Going East! Almost there!

Today we are giving our publishing partners so called "Release Candidates" of the upcoming ETS2 add-on. We have been in testing period for quite some time, and after yet another final round of verifications on this build, we are hoping to sign off the game expansion as "gone gold" early next week, so that we hit the intended simultaneous release date of September 20th.

Once this is all done, the DLC team will be facing the big question - what next? Another territory expansion? What do you think? ;-)

For those still hesitating if they should actually buy the game, there is probably the last good opportunity to grab Euro Truck Simulator 2 on the cheap before the Going East! add-on is released. This weekend, Steam is celebrating the first anniversary of launching their "Greenlight" system, and ETS2 is among the featured games, with quite nice discount. Check out the Euro Truck Simulator 2 Steam page here.

More and more images and movies from Going East! will be appearing in the weeks ahead of the release. Of course we do not want to leave you without any images already for the weekend.

Back from GamesCom 2013

With over 300,000 attendees, GamesCom is the biggest game expo in the world. During our 2-day stay at the event, we spent a total of 90 minutes in the public area of the event. The reason?

This is a shot of the "Boulevard" mega-corridor connecting the halls. It's not even a weekend day when more people are free to come, and it's not the peak time of the day. Many of these visitors came to see just their favorite game, and after waiting 3-5 hours in a line, they may be lucky to get a 5 minute glimpse of it.

None of our games was to be seen in the public halls, as our visit centered on business negotiations with our existing and prospective publishing and distribution partners, and exploring business opportunities. Thousands of games industry executives, mixed with official press people, have halls 4 and 5 set aside for negotiations and meetings, secluded from the public halls.

So far, only business visitors passing by the stand of rondomedia, our German publisher, could see the video below. Created in a rush in under a day, the movie was only supposed to run in the background of a distributor's private booth in the business area at GamesCom. We have not intended originally for it to be exposed to public scrutiny, we thought that the movie was too unpolished, but eventually we changed our mind after some people commented on this movie quite positively. What do you think?

The New Volvo FH Series news

We know that we haven't been sharing much news recently about a highly-demanded that truck we have under development (see the results of our survey) - the new Volvo FH Series. The fan community is always bombarding us with requests and questions about it, so here is a little update...

We have the bulk of the work done on both exterior and interior at last. Still ahead of us is texturing, setting up dashboard controls animations, modeling of chassis for the various axle variants, and of course a set of tuning parts to be released along with the truck tractor. This still represents quite some man-weeks of work, but for sure the new Volvo FH is coming, and will be the star of one of upcoming game updates during the Autumn.

Let us show you a couple of Work In Progress shots of the interior model:

Hosted Blog Post - Impressions from the DLC

The following is a direct transcript of text written by a long-term fan and supporter of our games, currently helping us with beta testing of the Going East! add-on for ETS2:

SCS Software decided to invite only a few chosen people to start playing and testing their upcoming project – DLC for ETS2. I have a big pleasure to be among them. It is so important for me, because most of added terrain in the DLC is terrain of Poland – the country when I live.

If you are not from Poland, you must know that Polish roads are really specific. Most of main roads are tight, narrow and going through hundreds of towns and cities. What is more, the condition of them is rather bad. On the other hand, many of them are now under renovation or reconstruction.

The producers of DLC had such a difficult job to do. They had to show Polish road network as much worse than in the Western Europe, but on the other hand as one which is under intensive reconstruction. What is more, Polish fanbase had big expectations connected with Going East DLC. We all know that is impossible to build every bigger city (Poland has 16 voivodeships, 11 of them would be included in game, as cities with landmarks and cargos), add hundreds of towns, thousands of kilometeres of ratty roads.

I think that SCS had done such a good job. Much better than me and most of Polish fans were expecting. Many people were thinking that SCS would make roads in Poland as boring, straight, wide motorways, without any climate. They were mistaken. Admittedly, they haven't included furrows in Polish roads, but they made them as they should look: tight, narrow, and full of roadcrosses. You can do deliveries in only 11 of 16 capitals of voivodeships, but on the other hand you are allowed to go through few smaller cities and towns. The map is also full of landmarks and beautiful places. I was shocked when I saw the characteristic railway bridge near Lublin – city where I come from. I don't want to leak everything about map, so I will just add, that you must explore Masurian Lakeland.

Don't be surprised when comfortable, wide motorway suddenly ends, and you will be forced to leave it and continue your journey going through switchback road.

The map is now under the beta tests. As one of testers, I must tell that it has less bugs than I expected. I hope that we will not find too many bugs and it would be released by local publishers as expected – in September 2013. The map is little bit unequal. It has its better and worse parts. I hope that we, as beta testers, will help SCS to equalize and polish it.

Piotrek

What kind of music do you think fits best for a Trucking Game?

Today we have another poll for you. What kind of music do you think is the best fit for a Trucking Game?

Below the poll we have collected a set of very prominent genre samples. If you think your favorite music is missing, use poll-field 'Other' and let us know about it!

We may be able to use your suggestion when choosing or composing music tracks to go along with our future games.

The poll will be active for 2 weeks from now. So, let the voting begin!


Pop Rock'80 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jK-NcRmVcw

Pop Rock '00 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MwjX4dG72s

Hard rock - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEPmA3USJdI

Electronic - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tIgN7eICn4

Dubstep - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cXDgFwE13g

Chillout - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PjmSfcTuJc

Hiphop - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UjsXo9l6I8

Reggae - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gODh1nsHlPg

Drum n Bass - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8MWKsheHxk

Metal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnKhsTXoKCI

Country - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TD_pSeNelU

Jazz - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqwmDNPegnM

Blues - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fk2prKnYnI

Swing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn11s7YBoTA

Classical - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo1KHr-b-CA
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Going East!

After a long development time, finally the first Euro Truck Simulator 2 add-on is undergoing final beta testing. Some online stores have already revealed the final name of the upcoming add-on, but this is the first time we are officially announcing it here - the first DLC's name will be:

Euro Truck Simulator 2 - Going East!

We think that the new part of Europe built for this add-on looks even better then anything we have created before. You can take a look at a few countryside places from Poland, on routes between Lublin, Łódź, Warszawa and Ostrava. We'll be taking a lot more screenshots during testing now to keep you entertained.