If you had told a younger me that I would one day enjoy simply driving for hours on end, we probably would have argued. I was brought up on fantasy and science-fiction. I dreamed of Daring Adventures and Pivotal Quests; of voyages to distant, alien shores. Cars seemed – mundane, by comparison. They were just things I sat in or watched out for while crossing the road... Then, years after its release, I had a sit-down with a little game called Gran Turismo 2, which may have lasted 3 complete careers and, shall we say, an Extensive Amount of Time.

GT2 didn't turn me into a gear-head, exactly, but it convinced me of something visceral that a lot of my peers inherently understood: that, even going in circles, Driving Fast can be a lot of fun. And now, while I still prefer a Tarsus to a Taurus (Level 2 shields vs. Airbags? No contest!), I at least have a bit more appreciation for the design of some cars, even if their core appeal eludes me.

From GT2, my path to today's review was – circumspect.

I liked GT2 because of its almost-scientific adherence to real-world-stats, physics, and handling. Arcade racers, for the most part, didn't really appeal to me and GT2-like games (especially in PC world) were thin on the ground. 2008's Race Driver: GRID was a lot of fun, but had a limited car roster and lacked GT2's race variety. Fuel, in 2009, offered a completely different eco-spin on racing: more arcade-y, but with a vast, open world and neat, Mad-Maxian vehicles, it offered you a swath of the Pacific Northwest to play around in, while having a nudge and a wink about imminent climate change. Also in 2009, Need For Speed: Shift tried (and partly succeeded, in my opinion) immitating the GT formula on PC, but – again – with a fraction of the car list and limited race variety. Finally (again – years after its release) I got to try Gran Turismo 4, and while it was just as good as GT2, short of a different car roster and track list, it didn't really do anything new.

I honestly can't say what first attracted me to Euro Truck Simulator 2. It wasn't a racing game – more of a car-walking-simulator, if anything – but I saw a video someone posted on YouTube, found out it supported 42 languages, including my native tongue (hint: not English); saw it didn't require Steam to run and was made by an indie studio (big plus in this pig's book!) and – just kinda went for it.

Let's get this out in the open: truck drivers, especially long-distance ones, work tough, tedious jobs that are very short on glamour or appeal. Between the exhausting hours, the physical and mental toll of sitting behind the wheel, by yourself, for the majority of your waking day; the general lack of care or support from most employers (watch Last Week Tonight's S9E6), and being uprooted from things like family life, regular human contact or even a normal circadian rhythm, there is very little to recommend driving a truck for a living and, consequently, a very small basis for turning it into an entertaining game.

But while enjoying ETS2 takes a certain mindset, SCS Software did a great job of Polishing the Few Positives, and – if you like driving sims, exploring new places, meticulously detailed 3D models, or are even considering going into trucking and want some insight into the nature of the job – you will find it, in turns, engrossing and educational (if not exactly entertaining).

You start your trucking career by creating your character, naming your company, and (for game engine compliance reasons) picking a truck (you won't own it, or anything; it'll just be your default truck image until you get your own). You also get to pick a home town from an abbreviated list of notables (between 4 and 20 per country, depending on size) and are then thrown straight into your first delivery job.

At the outset, you drive for other companies – which has its advantages. For one thing, your employers cover all legal expenses (tolls, gas, ferries) and handle all wear-and-tear repairs on your truck. It might not sound like much, but – later, when you are Master of Your Own Destiny – all of that comes out of your own pocket. You pick a job, are assigned a vehicle (with trailer attached), deliver cargo to your destination, get paid, rinse and repeat.

Depending on the level of your abilities, you get a variable amount of money and experience after each job. When you level up, you can upgrade one of your abilities, making your character slightly more profitable. Four of them deal with types of cargo you can transport (fragile items, high-value items, time-sensitive deliveries, and hazardous cargo), while the remaining two are more utilitarian (one increases the maximum distance your jobs can cover and is the sinlge-most important ability in the game; while the other decreases the amount of fuel you use, per distance traveled).

I would have liked to see more variety in the abilities (like better night vision, for those particularly dark, stormy nights, or being able to stay awake longer; maybe even a kind of "menacing aura" that would make irritating little passenger cars get outta your way, unprompted); but – given that this is a sim – I'm glad there's any character development. Period.

Until you save up enough to buy Your Own Truck, you keep making deliveries and leveling up and, once you do, the game honestly doesn't change that much. The main difference being that all expenses now come out of your own pocket.

