![]() (For anyone interested in reading more about gaming set-ups, r/AmericanTruckSimulator on Reddit boasts wheels, pedals, screens and keyboards that altogether cost several hundreds of dollars.) While these mechanics go largely unused, with driving being fairly straightforward when you’re going the same speed for hundreds of miles on a stretch, they become increasingly important at the end. Too fearful to venture past W-A-S-D or up-down-left-right, I stuck to automatic mechanics, as opposed to the more complicated ones that involved gear-shifting and physical wheels and pedals. As you drive past new towns, you unlock new potential headquarters and delivery locations. Guiding you is a 2000s era navigational system (with the functionality of a TomTom), which also updates you with messages as things crop up, from damage fines to passing landmarks. With a 360-degree range, dragging your mouse allows you to see the entire span of the road as well as the inside of the truck container, bed and storage closets. ![]() The mechanics of the game are fairly simple. YouTube comments responding to the headquarters location of Fresno, California. This relaxing view of the Inland Empire and Central Valley reminded me of a quiet alternate reality where the only inhabitants were motor vehicles, kind of like the entire premise of the “Cars” franchise. Much like the excitement I feel when I meet anyone from the Central Valley, it is reaffirming to see yourself represented, even in the smallest ways. When driving through Stockton, I recognized the faint outline of the bushes alongside 99, and found a sense of “home” in the weird, empty, and semi-pixelated city-town vibes of strip malls and palm trees. ![]() Driving through the roads most people “pass through to get to other places,” I found myself reliving a lot of mental geographies that were familiar to me growing up. The possibilities for where to go within the state are mostly confined to the central median of California, from coastal San Diego to Pacific Northwest-adjacent Redding. Sped up to the pace of one minute per second of gameplay, a 900-mile cross-state trip can be condensed to half an hour. Loading screen from Steam page of American Truck Simulator Such was “American Truck Simulator” (2016). ![]() Instead of studying for finals last quarter, I spent my dead week driving cargo across the Central Valley in a semi-truck. ![]()
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