A unique part of Washington that drivers can experience are its renowned logging cliff roads. These dirt roads will certainly test the skill of any driver, as you haul heavy logging equipment, machinery and tree logs up and down these dirt roads.
We have previously shown off these challenging roads in a recent blog post, and we are eager to show you more of these beautiful but dangerous roads. Take a peek of what challenges lie ahead in this gameplay video from our upcoming map expansion.
And if you enjoyed that glimpse into Washington, we are hosting a special Washington stream today (on both our Twitch and Steam) featuring more gameplay of the new map expansion and special guests who were involved in the making of Washington. So make sure to tune in from 4pm UTC today!
We're happy to announce that after spending some time in internal testing, Experimental Beta and Public Beta, the Euro Truck Simulator 2 Update 1.35 is now ready for all trucking enthusiasts!
As we have said before, this update is really huge so we'd like to thank all those who helped us in testing it. Due to its size, we won't describe all the details here again (read the Public Beta article please).
Instead, we'd like to address some questions regarding a new feature that was added only a few days ago; GPS voice navigation. As with many other features, please do consider this to be the initial phase. For now, you can choose from 9 different language options (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Turkish and Mandarin Chinese), but we do plan to add more in the future, in addition to other improvements. The beta feedback we've received so far has been really positive, but don't be shy about adding your own on our forum. Your opinion is important to us!
And for those who like short recap videos, here's ours for this content-packed update!
To enjoy the 1.35 update, make sure to OPT OUT of beta branches and your game will be automatically updated on Steam.
For the legacy non-Steam edition of ETS2, the update should be ready in a few days.
Some mods, however, may have not caught up yet - this update may effectively break them. So remember that you can always stay on 1.34 or an even older branch. The way to access and select them is: Steam client → LIBRARY → right click on Euro Truck Simulator 2 → Properties → Betas tab → select the version you want.
Also, check our modding wiki to get details pertaining to mods for the game.
We have loved sharing with you our progress on Washington, and with the final touches being made to the map, we are now ready to confirm a date...
We are excited to announce that the Washington map expansion for American Truck Simulator will be released on the 11th of June, 2019.
We hope that this short trailer will give you a small glimpse on what you will be able to experience for yourself very soon.
And as you can see for yourself, Washington will be rich in content for drivers to explore...
3800 miles of dense road network
16 brand new cities (Vancouver, Longview, Aberdeen, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, Port Angeles, Bellingham, Omak, Wenatchee, Yakima, Kennewick, Grand Coulee, Spokane, Colville)
More than 20 landmark bridges
10 original truckstops
Keystone-Port Townsend Ferry
Everett swing bridge
Grand Coulee Dam
Washington's iconic mountains (Mount St. Helens and Mt. Rainier)
Challenging logging cliff road
Dynamic speed limits and LED signs
Large and realistic ports (Seattle, Tacoma, Everett)
Many unique junctions
Distinct company docks for new cargoes: yacht builders, vast farms, material storages...
Washington-specific achievements to unlock
With the upcoming release of this map expansion, you will see news, reviews, images, and videos appearing online this coming weekend. With a plan to lift the embargo, the media as well as trusted friends of SCS Software will be able to openly start showing their footage from the map.
Additionally, on Thursday the 6th and Saturday the 8th of June we will be hosting a special Washington stream (on both our Twitch and Steam) featuring gameplay of the new map expansion and special guests who were involved in the making of Washington. They will be guiding you through this new state, hosting giveaways, talking with you in the chats and much more, so make sure to tune in from 4pm UTC on Thursday and 5pm UTC on Saturday!
On this day in 1942, the construction of the Grand Coulee Dam was completed, after 9 years of construction.
Currently, it holds the title of not only the largest dam in the Columbia River Basin but one of the largest in the world. Located west of Spokane, it provides a whopping 2,300 megawatts of hydroelectric power across the state, which is enough power to continuously supply the needs of two cities the size of Seattle!
Taller than the Great Pyramids of Giza, at over 550ft tall from its bedrock base and spanning over a mile long, this impressive landmark has been recreated in spectacular detail using unique assets in our upcoming American Truck Simulator map expansion.
Amongst one of the new Special Transport routes which you will find in Washington, you will be able to deliver unique and heavy loads to a nearby town, which will offer dam good views of this man-made wonder.
Seattle is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Northwest region of the USA. Becoming the fastest-growing major U.S. city in 2016 with over 3.5 million residents, it is home to some of America's largest businesses.
With its iconic skyline, famous landmarks and sport stadiums, drivers in our upcoming map expansion will have plenty of scenery to admire, as they travel on the cities' winding highways with its unique interstate junctions. Can you name any of these famous buildings?
Creating a mega-city like Seattle is no easy task for our map team; it required careful planning and decision-making to fit the scale and limitations of our map. Despite the challenges of ensuring both quality and optimization for our players, we believe we have managed to create a realistic depiction of Seattle and its landmarks.
As you admire the views from your cab, make sure to stay alert for changing speed limits on your drive past Seattle. New technology on variable message-signs will keep you informed of speed restrictions throughout your travels in this busy city.