There is the potential to expand your company, but it is poorly realized. You can hire more drivers, buy more trucks, and expand your garages, but – nothing ever happens. There is never a crisis that needs resolving, you never run into your own trucks on the road. The money just trickles in, every now and again. Your speeding tickets are covered. That's it. In terms of long-term gameplay evolution, ETS2 is very much a plateau.

The driving, of course, is very well done and highly customizable. If you are so inclined, you can set the game up to be irritatingly realistic with air brakes that need to recharge over time, manual shifting, simulated tiredness which requires you to stop every 8 hours or so for a nap, and tons of tweaks for braking strength, trailer balance and realistic gas consumption. Alternately, you can also make the game as lenient as you like. Don't like speeding tickets? Turn 'em off. Don't like driving in the rain? Set the chance of rain to 0.

The trucks themselves are expertly recreated and, for those of you who have gamed in certain circles (mostly historically-accurate sims), it will come as no surprise that SCS Software is from the Czech Republic. I don't know why, but between Illusion Softworks (now 2k Czech, of Hidden & Dangerous and Mafia fame), Bohemia Interactive (known for Operation Flashpoint aka. ARMA: Cold War Assault), and Warhorse Studios (Kingdom Come: Deliverance) companies from that part of Europe have turned out some of the best 3D modelers in the world. If accurate re-creation of a Real World Thing is what you're after, it seems, Czechia is the place to go. ETS2's trucks are faithful to the smallest visual detail, the sounds are recorded straight from the actual vehicles, and every switch and toggle works just like the Real Thing. Each truck also comes with a slew of customization options, custom colors, and paint jobs so that the truck you buy can truly feel like Your Truck.

The game world (much like its source-material) is beautiful and reflects the landmarks, signage and traffic standards of actual EU countries. If you haven't traveled extensively, it's neat to see an accurate abstraction of how other parts of the world look. While, in general, one road looks much like another, each country does theirs a little differently – from the overall way the traffic flow is handled, to the actual lines on pavement, or even the type of road surface. Each EU state (and the UK) also have their own little details thrown in, so that while the driving itself never gets any less mundane, the scenery, at least, is almost always fresh and uplifting.

The world is also quite vast. While the game started out with just western Europe and the UK, it has since grown to include everything from Spain to Turkey, west to east, and Albania to Finland, south to north (that is, if you're on Steam – but more on that later, when I gripe). Each country has its own aesthetic and enough unique visual assets (like Lamborhini police cars, while you're down Italy way) to make it visually distinct. And some areas are so darn pretty you might feel like pulling over just to gaze for a bit.

The game's biggest weakness is longevity. Even allowing for the fact that you can drive as long as you want (the game has no set ending) and as far as your DLCs will allow, driving is all you do here, so if you get tired of it – that's that. That's where your enjoyment of ETS2 will end.

I wish the developers had more of a Japanese approach. Japanese games of A Certain Type (I'm talking your Shenmues, Yakuzas, or even Tokyo Xanadus here) recognize the fact that Good Core Gameplay is Not Enough and throw in tons of little diversions to give you an alternative to what you'll be doing for most of the game. Being able to collect capsule toys in between Eclipses or go to a batting cage after a long day's Knocking People Around can be a great way to diversify your gaming experience and I wish more developers had the foresight to include such sidelines in their games.

My other gripe (and it's a doozy) is SCS Software itself. Other than being (to me, at least) different or intriguing and allowing me to play in my native language, my main attraction to ETS2 was that it didn't require Steam. And while the former have remained true, the latter changed four DLCs in, as soon as SCS started turning a big enough profit.

So while I got to enjoy the Going East!, Scandinavia, Vive La France! and Italia DLCs (which you can still get offline at the URL at the end of the article); right after Italia, SCS decided doing two separate releases wasn't worth their time and turned their back on all of their non-Steam players. From that point on, all further releases (mostly truck skins and new regions, but also some new cargo types, cab accessories and other Neat Things) became Steam exclusives and that's about where my interest in supporting SCS waned.

On the upside, the game has a great modding community and although you may not be able to get any further non-Steaming official releases, if you're not above rooting around some, you can get a lot of great addons for free (I run 13 mods in my own game, mostly new trucks and cab accessories).

If you are looking for a meditative experience involving trucks able to haul 21 tons – say for when you want to listen to a podcast, or an audiobook – or simply a great, open-ended driving sim with Some Issues, I wholeheartedly recommend Euro Truck Simulator 2. Even with no DLCs and some modding, the game will offer you plenty of hours of driving enjoyment and – provided you don't get bored with its core mechanics – may turn into one of those titles you never uninstall and come back to, when the trucking bug once again nips you in the bum.

