American Dream (PS5) in testing – why?! – Players Palace

After a mixed launch for the first truck driver With the game still having a long post-launch support phase, SOEDESCO is trying again: with Truck Driver: The American Dream You get a new studio with Kyodai, a new engine with Unreal Engine 5 and a new setup with USA. The result is a game that could be very good – if it were fully developed.

Truck driver with phone and story

Truck Driver: The American Dream It attempts to unify the truck simulation with the personal story of the protagonist. It can be said that the whole thing works well – for the main character of the game, starting life as a truck driver in the city is the first job he really loves, but long absences from home always cause conflicts with his wife who would rather have a husband and children than just an absent husband. Comprehensive offers Truck Driver: The American Dream It’s not a high-quality story, but it makes a long journey feel less lonely since there are always phone calls to other characters. This lightens the game a bit.

This time the phone is finally being used in a more rational way than it was the first time truck driver: Orders are now placed directly in a phone call and you can drive directly to the shipping instead of first going to the company and then communicating there only via text message. But what you have to get used to is that while driving, there will of course be a lot of talking, especially at the beginning of the game. You must be able to speak English, because there is only English dubbing, and only subtitles in German – the quality varies, because the German subtitles of Truck Driver: The American Dream A little undercooked. For example, translated texts regularly change back and forth between “you” and “you.”

“The most detailed gaming world on consoles”?

SOEDESCO was very vocal before releasing the game and promising it Truck Driver: The American Dream The most detailed gaming world on consoles to date, which they wanted to develop using Unreal Engine 5. , gibt es inige hübsche Details and auch außerhalb der Städte warten nette momente wie Sonnenblumenfelder, Bauernhöfe and much more.

But the whole thing is convincing mainly because of the visual impression, and not because of the life given to the game world: there are hardly any people, animals or animals He hears Mainly in the truck, which is pretty scary sometimes, but you rarely or never see them. People have only been planted quite statically in some places, such as hotels or cafes.

What bothers me most is that you can’t see the world Feel. Since there are only roads with guardrails on the left and right that lead into this game world – it’s as if a beautiful panorama was only meant to be created halfway around it. There are no unpaved roads or anything like that for you as a truck driver in the game.

To make the world more alive and believable, there are weather effects and day and night changes, but that’s really the technical side of the game, and that’s where my criticisms begin Truck Driver: The American Dream It really happens. Let’s start with the most damaging stuff: You won’t feel any rain or even storms in the truck. Even though it was raining Truck Driver: The American Dream Almost constantly and the streets remain wet forever, which seems a bit exaggerated, but it’s as if by magic rain never hits your windshield – but if you decide to turn on your windshield wipers, everything gets constantly messy. So it is better to skip it – you will only hear the sound of rain, but it will not affect you.

Head in asphalt

Construction sites in Truck Driver: The American Dream But it’s much bigger than that – and once again, a SOEDESCO member has hinted at the game will need updates over the course of weeks, or rather months, until it’s in a permanently playable state. This worked for the first hour or two of the game – although there was a bug where I once seemed to cross the entire terrain and was reset to start a mission. An unstable frame rate can also be noticed from the start. There are at least three graphic modes, but even in Performance mode, which is supposed to aim for 60 fps, there are always, and sometimes permanent, drops in the low range, where there is clearly noticeable judder.

It was annoying from the beginning and it was there Truck Driver: The American Dream Even the same construction site as its predecessor: the traffic in the game is incredibly stupid and slow. At each intersection, all other road users simply stop and nothing happens for a long time until the car is carried around the curve or straight ahead. It’s really annoying – and unrealistic. Since the game’s new update, vehicle lights are flashing every few seconds, and cars are simply climbing onto the iron every few meters – for whatever reason. In addition, there is now Truck Driver: The American Dream Again, there are only cars as well as other road users, buses and other trucks.

But if you keep playing, the errors will disappear Truck Driver: The American Dream More and more and more to the point where I now put the game at about chapter 10 of over 30 and sincerely hope more updates are released for the game.

I’ve created a video below showing some of the game’s bugs. For example, asphalt is often permeable, especially on highways, and/or there are invisible walls in the game world. Incidents and events that only occur with the first update after launch Truck Driver: The American Dream Although it looks like it has been corrected, it immediately means that road users no longer know how to behave.

Technical condition of Truck Driver: The American Dream It’s pretty pathetic – but at least: the game didn’t crash for me once, which is a definite improvement over its predecessor. But when you see in the main menu that you are currently playing version 0.9.1 of the game, everything makes a lot more sense. I think so Truck Driver: The American Dream It’s simply not officially over yet.

Even if the major technical bugs are resolved, we still have to do so Truck Driver: The American Dream There’s still some fine-tuning involved: the controls, for example with multiple key mappings, work well by themselves, but they’re also not incredibly intuitive. On the other hand, the menus in the garage are very confusing and need to be reviewed urgently. Globally, of course, the effects of weather and changes in time of day need to be reconsidered – but more pressing is the aforementioned traffic. This is all a shame – because in essence… Truck Driver: The American Dream There is a strong game.

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Conclusion: Why, Swedesco?

I would like to say clearly: in Truck Driver: The American Dream It’s a solid game and if SOEDESCO allows its Kyodai studio to finish developing the game, it could be very good. But it is incomprehensible to me why the SOEDESCO project is only half finished again truck driver The game has been released, so the big question now remains, if It will be fully developed. The technical condition of the game is pathetic and in many ways similar to the Early Access version at most. Even basic things like the AI ​​system behind road traffic, weather effects or day and night changes need an overhaul, apart from the fact that I… on You want to drive on asphalt, not under it regularly. This is a shame, because in principle I like the truck simulation with the story – and the game world offers some great details as well. It takes a lot of work Truck Driver: The American Dream To make it game over.

disclosure

we’ve got Truck Driver: The American Dream I bought myself.

I celebrated my gaming debut with a PS1 as my first “special” console. One of my favorite games from then to this day: Need for Speed: Burning Asphalt. Even then, at a young age, I was interested in games of all kinds and closely followed announcements and game tests – especially in the Official PlayStation Magazine. A lasting memory of that time: that at a very young age I was still able to buy GTA III myself because USK was still just a recommendation at the time. Today I play on all platforms and enjoy watching every game (almost) but I can’t play sports games, multiplayer games, and some shooting games.