Studios like Rockstar can capture the essence of New York in a video game, but New York is a city full of famous landmarks. SCS Software, by comparison, have become masters at capturing the essence of places of no significance. The long freeway, the vacant parking lot, the anonymous storage warehouse, the nowhere town; all are rendered with such care and detail in American Truck Simulator that they become as compelling to me as any virtual Times Square.
The latest example: Oklahoma, now available in ATS's latest DLC. Watch the launch trailer below and see if it doesn't make you want to take a road trip.
Released on August 1st, the Oklahoma DLC features ten cities, including Tulsa and Oklahoma City, landmarks such as the Skydance Bridge, the University of Tulsa and the Route 66 museum, and natural vistas such as Gloss Mountain. As a Brit who has never been to Oklahoma, these mean nothing to me on paper, but I bet I'd feel a really compelling sense of ennui if I saw them in-game.
SCS Software are also running a time-limited event called Cruising Oklahoma between now and October 1st, where players are challenged to deliver supplies to or from ten cities and collectively drive 111,000,000 miles (178,637,184 km). This is American Truck Simulator's equivalent of a season pass, I guess, and all the details can be found on the officla blog.
I'm mostly interested in the 'Honey Bee Plus', pictured above, which can be earned in-game for completing "any External Contract or External Market job TO or FROM the city of Oklahoma City." The honey bee is Oklahoma's official state insect, I hear.
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