Waiting for and researching new map expansions for American Truck Simulator and Euro American Truck Simulator 2 has long been a bit of a chore for fans of the game. A new expansion comes out and a bunch of players spend a small amount of money and return to the game for a few weeks to explore what SCS Software has prepared for fans of big trucks and long-distance travel this time. Well, it's time to explore American Truck Simulator - Arkansas.
| Game | American Truck Simulator – Arkansas |
| Genre | simulator |
| Platforms | Windows |
| Languages | English, Ukrainian |
| Developer | SCS Software |
| Publisher | SCS Software |
| Link | Steam |
Arkansas
Arkansas is neither the largest nor the smallest state in the United States; it is average in almost all respects - 29th in area, 34th in population, except for being one of the poorest states. Only Louisiana, West Virginia, and Mississippi are worse off than Arkansas. Arkansas is one of those states that are constantly forgotten, but it is an important state for American Truck Simulator because the eastern border of Arkansas runs along the Mississippi River. Across the river is the Eastern United States, the old America, which means that we have already covered half of the coast-to-coast journey. As of now, ATS covers 17 of the 48 contiguous states, or 59% of the US territory.
I have been to the United States three times, all three times on the West Coast, in California and Washington, D.C. (the state, not the city). During these trips, I thought that it would be nice to cross America by car, from coast to coast, as we have seen many times in movies. But I don't drive, I didn't find a good company, and in general, business trips didn't leave much time for travel. And now the Russians have taken away our right to travel, so ATS, ETS2 and MSFS are my travels now, and American Truck Simulator - Arkansas is not a bad place to get away from everyday problems for a while.
American Truck Simulator - Arkansas contains 10 new large cities and 10 smaller settlements, such as the picturesque Magnolia, the majestic Emmitt Sanders Lock and Dam, the Nuclear One nuclear power plant, new viewpoints, architectural attractions, cotton plantations, and more.
Every DLC for ATS and ETS2 makes me go to Wikipedia and Google Maps and find something interesting. In the case of Arkansas, it's the city of Texarkana, half of which is in Texas and half in Arkansas. The border runs right along the axis of the city's courthouse and post office, so technically they are two different cities with their own governing bodies and jurisdictions. Also in this supplement I saw for the first time cell towers disguised as tall trees (several times taller than usual), and it turned out that this is a fairly common practice in the United States. Maybe it's to prevent the Hillbillies from destroying the towers with extremely harmful 5G?
Mack Pinnacle
Another very nice addition to American Truck Simulator, which was released on the eve of the map expansion, is the new heavy truck - Mack Pinnacle. To be honest, it is now my favorite truck. It has a stunning look in the spirit of classic 70s trucks and a very pleasant sound. I studied the entire new map exclusively on the Mack Pinnacle, changing only the livery and configuration.
In addition, the same patch added the Mack Black Anthem, a limited edition version of the Mack Anthem with an updated interior and exterior.
American Truck Simulator: 1.51
Of course, the next major update before the release of American Truck Simulator - Arkansas was not without its share of challenges.
The most noticeable feature of the update is the completely redesigned main menu of the game. As in the case of the internal menu, which was updated last time, some players will definitely grumble about the innovations, but I liked them, the menu looks stylish and modern.
In patch 1.50, ahead of the release of American Truck Simulator - Nebraska, the game introduced additional dynamic loading options for its own grain trailers, added similar depots in Arkansas, and added dynamic loading of wood chips in the new state.
It also updated the I-44 highway in Oklahoma, vegetation in Texas, added FlowBelow Tractor AeroKits for different trucks, improved shading in the cab, improved controller customization, added some automation, menu search, background selection, and more. It's a good patch.
What's next
SCS Software is working on two add-ons for American Truck Simulator - Missouri and Iowa - and has confidently set a schedule of two major map expansions per year. At this rate, it will take the studio another 11 years to cover the entire territory of the United States (ATS was released in 2016), but players expect that small Eastern states will be merged into 2-3 DLCs. But it is very interesting what the developers have planned for Alaska and Hawaii.
The game engine has already been updated, and we are waiting for the implementation of modern effects, support, ray tracing, DLSS and FSR, etc. Although, as I said earlier, with the rebranding scaling up to 200-300%, the game already looks much better than it did a few years ago, especially in new regions.
But next we will get an update for Euro Truck Simulator 2. Greece is on the way.