OK, so I've watched the videos by Ubaku, therock23480 on YouTube, and others. And all I can say is, I'm disappointed! I didn't expect much, given the previews I'd seen (and heard!) but decided to give 1C Company the benefit of the doubt until the actual release.
But now I've come to conclude it's bad -- the physics suck, and are like Midtown Madness'. (But THAT game DOES have pedestrians!) For instance, in real life, cars usually don't fly up in the air 20 feet or more when hit by a truck.
The AI sucks just as bad -- nobody stops in the middle of an expressway, only to change lanes by turning their front wheels 45 degrees!
The AI sounds are a joke -- all cars sound like they're racing, and sound just the same, whether their difference in speed is 2 or 120 miles an hour, or they're 3 or 60 feet away. (so much for a credible Doppler effect...)
The same goes for the AI trucks, only those all sound like 50 year old farm tractors, that desperately need their tappet clearances checked.
The sounds of the player's trucks aren't much better -- only the idle and sudden full throttle sounds are more or less acceptable, all other engine sounds are just sped-up idle sounds.
So who cares if you can actually watch the driver shift gears? It's a fun gimmick, but I think they should have taken care of the glaring faults before taking the time to implement this.
Talking about drivers, am I correct in assuming the player's driver can only be male???
According to many, this game was supposed to blow SCS' 18 WoS series out of the water. Well, I just started 18 WoS Haulin' up briefly, and have to say it beats R'n'R hands down, except for a small difference in graphics quality, and the extent of the scenery. And it took them 5+ years, rides with actual truckers, and "real" sound recordings to come up with this?
This is no simulation, it's just an arcade game.
I was prepared to buy the Russian version for now, because it's only about 11 Euros, but I think it's not even worth that much. And to think I've been contemplating rigging a real 13 speed shifter, with working air actuators, for use with R'n'R...
