American Truck Simulator was launched 12 hours earlier than its original February 3rd date. SCS Software decided to give fans an extra tasty treat to allow them to start traveling across the great American highways before schedule and a lot of gamers are loving it.

The official street date was supposed to be today, Wednesday, February 3rd, 2016. However, the developers broke their own street date and pulled the trigger early, writing on their blog…

“We were thinking of unleashing the game at midnight Prague time. However, going through all the release process late at night and staying on alert for a while after the game gets out to see if no hot-fixing is needed immediately takes some hours. The release crew would not get to bed before 4 am.

 

“So here is the plan: We will start the release process this evening already (CET time zone), and while we are not sure if we’ll need an hour or three to press all the buttons that must be pressed, we expect that the game will unlock a few hours before midnight already.”

It’s an interesting gamble they took, but it paid off quite well because a lot of eager fans were waiting and willing to get in on the action. They’ve already amassed more than 1,300 user reviews within just 24 hours of releasing, and 1,242 of them are positive.

The game is receiving a lot of positive feedback so far and the complaints are mostly kept to a minimum, but they’re also fairly reasonable. You can see what the game looks like in action with the American Truck Simulator trailer below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BUwN45ZeCY

Now circling back around to the user reviews… a brief look over the general user review consensus is that a lot of people love the game for taking much of what worked in Euro Truck Simulator 2 but advancing and progressing those features further yet. SCS Software has added in real life cabins for the trucks, as well as realistic road rules and police routines, and they have additional steering wheel support for a variety of racing wheels.

Air brake simulation, Jake brakes, trailer brakes and various transmission types are also present, giving gamers a full-on, simulated trucking experience. This includes hauling cargo using flatbeds, dumpers, goosenecks and lowboys.

So far the only serious negative reviews leveled at the game are for the limited truck availability – SCS only has a few licenses for real life American truck manufacturers but they plan on getting more – and that there isn’t enough roadway and and American locations to travel. Those issues are also going to be addressed in future updates assuming that American Truck Simulator sells well.

The game is available right now for only $19.99. If you’re a die-hard trucking sim fan or you like games where you get to taste a slice of life that you wouldn’t be fond of doing in real life, you can check American Truck Simulator out over on the Steam store. The game is also very mod friendly, so keep an eye out for custom user content.