Recent reviews by Welshy//Virtan

I have been playing Euro Truck Simulator 2 for 9 years, BeamNG for at least a few for sure, & the profile will list plenty more driving games to reference. But despite all of the experience & this game having no "crash physics" like BeamNG has. This game is probably one of if not the best games personally for driving to current date

Picking up the game first off back in December 2021, admittedly although the game was played consistently at first for a bit of time, I hadn't a proper idea if any about any of the systems such as tuning, nor much of anything else at the time. & after some time passed it was only played sporadically on occasion trying to do what was known at the time as the "best" way to earn money. It was slow, but I felt like it was one of these "better to play in group" games which isn't a bad thing. But everyone who I did play the game with stopped so you can see what ended up happening. That, & also with not being sure what to do suppose you could say ended up letting some time pass before trying again

That all changed however when after showing someone this game one day in a voice call during 2024 (& ironically afterwards them teaching me of the game in detail) not only do I finally understand this game's mechanics to a certain extent. But with the amount of content, development & overall updates which are given to this are something which I adore frankly & make me always excited to check it out soon as possible

After that point, all these years pass & although there was a bit of progress made on a profile. There was at least one other person to play on, & so. Before I knew it literally 6+ hours or so a day some occasion of playtime would be put into this game with said person which was such amazing fun am very much glad to have picked up the game so early, even if yes it may not have been played that much at the time. This game has given me such a unique experience on driving and with mechanics such as cargo delivery, taxi driving, racing, tuning, even simply the supply chain is something that's been rarely if at all interacted first-hand personally. Until this game came along, & now with each update will get more & more excited to return for playing around with the new content to the world's end & back. Figuratively & literally infact given the absolute scale of the map, when I first began in 2021 it was only the Jeju island. Nowadays however there is this massive section of land which does take more than 10 minutes for sure to cover. It may "only" say 30km on the satnav but though I don't know the scaling of the game it will take longer than 10 - 20 minutes fairly certain about. Anyways, the content provided nowadays is in such volume that I'm impressed with how many possibilities there are. Have yet to even try out connecting to random online servers aswell which presumably is a whole other level of interactions. Been planning to but haven't carried out the idea quite yet, only played solo or in a friend group

Some of the prior paragraphs probably aren't quite explaining well enough some parts, but that's just because I have many words to say about this game & normally I "ramble" a lot before getting to the point. Point is, if you want a driving game which can have you become very immersed and/or occupied with things to do, I'd argue this is one of the most opportune games to try that with:

• Loads of current content
  
• An update every month (Usually, & off experience*)
  
• In relation to the updates, a very active team working on the game
  
• A ton of different roles to try out (Cargo, Taxi/Limo, Bus, Police, Ambulance, Bin, Racing, etc)
  
• An absolute blast to play on, & with enough money to "waste" also try the most crazy ideas with
  
• Very interactive, providing entire "supply chains" to process through before delivering the final products (eg furniture requiring plastic & wood, of which requires oil & logs respectively)

My only concern regards mainly the tutorial, I do feel that it needs some reworking. With topics such as "cargo payment scaling" (yes there is a hint but it doesn't state directly in the tutorial), or as to what opportunities there are, & overall there are some things which off memory aren't even explained by the game itself. Somehow I've forgot what those are to be specific though which does make this point rather awkward. If they come back to me will add it as a comment or similar, but yes. What could work however is after the tutorial finishes there be a 24/7 "guide" explaining all of the possible roles, tasks within those, chain lines,
etc. Just a guide for covering all of the topics needed like that & so forth, might make it easier for newer players rather than totally rewriting the system. Moving onwards in the meanwhile

Anyways, if you enjoy a game just like this. Give it a go, really. Before I wrap up just want to say. All of the team who are working on this game I must commend so much, because the amount of things they've implemented are that amazing I'm more excited hearing about Motor Town news than over say SCS Software blogposts. Big applause from me for the team that are working on this game, am very glad indeed how this is gaining popularity overtime. Everyone around me over these past few months has bought it aswell so it's certainly becoming more known about

So, I've not really played all too much of the game just yet. But somehow already, I have gathered a basic conclusion. For now anyway.

I would say that from my experiences so far, the game is worth trying out for sure. After the fixes on day 2, you're able to see others on multiplayer now & although there might have been some slight differences on ghost behaviours on occasion. It's still an amazing feel when you finally complete the objective and be able to roam around the places.

