Splatsch: Well, I'm looking for ETS2 since years, but my computer is way too old to run it decently
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I had very good time with
https://www.gog.com/game/hard_truck_2_king_of_the_road. (...) I looked for similar games and heard about 18 Wheels series... and so hoped for them to come here !
I was thinking of buying several games of this promotion but not all :) I only don't know which ones X)
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Hello Splatsch!
I am in a similar situation like you, I got to know "Euro Truck Simulator 2" from its early days before its Steam-integration and various DLCs. Then it still did run kind of well on my old laptop, but due to constant updates, increasing or blown-up hardware requirements and ultimately Steam-integration I could not (and did not want to) run it anymore on my machine.
However, I found its direct predecessor, "Scania Truck Driving Simulator" running smoothly and overall much more interesting with its dangerous drives (actually challenging driving, delivery or maneuvering tasks) and the free ride mode in a complete (fictive) city including overland-drives in the nearby countryside, where you could pickup any cargo you encounter on the roadside or parking lots and bring it to random chosen destinations.
On the one hand it has only the trucks from the manufacturing company in the game's title, significantly less vehicle customisation and no (pseudo) economy, on the pro-side it does not feature the excessive spatial and temporal compression of ETS2 (noticable in the tiny and interchangeable "cities" and when driving the countryside), which irritated me a lot in ETS2.
Furthermore, "Scania Truck Driving Simulator" was and still is available DRM-free on DVD, as well as digitally from the developers webpage (as alternative to the Steam version).
Regarding the now rereleased 18 Wheels of Steel series here, I only triedtwo of them in the past:
"American Long Haul" and "Extreme Trucker" (the first of the more recent pair).
"Extreme Trucker" is basically structured around somewhat (supposed to be) challenging (at least in the real world) driving tasks on predefined tracks in the three regions. If I remember it correctly, it totally lacks the free ride option or continuous game world of the 18 Wheels series. In my opinion, it also fell short on the actual challenge and was not as intriguing as "Scania Truck Driving Simulator"'s dangerous drives!
"American Long Haul" was much more similar to "Hard Truck 2 - King of the Road" on a north amercian map, but the driving mechanics and sound effects were less fun for me. And unfortunately, sports an heavy spatial and temporal compression, too.
I am curious to know, how the other ones compare, since I do not expect to be able to run "Amercian Truck Simulator" smoothly anytime soon!
Especially, "Pedal to the Metal", "Convoy" and the second "Extreme Trucker" would interest me to a certain degree.
Kind regards,
foxgog