Currently, my yellow 4-axle DAF F241 is parked in between jobs in sunny Budapest after a 1419km wooden plank run. I have made 57 deliveries and played 69 hours and change. I have no idea when I'll get a hankering to fire it up again, or where I will go, but I do know that – some day – I'll be back behind that oversized wheel. Because ETS2 is a Good Game and – good games are like that.

Eventually, they reel you back in.

Offline Game and DLCs:

If you feel like getting into ETS2 but, like me, you aren't a Steam fan, you can still downlad offline versions of the base game, Going East!, Scandinavia, Vive La France! and Italia DLCs at the URL below.

-https://eurotrucksimulator2.com/download.php

Mod List:

I am very particular about my mods and only tend to install ones that 1) are well made, thoroughly tested, and work as advertised; and 2) don't try to alter the base mechanics of the game (everyone can do as they like, of course, but people who release "the way it should have been" mods kind of get on my nerves; if you can do a better job than the devs on realizing their own vision, here's an idea: get a job in the gaming industry, spend years climbing the totem pole until you can helm and release your own title, and then see how it feels when, on day one, somebody else comes along and tells you you did your own game wrong).

The following mods are ones I have spent a lot of time with and Work As Advertised:

• SiSL's Mega Pack – for a bigger (and, admittedly, goofier) variety of cabin accessories than the official DLC provides;

• XBS's DAFs (NTT, F241, 95ATi), Mercedes SK and Sisu M-Series – for really well-made truck models, with accurate engine stats and fitting addons/modifications (including BDF Trailer for DAF 95ATi and cabin accessories for the F241 and Sisu);

• Harven's Mack-R – a really pretty, vintage truck done to accurate specs, with plenty of customization options;

• RTA-Mod's Kenworth K200 – a big, old 'Murican hauler with staggering horsepower and (maybe) a touch too much finesse for a truck that size (but still very well done);

• CarlosEdu1414's 379 Legacy Class – for some more American nostalgia; and

• Ekualizer's Mercedes Ng 1632 – for that one version that looks like you're going to be hauling your trailer to Greenland — cross-country;

Pig Recommends:

-Gran Turismo 2, 4 – by people who love cars, for people who love cars, Polyphony Digital's series is, in my opinion, the best, kinda open-world car racing game slash interactive museum on the market; with 650 (mostly Japanese, but – still) cars and 27 tracks (GT2) and 721 cars from 80 manufacturers on 51 tracks (GT4), the games offer unparalelled variety, real-world stats and physics, complete customization and even some good tunes (GT4 was what turned me on to The Donnas' Gold Medal);

-Fuel – for a (naturally) French, off-the-wall spin on racing through a world in the grip of a climate apocalypse; great environments and environmental hazards (ever raced through a tornado?), imaginative vehicles (from bikes, to quads, to monster trucks and even a secret hovercraft); and race tracks that can be tackled any way you want;

-Race Driver: GRID – for the best simulation of being in charge of your own racing team, with good driving, a decent variety of cars, a really cool sponsor-mechanic (get paid if you meet your sponsor's particular demands for a race); and the warm, self-affirming feeling of your manager addressing you by name (well, provided your name has an aglicised equivalent, anyway);

-Mafia – the original Illusion Softworks game (now called "Mafia Classic", as opposed to the horrible "Definitive Edition", which Definitely Ain't Good), for a poignant story about the consequences of doing business with the mob, along with some great, historic driving, well-designed missions, solid soundtrack, and proper storytelling;

Honorable (non-driving) Mentions:

-Hidden & Dangerous 2, H&D2: Sabre Squadron – for the most realistic WW2 shooting experience (when Illusion got started on the title, first thing they did was buy the actual weapons they were going to model in-game, so that the look, operation, and feel was as authentic as possible); the original game has a nice, varied campaign, while Sabre Squadron offers more of the same plus co-op multiplayer;

-Operation Flashpoint – for the original large-scale first-person war sim experience; when Flashpoint first came out, it was unlike anything else on the market – a niche it has kind of retained to this day with ARMA 3 (and soon 4); but one thing the later games have not been able to replicate was the sheer excitement, enthusiasm and – by extension – volume of its modding scene which was unparalelled until its last, lagging release in 2014 – some 13 years after the original game came out (and most of which you can still get at http://ofpr.info/); honestly, whether you like real-world combat of almost any modern time period or – Space Marines – OFP has been modded every which way, with hundreds of good, working mods and hundreds more of wonky, weird ones;

I could now comment on Kingdom Come: Deliverance, but not really wholeheartedly reccomend it. Check out its review to see why.