And here is my review !!
The first thing we got to keep in mind is what Sabre have said about ETS.
They see it as a base version and if the sell enough of ETS they can add more content to it in form of free patches.
The first thing you notice is that you need the CD in your drive to be able to play the game. (English retail version).
Good move SCS and Excalibur Publishing ;D, at least you made it a bit harder for the pirates out there.
The second thing you notice is the ability to choose between Open GL and DirectX and since Im kind of sitting on a high end puter DirectX is my Choice (8800 GTS card, 1680x1050 all on max)
My controller in this case is Logitech G25 (900 degrees).
So I fired the game up and going through all menus setting up things are simple and pretty straight forward..good work again ;D
What I miss tho is a showroom to preview trucks and I still miss a Showroom for the trailers in game and what loads they carry.
You start up the game and you choose a country to start from..hmm OK.
You end up in a showroom with a few trucks to choose from and the first thought in my mind ..hmm ok only 4x2 (but I know there are one mod out for that.)
So without any mods installed you choose a truck and end up outside the shop.
The first thing that comes to mind, NO HQ.., I can not own more then one truck and no parking spot, so that means I can not own more then one truck and I can not own any trailers.
So I cant have my own company in this game, own my own trailers etc..baah.
So you hit N and take a look at the notebook, but hey ;D, they actually put some thoughts behind this, you have to work your way up here.
The second thing you notice is that you can only drive in the start country (or 2 countries if you started in a small country).
And you also have to pay for a licence to be able to drive to other countries..and that was not cheap.
Ok my money was not enough to expand at this moment so I checked what I had to do to pass the first level and did go back to the cab of the truck.
I really like the way you can pan around the cab and thank you SCS for bringing back the cab mirrors, and hitting F2 gives you the right mirror to without braking your neck in the cab.
With some money on my pocket I started up the truck and headed over to the upgrade shop to see what kind of upgrades you could do there.
And that was kind of disappointing, no head racks, pipes etc. just a lot of text and it cost you money to do it, ok I changed the trucks color to black and upgraded all I could..and now I was getting poor.
Time to get a job and getting some money here so exited the repair shop and hit M for the map.
OK, they call this a town (Berlin) just a few streets and only 2 places to get cargo's but ok lets give this a go, need to work your way up must be rewarded in the end.
So you enter the streets to locate a cargo, well one thing I got to say graphics are way better then in any 18 WOS series so far.
But SCS the AI is as stupid as always ( more about that later), also steering gives you some chills, turn to much and the truck just goes straight and you end up with a lot of damage if you don't pay attention. ( more later about that to)
Took me some time to decide about the cargo and what you got paid for it so day turned into night before I had decided and was on my way.
In the cab I turn slightly to the left to keep some track of the trailer and hit F2 to keep the right side in lane. Or hit F4 and then F2..just love it.
Here comes another bug, the headlights turns up in your mirrors and shine a big bright light on oncoming A! traffic. (remind my self to set up a new bug report)
As said highways..highways and dead fuel stops, but still makes me wonder, you got a lot of just pass arrows..future updates.
And the same here with AI´s god dam they just behave stupid, as in previous versions ...hey I need a brake, and this slowing down at 90% of on and off ramps...
And then we get back to steering, OK watch it..turn to much and you will crash regardless if you you are in traffic or on ramps.
So after some nice scenery I finally reached my location, and the same ..a city with a few streets...ok working my way up.
At this city I found a good load that payed a lot...but wait here a min..need to buy an ADR class...
Nahh decided that my wallet could not pay that....I will keep working...
So to sum this up... This a huge step forward SCS and I will support this :D
Downsides:- AI traffic
- Steering
- Head lights shows up in mirrors
- Boring map
- Cities to small
- More companies in towns
- No own company
- Stutters on a high end puter, probably reason as discovered so far ..viewing distance.
- Ability to mod truck or trailer skins
Upsides:- Graphics ...up
- All over game concept.
- Stability.
- Cab views etc.
- Adding removing mods.
Finally, yes there are mods out for this game and I really like that you can add or remove most of the mods without restarting the game.
I have done so with many mods and I just keep running, the only mod left to test...trucks.
So if I should grade this ..7 out of 10.
Bugs will be sorted.
This is the base edition..more content will come.
How do SCS do this...up to you ...
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