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jp's American Truck Simulator (PC)
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| [February 4, 2026 11:07:13 PM]
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Not my usual cup of tea. But, I'm playing simulator games this semester and I picked this one for the list.
A real positive surprise - I would call this an accessible driving game - yes, it's a giant truck, but you (I) could get by without having to do a million tutorials because there's all kinds of settings you can turn on/off to make it more or less realistic as a simulation of driving a truck.
The game starts in California, Arizona and Nevada - more places unlocked via DLC, which was a bit of a disappointment. But, this was mostly because I was really hoping to drive a truck in Utah. That being said, parts of Nevada (I chose to start in Elko) were basically like Utah...
The game has a really interesting time/space compression thing going on. Drives that are 4 hours in real-life take a lot less, but you never really notice when it scales down the space/time. I think that when you're on the highway/big roads time moves faster (and the distance counts for more miles), but when you're going slow in a town - it seems to go by 1:1.. It's a really cleverly designed system that gives you the experience of having along drive - but without getting bored or tired.
I wasn't expecting an entire business-sim as well, though it's arguably lighter on this end? You take on jobs- get money, eventually buy your own truck. Then more trucks and end up hiring more people who also drive for you..and so on. But, I didn't get that far - there's also a levelling/XP system for you, which for the most part just unlocks perks that make it more profitable/easier to drive. Not in the gameplay/mechanics sense, but rather in that you earn more money, use less gass. So, not like "+1 to top speed" or other unrealisitic stuff.. just unrealistic stuff like "now you can do trips that are longer". For really long trips you need to plan ahead for where you'll re-fuel as well as stopping to sleep!
This was way more fun and interesting than I expected and it made me think that games where you're supposed to drive from A to B, follow roads and laws, are...a rare type of game? I couldn't think of any that weren't truck simulator games... everything seems to either be a race or an openworld exploration sort of thing. Weird, huh?
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jp's American Truck Simulator (PC)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Sunday 1 February, 2026
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