Oh great ! I always wanted to try these games !!
Hum.... which ones would be advised to buy in priority ? (and eventually, which ones to avoid ?)

Oh hey, it's the Euro/Ameri-Truck Simulator precursors.

• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Across America
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: American Long Haul
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Convoy
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Extreme Trucker 2
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Hard Truck
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Haulin
• $6.69 • -33% • 18 Wheels of Steel: Pedal to the Metal

do hard truck apocalypse next.

Driving a lorry (English for what the Americans call 'truck') always struck me as the most boring thing in the world and the risk of getting robbed in high. Good for those who like driving I guess. Good thing we have all kinds of games so we can pick such that are to our liking.

Oh, nice.
I was wondering when this would arrive after Hard Truck II arrived.

Back when I was in primary school equivalent, a *not sure I would call him friend* had as his life goal to become a lorry/truck driver. Up till his early teens.

I found it interesting and slightly tempting when Over The Top was released.
If it was spaceship yes I would gladly do it as a job.
Never played these games, but they do look interesting.

So... are the all separate games on the same series, or are some expansions to other games, or what?

So if you want a full set of the series, just buy all the games?

Are these in any way related to the earlier Hard Truck 2 game release? Part of the same series?

https://www.gog.com/game/hard_truck_2_king_of_the_road

I've sometimes wished I had become a truck driver. I have a friend who is a truck driver, and he even drives across Europe, e.g. one time he drove a truck from Finland to Spain, and naturally he took his wife to the trip too, to visit Spain. Sounds great.

Also my colleague at work has been also a truck driver before, and he seemed to like the job as well (but now he is a boring IT system administrator, just like me; he just got some kind of engineering degree and switched jobs).

Then again, it is unfortunate that in Europe the trucks are quite different from American trucks, and I've heard the American trucks are more comfortable and nicer to drive.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDPqJj2C5g

In Europe the engine is below the driver while in America it is in front, so the cabin itself is considerably shorter in Europe, and apparently there is also more room inside for the driver in America (like the part where he can sleep etc.).

I read somewhere the reason for this difference is that in EU the regulated maximum length of the truck includes the cabin, while in America the cabin is not counted to the max length of the truck. Hence, Euro trucks have a short cabin where the engine is below the driver, in order to maximize the payload length.

Some claim the European cabin is better in some ways, like a better visibility outside etc.

Would be cool if one of their newer games got GOG-releases too - these ones look a bit too old to enjoy for me...

I would start either with Euro Truck Simulator 2 or American Truck Simulator. Seriously. I have both titles on Steam. Save your money for a Steam Sale or wait for them to be published on GOG.

ETS2 is on Steam regularly discounted at 75%, which means its base game alone (which alone is really really good compared to these old titles) would cost as much as one of these older titles, if you would buy the whole package at the highest discount. Namely €5. For the €39.09 this package on GOG costs, you can get the ETS2 base game with all relevant bigger (non-cosmetic) DLCs on a sale.

As much as I like the developer and supporting them, I would pay for these old titles not more than €2.50 each.

My personal opinion.

Well, I'm looking for ETS2 since years, but my computer is way too old to run it decently unfortunately I think, and I don't really use steam :P I'm still crossing my fingers with the hope ot this and ATS you advised too finally come here one day !

I had very good time with https://www.gog.com/game/hard_truck_2_king_of_the_road. I would've never knew it and played without GOG :) And because I liked it, 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)

Thanks for your advice though, and be sure that one day or the other, I'll play ETS2 ! (hopefully in not too many years, and with a GOG version) :)

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

It seems Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel is the 3rd game of the Hard Truck series.

It spawned a new series, 18 Wheels of Steel, with 8 entries, all of them released today on GOG.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_Truck
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_Wheels_of_Steel