February 2008

I’ve often been curious as to why there is such a lack of “normal” driving simulator, i.e. non-racing vehicle sims. Euro Truck Simulator seems to be just the thing I was thinking of.

From the site:

Euro Truck Simulator is a European first - A truck simulation game in a European setting, with European long haulage trucks! Drive cargos from Rome to Berlin to Madrid to Prague - and many more cities - in realistic vehicles. Euro Truck Simulator is a faithful reproduction of driving trucks on the European road.

The official site has recently updated their screenshot gallery and, I must admit, it looks gorgeous.

No release date yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye on it. Hopefully there will be a demo soon. I think I could lose days to this one!

Belgian Sim Racing is an English language site dedicated to motor racing simulation. They’ve got an impressive selection of slick-looking screenshots, along with coverage of all the major motor racing sims. According to the site:

BSR is a Belgian based dedicated international racing community serving various Racing Sims and racing competitions online. We’re proud to announce that the brand new rFactor server is Online and running fine.

We have now turned our attention fully to ensure the continued success of the team  in competitive and fun championships.

Despite its name we welcome members and guests from all over the world.  We offer high adrenaline race fun, friendship and combined knowhow. BSR is glad to welcome new fans to the wonderful world of simracing. We don’t mind how fast or slow you are.  As long as you race fair and clean and bring your sence of humor to the track. In the end of the day its all about having an entertaining experience.

EuroGamer are running a 2 part article with mini-reviews of strategy and simulation games, including

• Football Manager Live
• Advance Wars: Dark Conflict
• Sid Meier’s Civilization Revolution
• Harvest Moon
• Halo Wars
• Worms: A Space Oddity
• Spore
• Empire: Total War
• Tom Clancy’s EndWar
• Battalion Wars 2
• Patapon
• Sins of a Solar Empire
• Dynasty Warriors 6
• Universe At War: Earth Assault

Pretty much something for everyone there, I’d have thought.

Following on from my earlier post regarding Stockerz, I’ve found another free online Stock Market game called Stock Market Challenge.

It doesn’t look quite as slick as Stockerz, but I haven’t actually tried it out, so I guess it’s unfair to judge a book by its cover. If Stocks are your thing, you might want to give it a try.

FeelThere has announced their first racing series using their Live For Speed motor racing simulator.

They have a number of prizes up for grabs as follows:

• 1st place - G25 Logitech Limited Edition racing set from Simware
• 2nd place - TrackIr from NarutalPoint
• 3rd place - ButtKicker Gamer by ButtKicker
• 4th place - 2500 high resolution skin downloads from LFS

You can read more about the competition on their new dedicated forum.