There have been a few bugs like items being held 90 degrees to where they should be (grabbing a door is an easy fix though), or the Bible being closed in the motorhome only to fall through the world. & on one occasion the person I was with grabbed the gun but although it actually hadn't, on my screen it faded through the floor. But nonetheless it hasn't really stopped us from being able to play the game really, aside from the Bible. But hey, It's early access. I expect things to happen.

So far I think the only thing it needs mostly is some kind of level tutorial like Phasmo does, although more of as an option within the tutorial area for all the items. That area I'm very much liking, helped us understand Mary & the crucifix more.
When we'd loaded in levels, it'd taken me around 5 hours with a break between to understand the mechanics more with hands-on experience.

Considering that I haven't had much experience yet that's about all I've observed. However after some time has passed playing with it, then more will be added below. Also just so people know what it's been running on. Although it's on "Low Render" the computer runs with these;
CPU: Intel Core i5-7400
RAM: 12GB DDR4 (Forgotten the name)
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4G
Motherboard: PRIME Z270-P

But granted these have been used for a minimum couple years now, still runs at playable FPS like. Might not always be 60 but long as it's fun to play
Either way, I'd say it's worth a shot to try out. Once you get into it that is but honestly, if it took me 5 hours total to understand it more, that's why a level tutorial might be helpful in these sorts of games. But yeah, hopefully this game gets more content and general improvements. Seems like it's going somewhere personally already.

Holy, I spent 41 hours on this? Already? Damn, that's longer than I thought honestly but that's good. Because the new maps have certainly brought on more interesting outcomes to situations.

When I first tried out Japan's map with 2 others (I forgot the difficulty), almost instantly the others had been taken down by the ghost. Almost got me too until they made themselves visible coming right at me, almost panicked but managed to run back. It's quite funny thinking back on it now but man does it still give off interesting situations. I mean it was still really annoying when I then fought against the ghost doing all the steps alone right up until the last part (object needing shooting), didn't find the right cursed one, to then die because crucifixes ran out at the same time. But aside from those the maps look much better.
Quite laggy on my computer naturally, Germany for instance I will have around 15fps if that when candles are on. But that could just be my components. Anywho, yes.

These new maps are a good change, they look very pretty. But we've noticed too that no longer can you simply chuck a Mary on the floor & that work out fine till it runs out, because the ghost will possibly now make those objects tip over and manage to get past them, & also not work nearly as well if you stand only at the front door which although at first did make me nervous of what to do about this, I understand why. The game is supposed to be somewhat horror-like. Standing at the door would take a lot of that away in fairness, but it appears now after a bit more adjustments we've found ways to make it work out well.

Still it's an interesting game, in fact just recently one night I was walking around with the new in-game voice chat, casually speaking of random topics as usual. But at times when there was no Mary on the floor the ghost seemed to simply pass right by me and attack the others which was amusing to me. Was talking on the radio going "It's ignoring me now shake my head" but in the end it decided otherwise. Later on it was chasing me in a dead end yet somehow managed to not die which was very surprising, ran out of sprint too. Was like a lucky charm or something.

I don't have many clips of the game off memory, but there's certainly a lot of action. We've also messed around by spawning in over 15 crucifixes to "surround the house & trap the ghost in", lagged everyone's game & voice a ton by spawning in literally every amount of specific items as we all could do, was mad funny like but damn the lag there was. Should've seen the van, might be able to leave a link to an image I got actually so you see for yourself.
Yeah..[i.imgur.com]

If you paste that link in or whatever, it was err.. rather a large amount of items in total.
But still, it was hilarious to have happen.

All in all, I'm impressed with how much this game has fixed & added content in a short timespan. Quite the amount, & hopefully they keep it up

Somehow, after over 2k hours of this game. Whether it's playing on TMP, or on singleplayer with a lot of mods. The game still does not bore me

With the default SCS content I might not want to play it as much. In terms of gameplay however, it still brings entertainment after many, many hours. And although some of the time was spent doing a little bit of modding or save-editing. The majority has involved just playing the game, trying to have a relaxing drive. Of course sometimes it wasn't but, eh. It never will always be. I've been playing this game for over 5 years at this point, since the age of 14 I believe. Although it can't be recalled how this game came to my attention nor why it was bought, it feels as if playing this game has made me figure out what one of my interests are, and/or also possibly be a job in the future someday.

