18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul starts out slow, but then after the first few times you're fined for not undergoing mandatory checks or because you exceeded the limits of how long you're allowed to drive, you realise it's just a very technical game. And so, with that in mind, I stopped playing the career mode and just stuck to single delivery jobs. What am I, a trucker's manual?
After switching to single deliveries, the game got more manageable, with fines having no impact and fuel not really being an issue. Also, it gave me a game to play while listening to the Bombcast. After 200 hours of spectating on the same CS:S server, I'm starting to feel like kind of a dirtbag.
American Long Haul's probably a good game if you're into trucks and stuff. I even eventually learned what a 10-13 was after everyone on the radio kept asking about it. The AI struck me as a little odd, although I guess realistic. A few times I came across a couple of cars crashed into each other and I'm sure other drivers slow down when they reach police parked by the side of the road. It's a neat thing to happen, I guess.
After a few hours of delivering goods via highways, I decided it was time to step it up a notch to some more extreme environments.
18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker is another game in the apparently highly successful 18 Wheels of Steel series. In a lot of ways, it feels like a dumbed down version of its predecessor. The career mode has been scrapped in favor of giving the player a choice of missions to play in unlocked areas, with various statistics collected along the way. This could be explained by the lack of freedom included in the areas provided, but it's still just a bunch of roads with companies in various places.
Also lacking are any fuel or sleep requirements, as missions can often last just 15 minutes of in-game time. I think those felt about 2-3 minutes long in real life. There are other trucks around, but there's no CB radio in this game; a great disappointment to all. I miss people asking about 10-13s and then getting worried when I answer with a non sequitur because I don't know what a 10-13 is.
There's no police anywhere in the game, so you can drive however you like, which can make the game a little easier to handle. However, there are hazards along the way, which I guess can destroy your truck or something, but they never really had much effect on me; I drove around them. I did manage to hurt my vehicle pretty badly, though, just because those Bolivian roads can get really tight and windy. I was just hitting the walls and other cars too much. You can lose a lot of points through damage and it's really the only difficult thing about the game, other than some roads not being marked on the map. I was once left with just a 2 point profit because I had less than 10% left on my truck.
I unlocked all of the areas and ranked up a few times in the last and that was it. The game also has a sequel which I will never play. Instead, I'll next be playing A Game of Thrones - Genesis. I'll tell you all about it next week. Oh, and this is the first multiplayer game, so if you wanna play and show me how good you are, send some words my way.
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