all:
]]>I've rhapsodised in the past about American Truck Simulator [official site]'s many moments of zen, but I confess that I may be guilty of glossing over its many moments of hard, thankless work too. The Arizona DLC, a substantial free add-on due whose open beta is due for launch today, brings the expected dramatic scenery, but also increases some of that hard work - in interesting ways. Also, there is a canyon which I suspect one could safely describe as 'grand.'
]]>In news that's sure to please happy haulers either side of the Atlantic, both American Truck Simulator [official site] and its slightly older European cousin Euro Truck Simulator 2 now have Steam Workshop support. Both already supported mods, but now they're simpler to install. Also, courtesy of the former's 1.2 update and the latter's 1.23 one, a range of options have also been added to both games' wheel customisation suites, while new Wheel Tuning DLC packs hope to hand you the hottest rims on the open road.
]]>I have a favourite YouTuber. Her name is Allie Knight and she's a trucker.
]]>When I was growing up in Spittoon, Texas in the mid Nineties, truck simming wasn't just encouraged, it was compulsory. Didatech's Crosscountry USA enlivened many a schoolroom and improved many a scholar. American Truck Simulator might offer handsomer highways and more realistic rigs but can it teach you which state produces 98% of the United States' low-bush blueberries and instil a life-long fear of hitchhikers? Not on your Nelly Furtado!
]]>American Truck Simulator [official site] is a lot better with geology than greenery, I was disappointed to discover. I'd hoped to follow trucking routes through redwood forests and other lush pockets of Northern California but no, it's all a bit grim and disappointing. ATS doesn't remotely capture what I remember from a road trip through there. However, its scrubby, desert-y lands are far nicer, which bodes well for the upcoming free Arizona add-on. Developers SCS Software today shared a few screenshots from it and ooh yeah, I can just imagine running Wile E. Coyote into those rocky stacks, watching the top roll off and crush him.
]]>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.
]]>Today I spent 17 minutes watching a trucker give a tour of her truck's cabin, thanks to Adam. It's fair to say American Truck Simulator [official site] has filled us dreams of big skies and open roads, and I'm sure he wasn't at all saying "I wish I could be in this truck rather than here with YOU, ALICE. YOU."
For folks who also dream of a life on the road, developers SCS Software have added another place to call home. The promised Kenworth W900 is here as free DLC, a real beauty. An update making fines less punishing for new truckers is out too.
]]>I've talked about companion texts in Flare Path before , but I'm not sure I've ever used this column to air my companion games theory. In short I believe certain games have soul mates – titles that compliment them so perfectly that the idea of playing one without the other is almost unthinkable. The two games that make up a companion pair are usually very different. The partnership works because themes cross-pollinate. Because pacing and player demands balance out. Because game (A) creates a craving for game (B) and vice versa. This week by a happy accident I found myself in the presence of the most perfect pair of companion games I've ever encountered. This week I've been bouncing, like a jet-kicked ball bearing, between American Truck Simulator and The Pinball Arcade.
]]>I do like Alec's Wot I Think of American Truck Simulator [official site], capturing the calm and gentle nature of hauling goods across the western US. It's a mundane and repetitive game, sure, and pleasant because of that. You can now have a snifter yourself, as developers SCS Software have released a demo.
]]>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.
]]>Get a flask of coffee brewing, brush up on your CB slang, find an empty plastic bottle, and stop listening to me spouting rubbish. Here, you might instead enjoy these photos from inside truckers' cabins. Or you can go on your own trucking adventure sooner than expected. American Truck Simulator [official site] was due to launch tomorrow, but developers SCS Software have decided they'll launch it later today instead. It'll save them from staying up super-late, see, and American Truck Simulator does teach it's important to stay well-rested.
]]>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.
]]>How handy it is to have an American on call! I've been phoning Hayden up in the morning (or the middle of his night, whatever), with queries like "What the hell is 'cilantro'?" and "I'm sorry, but: a FANNY PACK?" It's also handy to have one write about American Truck Simulator [official site] and spot basical geographical facts like: Las Vegas is definitely not in California.
Developers SCS Software had said that the initial release would only bring Cali, but they've now announced that Nevada (home of Las Vegas, don't you know!) will be available at launch as free DLC, and Arizona will follow free tree.
]]>There I was, sitting on a beach sipping a strawberry daiquiri, slowly turning my blindingly pale body to a shade befitting a sun god, when I got the call. It was Graham. "Hayden, please: We need you to come out of retirement," he said. "There's a new-ish trailer for American Truck Simulator [official site] but none of us have known how to write it up."
"Say no more," I replied.
]]>