We are sure you will find no shortage of jobs from Seattle, being the shipping gateway to Asia through its many seaports and large airports; truck drivers are always in high demand to distribute and deliver freight across the West Coast and onwards.
We are sure you will love traveling to and from the city of Seattle. With its hundreds of coffee shops, it's bound to be a truckers' paradise.
At the start of this month, we began our On The Road season by attending the legendary Truckfest Peterborough in the UK. This year's show saw a record number of trucks in attendance (over 3,000+ !), in which we had a lot of fun checking out all the different variations on show, talking to trucking vloggers and best of all, meeting all of you from our community!
We didn't want to forget such a great event, so our talented SCS Film Crew has put together a short after-movie which wraps up the event quite nicely. Can you spot yourself?
But this wasn't the only event that we have visited so far. Along with our participation in this year's Open House Praha, we also attended Legendy 2019 on the weekend of May 18th which saw many of you from our home region, meet our team and have a try of our motion simulators.
This past weekend, we also had the privilege of being present at the Scania Driver Competition finals held in Södertälje, Sweden. We also teamed up with Grammer at their stand for Round 1 of the ETRC Season in Misano, Italy. At both of these events, we had the privilege of meeting with representatives from well-known companies and putting our mark in the trucking industry.
These events are a great way for us to connect with you, our community members, and we love meeting those who run different projects, create modifications or even beta test our games. They also present the unique opportunity to introduce ourselves to new companies in person, as well as strengthening our relationships with other leading truck industry partners too. As you can tell by these past events alone, we have had a large selection of companies to talk with!
With many more stops ahead on our On The Road calendar, we can't wait to meet more of you from our community. We hope to see you soon!
Since you already know what our next map expansion will be, it's time to take a closer look at the countries found on the Road to the Black Sea. This time, Romania.
Romania is a large (238,397 square kilometres) and wonderful country with a unique spirit and cultural tradition. A reason for this lies in the fact that the country is at the crossroad of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. Many different influences met in Romania during its rich history, and marks of these can be seen even today - for example in the number of architectural landmarks.
From a driver's point of view, you'll find everything you might desire - high mountains, deep forests, rivers, coastal roads and more! For now, here's a fresh batch of heavily work-in-progress screenshots, but you may look forward to more blog posts about the country's specifics - there's a lot to write about. One example would be the infamous castle which many of you might be interested to see...
A considerable part of the western side of Washington has multiple bodies of water flowing around it; with the city of Seattle being surrounded by Lake Washington and Elliot Bay. Looking at a map of the state, this may seem like a logistical nightmare for any driver. To connect towns, cities, and islands, the state has built an impressive amount of Bridges.
With approximately 7,300 bridges, they form a critical transportation link for residents and industries. In our upcoming map expansion for American Truck Simulator, you will be able to drive on over 20 of these unique and landmark bridges; which have been re-created in impressive detail with unique assets and mechanics. One such example of this is the steamboat slough swing bridge located in Everett, which was built in 1954.
From floating bridges, fantastic views over state parks, you can truss us that there will be lots to explore in Washington.
You may have noticed that we have recently added a new paint-job scheme into Euro Truck Simulator 2. The Pure Excellence paint-job for the DAF XF Euro 6 truck and trailer is now available in both versions of Euro Truck Simulator 2 (1.34 and the 1.35 Open Beta) as free additional content for every owner of the base game.
Here is why! We have been discussing an idea to do a cross-promotional campaign with DAF for a while, and finally, we are ready. We are excited to start a new screenshot competition in cooperation with the wonderful people at DAF trucks!
As a lucky coincidence for this week, we are also participating in the Steam Weekly Sale on a large selection of our content; we are throwing in a special DAF Bundle temporarily with an additional discount on the DAF tuning pack.
The competition starts today (20.5.2019) and will end on the 3rd of June 2019 at 23:59 UTC, with 5 lucky winners taking home some fantastic prizes. There will also be prizes given for Honorable Mentions. So how can you enter?
If you want to enter through Facebook, make sure to like the following pages: DAF and Euro Truck Simulator 2. Post your screenshot under the announcement post on both these pages with the hashtag #IDriveDAF
Multiple entries are permitted, but each must contain a unique screenshot (on Facebook, you need to post each entry to both the ETS2 and DAF pages). Posting the same screenshot multiple times on Twitter/Instagram will disqualify you from the contest. Cross-posting is allowed.
Mods are allowed - as long as they are of DAF content or generic branding.
Editing/post-processing of the photo entry is not allowed.
What makes this competition unique, is that all 5 winners will receive prizes from e-shops of both DAF Trucks and SCS Software. Take a look at what prizes you could win!
Additionally, on Tuesday the 21st of May, at 15:00 UTC we will be hosting another live stream (on both Twitch and Steam) with Alex (LondonLad), Carthoo and Nemiro live from the SCS Studio! They will be driving DAF trucks, hosting giveaways, talking with you in the chats and much more, so make sure to tune in!
TL:DR - over the next two weeks, you can look forward to seeing interesting videos and information on DAF Trucks, multiple giveaways, and of course your fantastic photos plus a chance to win some great prizes! #IDriveDAF