I've yet to try getting into making entire mods, doing more advanced save-edits, mapping and more. But I got a good feeling it's gonna keep me around for an even longer time trying each one out. Only issue I got about it is, how do I learn such things? There's videos for mapping yes, videos for making mods though sounds very confusing personally. Maybe it's just me, but anyway.

I don't really know on what to say about the map itself seeing as most of the time I play on ProMods. But not gonna lie, some countries do need re-worked real bad. The UK for instance, it looks ancient at this point and it just isn't nice to drive in but for the peace on TMP. And there's only 2 roads in Wales?! Why?

Otherwise, as far as I know anyway (because I'm not often that picky if it's fun to me). It's kept me entertained for years. And I bet it'll do that for more to come. It seems promising at keeping my attention so, we'll see what happens


10th July: So, I've returned to add more on the review hitting 3k hours now. Jesus this was money well spent, but it's still not boring me forever. It might burn you out to be honest, but every time that happened I'd returned. On this section I will add more on the unoffical multiplayer side of things, "TruckersMP".
According to my profile the account was made the same as when buying the game. Unsure how I stumbled upon TMP but then again, who does remember the story for every game they found?

Anyways, when it hits October 22nd in 2021 I'll have owned this game for exactly 6 years. And it's been somewhat eventful.
I've been staff in all the VTC's I've joined so far. An examiner for my 1st in 2018 (until it closed 2019), and a Manager twice for another one between 2019 - 2021. On 02/04/2021, I've since joined a 3rd after leaving the previous 31/03/2021. If you recognise the following companies, you might've seen me around in-game or online.
"The Veteran Fleet"
"Plasma Trucking"
"Prime Logistics"

I won't delve into detail here about how they are as the review is about the game, and also my opinions on them are all different, naturally. So I'll spare that part.

Within the years of playing ETS2 via TruckersMP, I've been banned 3 times in total but, if I wasn't at first. Nowadays, am very aware & safe of a driver. I still make mistakes whether it be speed, awareness or other factors. But no-one is a perfect driver, everyone is a human controlling the vehicle.. I hope

Anyway, still love playing the game whether it's default map with mods, ProMods, TruckersMP, etc. Might burn me out. But after buying all major DLC's like maps & cargoes? Yeah, I can say this game is worth your time to enjoy. Really fun to play

It's a very fun game, especially with the trainer for it to mess around on singleplayer.

I do very much like this game, but there are quite a few bugs and objectives that don't complete.

For example, I was doing an accident sketch with 2 vehicles and when I had it right, for some reason it didn't work. I've had to cancel it 3 times now. It's annoying, but it is still fun.

Another example is when I attended another accident which was due to road rage that started out of nowhere. I went to speak to a driver again after speaking to a witness and it just had a camera angle of his face and he said nothing. I had to close the game.

Last example, I keep accepting a specific serious accident dispatch and when I park in the space, the vehicle freaks out. The first time I got stuck on a green car. The second time I was in the van, and that literally took off and landed on the grass where I couldn't get to it.

I've rarely done traffic checks, but the 2 times that I have both cars fled from me and I had to put my foot down to catch them. Very exciting chases when they drive in the hard shoulder at 140+km/h.

The car seems OK to handle, but there's no force feedback on the G29 I use for it, and the gears seem to change too low, which causes me to pick up speed quite slowly to what it can possibly do. Also the needle on the third-person view of the car is off from the bar.

I play on Low settings on a GTX 1050Ti with 12GB RAM and there are still FPS problems. I can do 60FPS, but depending on what's around me or sometimes at random it can drop. It does build back up a bit though.

Aside from these bugs, I love this game and I hope I can find more games like this. If these issues are fixed I will be quite happy.

Love the types of transport this has to offer! I can now make ALL my citizens take the ferry to work and back with lorries using roads. :D

This game is pure gold. It can do everything Simcity can and much more! It's got good DLC's, weather, mods, I will NEVER stop supporting this game. They deserve every positive ratings. :D

Also, City Skylines listens to their audience every time.

This DLC is amazingly fun! Watching a tornado wreck through a massive city or a forest fire destroy all the forest. So good!

This game is more than amazing for when it comes to physics and i would recommend it to anyone who loves that too!

The game is so fun!