Product Description

You ‘da Boss! Move it better and faster than your competition. Build your reputation and your empire coast to coast as you haul across the most extreme conditions and loads. Grab the wheel and hop in – your extreme adventure begins here!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2504 in Video Games
• Brand: ValuSoft
• Model: 73202
• Released on: 2009-10-02
• ESRB Rating: Everyone
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows XP
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Features

• Extreme Locations! Travel across 5 hair-raising locations including ice roads, dry desert and crazy jungle.
• May the best man win. Bid against hard-nosed competitors to secure jobs for your burgeoning business.
• Extreme Loads! Transport loads that would even scare your grandma ¿ maximum/minimum loads, oversized loads, high risk cargo and more!
• These beasts don¿t drive themselves! Back up to loading docks, manage your fuel, and maintain your trucks in peak condition.
• Extreme Deadlines! Achieve the unachievable by delivering your loads under deadline.

Customer Reviews

good graphics/gameplay, yet some features missing.
Well I tried the game(torrent), and the following things are missing from previous 18 wos games.
1.no more gas stations
2.no police
3.no sleepieness
4.no dealerships
5.no repair shops
6.can not hire drivers
7.don't have the freedom to go to which company hq you want to take loads from
8.money system doesn't exist in this game, it's now a points reward
9.your truck is different for every delivery(you don't own a truck).
and to conclude this review, it's just redundant gameplay. YAY!

In the game you are givin a job, you have to choose which is best for you based on your skills. You can choose a job with alot of points reward but the difficulty and distance of range will be hard.

In the world map there is north america (canada), south america, and my favorite austraila. There will be expansion maps just like Euro truck simulator.

Overall it is a good game, great graphics,NOT SURE IF YOU SHOULD BUY it but rather download it and show SCS that gamers matter not money, I guess I had my hopes up a little too high after waiting 2 years. I just wish it was like 18 wos ALH with those great graphics.

A great game for the price, perhaps the best of the series thus far.
Overall, the game is great. It features a map inspired by the ice roads of Season Two of Ice Road Truckers (the Tuktoyaktuk road), the infamous "Road of Death" of South America, and the Aussie Outback. All three maps have unique loads and trucks for the areas (Outback has road trains of 4+ trailers, Yungas has short canvas-covered trucks, and the ice roads have massive loads such as mining equipment, supplies, and everything in between.

The game really delivers a lot of fun for $20. However, there are some drawbacks. Fans of the series will be glad to know that the multiple trailers now pivot realistically, and the AI traffic is MUCH smarter. There are also random road hazards (such as overturned trucks on the ice roads, debris on the outback roads, and slick roads on the yungas roads).

However, you cannot own your own truck in this game (as you could in previous releases in the 18 Wheels of Steel series), nor is there a career mode where you earn money and pay for fuel, repairs, and newer trucks/upgrades. What you do have is a point-based mission system, where each map unlocks after you earn enough points. You start in the Ice Roads, then work your way to the Outback, then to the Yungas road. Unlocking all three maps takes around 4 hours total, and that's just going until you have them unlocked. Replaying each map, you could spend weeks until you attain the highest level in all three maps.

The other drawbacks are a lack of a police-type system (speeding tickets, wreckless driving), lack of realism (fatigue). And perhaps the most glaring issue; although the cover depicts a truck falling through the ice, I have yet to experience it in-game. I am sure it's there, but I haven't managed to yet.

Overall, I give it a 5/5. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a game that you can get into quick, drive a quick mission (and I do mean quick; the average load run on the Outback takes around 5 minutes, if you floor it). It runs on older systems really well, and looks stunning on anything less than 3 years old.

Arcadey, but in a good way
It's been years since I've bought or played an 18 Wheels of Steel sim, so I grabbed this one, not expecting much. And in terms of gameplay, from what I remember of the old games, this one has been dumbed down a bit for the average joe. So, if you like a lot of detail to your game, you might be disappointed. However, I'm not an actual truck driver. I'm actually just an average guy, and I suspect that I'm the guy they were aiming this at, because I actually like it. It's not perfect, but it is fun to drive the missions.

Graphics are really quite good as far as budget titles go these days. In fact, considering that it comes on a single CD rom, I think the graphics are quite excellent when you turn all the graphical options to high. I've got Anti-aliasing set all the way to 8X, and Anisotropic Filtering all the way up, resolution set to 1920 x 1200 (I was surprised the game actually supported that high of a resolution), and everything else set as high as it would go. And I'm getting nice, silky-smooth framerates, and the gameworld looks quite detailed, and much better than I was expecting. Online gameplay videos can't do it justice. (my rig: Windows Vista, Intel Core2 Quad 6600 2.4 ghz, nVidia 9800GT/512, and a lot more ram than is needed for this game). The box recommends a 2.2 ghz processor, 1 gig of ram (2 gigs for Vista), 1 gig HD space, and a 256 meg video card. But I'm guessing you could easily get by with a slower system, as this is not a state-of-the-art graphics engine. I mean, it looks very nice, but it is relatively simple when compared to cutting-edge shooter games. They've managed to coax a lot of nice effects out of it, such as blowing snow and beautiful skies.

There are a variety of different views: The one I mostly use is the in-cabin view, to make it feel like I'm really in the truck and driving it. However, you can switch anytime to an external viewpoint and pan around the truck to make situational awareness easier. The mirrors are also fully functional, as are your horn, turn signals, dashboard gauges and headlights (off/dim/bright).

Controls work very well, and are remappable to different keys for the most part. My only gripe is that there is no Reverse Y-axis (mouse up/down) option, so I'm constantly moving the mouse down when I want to look up. But for most people this won't be an issue. I cut my PC gaming teeth on flight sims however, so my old joystick habits cause me to pull back on the mouse to look up. You can also choose whether you want automatic or manual transmissions.

Anyway, this is a pretty good trucking game. It looks nice, runs smooth, controls easily, and is easy to pick up and play. Hardcore simmers should probably do more research, however, as this is NOT a hardcore trucking sim. It's more of a simple sim. Also, no CD is required in the drive, so you can just install it, and file the disk away.