Trucking Digest

Since the last Digest there have been a couple of events – in game and irl…

When I write about my experiences in SCS Software’s Truck Simulator games I never know if I have encouraged anyone who reads my tales to give the games a try. The posts do get a fair number of hits outside my immediate community of friendly bloggers. But I don’t think I have ever seen a comment from someone saying they decided to give the games a try. I hope some of those who have passed through did go on to take a closer look and possibly buy into the trucking dream. One thing I have found out, and it post-dates my starting out in the game, is that you can now download a demo to try it out. The demo is available from the Euro Truck Simulator 2 website and also on Steam. There’s also a demo for American Truck Simulator but that appears to only be on Steam. So, if you want to give either title a try there’s now no excuse! 🙂

A couple of weeks back Euro Truck Simulator 2 was on sale – it happens for both titles 3 or 4 times each year and you can then get the games for £3.74p each. Anyway, I decided to flag up the sale to my Twitter community – which mainly comprises friends from football. Over the last couple of years chatting with the fans I’d found some who were at least vaguely interested in the games after seeing my tweeted screenshots. I’m pleased to report that my tweet advertising the sale resulted in two of our teenage fans trying the demo (which is how I learnt of it’s existence) and then purchasing the game. I did have a minor concern that their parents might not be happy with me introducing them to another computer game when they’re coming up to their GCSE’s. Last Saturday when they were dropped off to catch the coach to our away match I took the opportunity to approach their Mother and apologise. She was having none of it – she thanked me for getting them involved as it’s a relaxing game and just what they needed at a stressful time! In fact, she reckons that she’s going to have a go at the game too! Result!!! 🙂

It seems that everything is happening in Euro Truck currently. Last Digest I was reporting on the new Mercedes-Benz Actros Tuning Pack and showing shots of that truck. Now, with a lot of hype on Twitter, SCS finally released the Renault T. It has been a long wait for the community as negotiations for the rights to publish the truck have been very difficult. But finally Renault Trucks, and the other holders of rights to the famous diamond badge, are all on board. 🙂 Reading between the lines of the pre-release media, there has been a concerted effort between Renault Trucks and SCS Software to bring the modelling of the vehicle fully up to date resulting in a really polished final model. Release to live was finally announced on Tuesday as being 13:00 yesterday. And that left me with an issue for yesterday morning… I had just completed a delivery to Kotka in Finland and I really wanted to buy a Renault T from the nearest Renault dealer to our home base. That meant making my way back to Lyon in France!

Fortunately I was able to pick up a job from Kouvola carrying a load of tree saplings to Milan. That’s a very long drive – here’s the route……and here’s a few shots from along the way…






…Then I had to pick up a simple job across to Lyon……a much shorter drive but a grand total before I even got to the dealership for my new truck of 4415km.

So I spent around 4hr45min real time just getting back to Lyon yesterday. Sometimes this is not a game for the casual player 😉 I hope you liked my inclusion of route maps – something I’ve been toying with for a while. I’ll introduce you to my new Renault T in another post 🙂