The Real Story of How A PC Game Changed My Life
330Join me on a trip down memory lane in probably the weirdest game review in history! In many ways I think ETS2 had a big impact on me and lead to some important changes that helped me get my life back on track. If you like this and want to see more then check out our other reviews and gameplay showcases below. Share your thoughts in the comments and leave a like, comment and subscribe if you'd like to see more. Thanks for watching, stay wholesome and don't forget to save!
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I’ve played it for a nudge over 1,000 hours in total and honestly it came out so long ago now and is already so well known and loved that a review seems almost unnecessary in 2021, but I’m doing it anyway because it’s fun, it was requested and maybe there’s someone out there who’s thinking about taking their first steps into the world of trucking.
Get ready for a more open and personal approach than you’d normally expect from a game review because me and this game go waaaaay back, so sit back, buckle up and enjoy the ride.
Now as crazy as this might sound, Euro Truck Simulator 2 is one of 2 games that have had a big impact on my life and possibly even changed who I am as a person. The other game is World of Warcraft if you’re wondering but that’s a story for another day.
Back when ETS2 came out back in 2012 I was in my early 20’s living with my girlfriend who I now call my wife and at this point we’d lived together in Sweden for about 2 years after moving from the UK to be together. That’s where the name RedcoatViking originates by the way – Redcoat as in a British soldier in the 1700’s because I’m originally from England and loved the movie the Patriot, and Viking because I’m now a crazy Swede.
Anyway I didn’t have a job, my Swedish sucked and I was starting to develop issues with my mental health which often made going out a really stressful experience. Neither me or my wife even had a drivers license since we were both teenagers at the time so we couldn’t really go anywhere which made life especially difficult since we lived out in the sticks so Euro Truck Sim’s offer of letting me drive around most of Europe completely freely was very enticing.
I’d already played previous games in the series like 18 Wheels of Steel and the first Euro Truck Simulator for a few hours here and there but it wasn’t until ETS2 came out that I really started to develop an interest in driving.
The ETS2 base game gives you a map that includes a lot of mainland Europe and the UK, and after a very brief tutorial it just sets you free to start your own logistics business by buying trucks, hiring drivers and driving trucks from point A to point B, with cash bonuses awarded for a job well done, such as arriving on time with no damage to the trailer.
It does such an amazing job at giving you the sensation of being out on the open road, exploring the world as you ferry cargo from one country to another, and I think it provided a sense of freedom and accomplishment that I felt like I lacked in real life at the time. You can hire drivers and operate multiple trucks to bring in more money as you continue to grow your logistics empire.
When the very much still alive multiplayer mod dropped in 2016, now known as TruckersMP, it allowed thousands of players from around the world to connect while driving around on a shared map of Europe for the first time in history.
There’s no AI traffic in the mod due to technical limitations that are still present today, but just knowing I was driving on roads among real people made it all seem so much more real, and after using PS4 gamepad for years, I finally decided it was time to invest in a cheap steering wheel and pedals.
The wheel itself was a piece of plastic in the shape of a wheel called the Speedlink Drift O.Z, but any wheel is an improvement over a gamepad and little did I know it wasn't just the evolution of a hobby, but the beginning of when my life started to change for the better.
I made a lot of friends driving online and I’m still in contact with a lot of them today. For someone like me who’d retreated deep into my turtle shell I really appreciated the social aspect of being a in an online company where we had to log each of our completed jobs.
We spent countless nights meeting up at our company headquarters in Berlin and heading out on long convoys across Europe, enjoying the scenery and having a laugh on Teamspeak, all the while trying to avoid some of the obviously intoxicated truckers driving 150kph through winding country roads. It’s not perfect, but it’s still a hell of a lot of fun...
#ets2 #lifestory #redcoatviking #review #inspirational #thisgamechangedmylife #truckerstory
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