FIA European Truck Racing Championship

It really pains me not to recommend this game, particularly because it's amazing that we actually have a fully licenced game for the ETRC. Truck racing is really exciting to watch in real life, and definitely a part of motorsport that does not get enough attention. I will give the game credit that it includes a really interesting variety of tracks, including those that are not regularly seen in many other racing games, and this brings a nice change and honestly is one of the things that made me stick with the career. The game also has unique physics, and it does feel like you're driving something much weightier and more difficult to drive than a normal car. However, the game has a number of limitations that make me not recommend this. I think the career mode is fairly poorly structured. The first full season in both the ETRC and the World Series give you such a limited choice of teams, and therefore most players will not get to experience the breadth of vehicles in the game. The upgrade and credits system is also locked behind completing an initial season, which just feels like you're not getting to experience really core features. It also defaults to 100% race distance and four races per weekend, which is quite a heavy default setting but thankfully can be changed in the settings. Other issues include the relatively poor wheel support. Whilst you can get a wheel working, it's very unlikely that you'll have proper force feedback, and the feel of the truck is so important to driving well and maintaining control. I'd recommend a controller if you do play the game. The AI is also a massive negative for the game. Very often they will just randomly get stuck or stop in the track. They will completely ignore your existence and ram you off the road whilst also not being subject to water limits and penalties like the player. The limited grid size of 12 also takes away from the experience, particularly in the world series where the tracks can be quite long. Overall, whilst I love that they made a game for the ETRC, it's just so hard to recommend this as the career is a slog (not hard, just long) and doesn't feel very rewarding. The core is absolutely there, so in some ways I hope the developers come back and make an updated game for a future season, learning from the experiences of this game.