The lifetime of a truck driver has by no means actually appealed to me. It took me seven makes an attempt to move my driving check, for heaven’s sake, and that’s in a automotive, not a 12-wheel monster. However cruising down the open highways, delivering a load of roof tiles to a shopper in Belgium on my Steam Deck has develop into an surprising, chilled gaming delight. And it solely value me $2.
Euro Truck Simulator 2—and it’s U.S. sibling American Truck Simulator—are each on sale for under $1.99 within the Steam sale. And they’re close to excellent for handheld gaming on the Steam Deck.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 On Steam Deck
On first inspection, you wouldn’t suppose a recreation akin to Euro Truck Simulator 2 would work nicely on the Steam Deck. With a gazillion completely different controls within the cab, you may suppose you’d want a keyboard to remain on high of all of them, perhaps even a steering wheel. Nevertheless, it’s greater than playable on the hand held console.
First off, the controls have been nicely mapped to the Steam Deck’s controller. You steer with the left thumb stick, look with the best, whereas acceleration and brake are sensibly situated on the triggers, and the flip indicators are on the shoulder buttons. All of it feels completely pure.
The tutorial is fairly sparse, so there’s some trial-and-error concerned find the remainder of the controls. I picked up a high-quality in France for driving with out my headlights on, earlier than I noticed the lights have been assigned to left on the D-pad for instance. Equally, I may barely see by way of a battering rain storm earlier than I clicked the wipers have been proper on the D-pad.
There are some controls I simply can’t work out. I’ve no concept learn how to allow the cruise management, for instance, and binding the management to one of many many further buttons on the Steam Deck doesn’t appear to work. It’s additionally difficult to tug off a number of the extra superior options on the console, akin to the choice to place your personal music assortment in a selected folder so you may burn down the freeway along with your favourite tunes taking part in.
But, even with out a number of the superior controls, I’ve gleefully racked up hundreds of miles of trucking on the hand held.
Graphics High quality
On condition that Euro Truck Simulator 2 is 12 years outdated, you’d suppose it ought to run high-quality on the Steam Deck—and it does. Though the sport graphics have been up to date many occasions over that 12 years, the OLED model of the hand held copes high-quality.
It doesn’t look in the least dated, both, regardless of its age. Whether or not you’re chugging previous fields of sunflowers within the French countryside or caught in visitors in a realistically modelled London, the graphics are spot on.
The largest problem on the Steam Deck is the restricted dimension of the display screen. It’s straightforward to overlook street indicators, for instance, which means I picked up yet one more high-quality for failing to identify a short lived pace restrict whereas driving by way of Germany. Small menu textual content may also be a problem. It’s a PC recreation, not a console title, so every thing is designed for the big display screen.
You’ll quickly overcome these issues, although. Simply make certain your trucking enterprise has sufficient money within the financial institution to cowl the inevitable fines!
Chilled Gaming Greatness
I did not have excessive hopes once I purchased Euro Truck Simulator 2 within the sale. It was a $2 punt. Nevertheless, I’ve since wheeled away many an hour on the couch, delivering items from one a part of the continent to the opposite.
It’s one of the crucial chilled video games I’ve ever performed. For probably the most half, not loads occurs. You’re trundling down the freeway, watching the world out of your windscreen.
There’s the occasional second of stress: an accident blocking a turn-off, say, or an AI driver chopping in entrance of you. The second I clipped a street barrier and turned my rig over only a mile or so from my vacation spot, undoubtedly induced a spot of street rage. However life behind the wheel of my second-hand Volvo rig is essentially stress-free, and it’s develop into an surprising technique to unwind after my working day. I’d even be part of a web based convoy, and meet some fellow truckers…
For those who’d slightly drive around the U.S. than the roads of Europe, American Truck Simulator is way the identical recreation, however set within the States. Meaning you received’t immediately be compelled to drive on the fallacious aspect of the street, as you’d be within the U.Ok. That is meant to be a calming recreation, in any case. Interact gears, not mind.
Put your foot down, although. The video games are solely within the Steam sale till July 11.