There is evidently a whole world of Truck Sim enthusiasts living out there, considering the number of games which are produced. Now, most of these are no better than the numerous hunting games which are produced in the States, quickly made, using the same game engine with only the surface details changing.

Scania Truck Driving Simulator: The Game has attempted to move the genre on, if in no other way than by providing decent and reasonable graphics, something other games only pay lip service to.

With Scania’s name blazoned on the front cover of the game, I’m guess that there was a little more cash thrown at the game and thankfully it shows, from the highly detailed interiors and exteriors of the Scania cab - You only get to drive Scania, but as they put up money, I guess this is only fair - to more realistic environments and handling.

There are a number of gaming options, from the mundane, picking up and delivering containers around town, whilst keeping within the law. Well that’s all very nice and good for the hidden geek and the sort of thing you can find in any other game, but Scania has a number of more interesting game modes, including the Road of Death. A mind numbingly difficult mode which has you traversing your truck, which now feels about three miles long through such things as mountain passes, forget keeping within the law just not falling off the mountainside feels like a triumph. The one that really pushes the game engine is a trip through a flooded town.

So you’ve got a little cocky, delivered a few crates around town, even made it off the odd mountain, but if you’re up for a real challenge then the Drivers Competition, which is, in part, based on Scania’s own Young European Truck Driver competition, is the ultimate test of both accuracy and reflexes. I would suggest using a gaming pad for these as trying to do this with the keyboard is a real pig.

The original game did have some flaws which have been addressed in a new update which provides two additional Dangerous Drives levels: "Backstreet" and "High in the Sky." Improved performance in the Scania: DemoCentre level. Additional type of automatic gearbox which does not flip brake and accelerator pedals during reverse movement. Fixed HUD mirrors and look presets for UK vehicles. Fixed crash when using controller which does not provide X and Y axes. Fixed waiting times on gas stations. Better TV camera placement on several Driver Competition challenges. Numerous touches to all maps in the game to address visual glitches.

Whilst I could not claim to be a great fan of these games, I have, for my sins, played many of them and Scania is by far the most varied and visually accurate that I have seen so far. I would go so far as to say that it is likely to appeal to non-truck sim fans.

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Charles Packer