I downloaded Euro Truck Simulator a few months ago. It was on sale for $8 and I had just watched a Quick Look about Euro Truck Simulator 2. I thought, "What the hell! I spend more than that on lunch!"

I usually throw on a podcast and plug away for a couple of hours. It is really relaxing to watch the countryside go by listlessly. Especially without the repercussions if I was really driving a truck after working for 8 hours and drinking two glasses of shochu. Sometimes I get a little tired and I smash into another car. Usually because the fucking piece of shit sedans will stop on the middle of the goddamn interstate!

The game has a few easy milestones that act as a career. I am sure if I was being super careful I could have finished them much quicker than I did. But, sometimes it is fun to drive from Lyon to Manchester while drinking some whiskey and listening to The Comedy Button. (It is a little bit like playing the drunk driving part in Grand Theft Auto IV but the game isn't what is simulating the drunken reaction.)

I never quite understood why people would play flight simulation games. I never was a kid who played PC games, so I never got into flight simulators. I have always loved driving cars. Ever since that first time I took the emergency break off my mom's car and rolled it into the street, I have always wanted to do stupid shit on the road.

I love playing Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo, but with those games you really have to pay attention to where your car is going. It can be very relaxing, in the sense that I understand the tracks and know when there are turns and straightaways, but I still need to pay attention to the speed and layout of the track. On the long straightaways of the Autobahn in Euro Truck Simulator, I can loll in and out of concentration. I can more intensely to the discussions on the podcasts. I have even been know to send out a Tweet. I am sure that WoW players do many of the same things when they are idling.

I really have put 56 hours into Euro Truck Simulator. But, my time with the game has been...relaxing.