American Truck Simulator and its older sibling, European Truck Simulator

Seems to me you could 3D render OK with like 2 polygons…

They really need to start thinking about 2 or more states per DLC.

Oh god, they’re going to do Nebraska and Kansas aren’t they.

They really need to power through the entire Midwest as quickly as possible. I suspect interest is going to flag if they do Kansas, followed by Nebraska, followed by the Dakotas…

(No offense to folks who live there! I’d just rather kill myself than drive through them!)

As someone who has driven each of those states many times, at least the Dakotas have Badlands and the Black Hills.

Nebraska and Kansas have jack and shit worth going to see. They merely were the price I had to pay to get to Denver.

Iowa has a lot of giant wind turbines!

We have Carhenge! CARHENGE!

(The zoo is actually good)

Yeah, I hope a lot of these they do a bulk DLC. I am kinda surprised Oklahoma is on its own.

I’m not familiar with this genre so I’d like some opinions on which of the truck simulations games would be best for someone who isn’t looking for high reaction-based gameplay for an older gamer (my grandfather)?

ATS and ETS are pretty chill games, although AI cars do sometimes do merge in front of you and slam on their brakes. If he can still manage highway driving IRL, he’ll be fine with either of them. Pick based on where he’d like to drive (American west vs Europe).

You might also investigate Snowrunner. It’s pretty much all low speed crawling through mud and snow, so you don’t need great reactions to play it.

You do, however, need a high tolerance for frustration and disappointment.

Yeah, I’d definitely recommend ATS/ETS over Snowrunner for a newbie, unless they have an extremely chill disposition.

Get ATS. The European roads can be a pain to navigate. Also, at least make sure you get the Northwest DLCs including Montana and Wyoming. They are REALLY nice.

Thanks, guys! I was planning on starting him off in ATS and then if he wants to go explore Europe after he has a chance to see if he likes it.

ATS takes some setting up and the default gamepad settings basically don’t work. Can he use a gamepad at least? The keyboard experience is poor, tapping to turn.

If he goes gamepad, I will send you a PM with how I have mine set up, at least for sensitivity.

I will buy him whichever gamepad works best. Thanks, @Mark_Crump I’d appreciate it.

New ride available in ATS

How do you guys manage your air brakes in ATS with air brake realism turned on? I’m using my Xbone elite controller so I have analogue braking but whenever I’m in the city with stop and go traffic or backing up a trailer in the yard, I always run out of air in the tank. I can get maybe 4 or 5 brakes to stop before the tank runs dry.

Do real trucks have to manage their air brakes so meticulously as depicted in ATS so they won’t hold up traffic with an empty air tank?

I’d love to see your sensitivity settings. Steering with a controller will never match a wheel of course, but I’d like to mitigate the darting back and forth I experience when trying to stay in my lane especially in long curves on the highway.

I use the jake brake a fair amount and the only time I even notice my air pressure is first starting after a rest - because I have to idle for a bit and build pressure before I can move. No idea if the two things are related though.