Hard Truck Simulator:

In Brief:
Hard Truck Simulator is a decent truck driving game; especially for free. you have a lot of configurability both via the options menu and once you're in the main game. There are 32 different truck models to choose from (none locked) ranging from Frisk, Forerunner, Intrepid, Kinetic, Metalhorse, Pacific, Stormrage, Volcano and whiplash models. Each truck has several paint jobs you can apply.

On starting the game, you can choose from campaign or a single delivery. Choosing single delivery allows you to choose any truck and paint job. In Campaign mode you have to earn the cash to buy and upgrade your trucks. You can also choose where to locate your base from over 40 different cities across the US and Canada.

There are three levels of difficulty Easy, Medium and Hard. The difference between the three is the starting cash, whether you can get a loan on starting and whether you have to orient your vehicle correctly on delivery.

Pick up various delivery items from various places then deliver them to their destinations. You can select from various items to deliver depending on which warehouse you visit. Once you've picked one or more items (pick up too many and you'll get an overloaded message), the destination log will fill with various destinations you can deliver to. Each one quotes the amount of cash you can earn. The further you have to travel to deliver the goods, the more cash you get paid. This can be spent on more advanced trucks.

I attempted a delivery from Charleston to Atlanta, but got totally lost in Charleston, taking left turns instead of right turns on a number of occasions. It took me over ten minutes to finally get on the freeway heading East towards Atlanta initially on Route 95 where it started to rain, and sunset was upon me. It was at this point I realized I'd not picked up my load to deliver to Atlanta; so, abandoned the game, to return later.

Still, the sudden onset of evening from what appeared to be a bright day initially would confirm that game time is not in real time (in answer to Cad's query). After we've eaten, I'll attempt to make the same delivery, or one of a similar length to see how long it would take. In the meantime, I finally managed to get some screen captures as well. I had to go to windowed mode to take them as in full screen neither of the screen capture applications worked.

Conclusion:
The graphic is basic, reminds me of driving games from about 20 years ago, but it plays well and if you don't own any of the latest truck driving games like European Truck and American Truck Driver games, it's absolutely fine. If you enjoy today's giveaway, I would definitely recommend both of the games mentioned. You can pick up the original version of European Truck Simulator quite cheap. Wait until the Christmas sales start later this month to grab a bargain on all three games or go for one of the more tongue-in-cheek truck sims like Big Mutha Truckers 2 (80% off at the moment costing £1.43). You can pick up Transporter Truck Simulator on Steam for £0.22/approx $0.30 at the moment (similar to today's game with respect to graphics), though, watch out for rock falls if you get that game. Extreme Truck simulator is better and at the moment is 90% off at £0.71. You can often pick up the excellent Mud Runner on sale (though not at the moment). I've seen it with 80% off regularly. Also Snow Runner which is a fairly recent release with gorgeous graphics. There's also a whole series of those Hard Truck: 18 Wheels of Steel games available on Steam (Haulin', Convoy, Across America, Hard Truck, Extreme Trucker, American Long Haul, Extreme Trucker 2 and Pedal to the Metal). all around £6.99 to £7.99 each HERE. There are at least several more dedicated truck-oriented games that you can find on Steam and elsewhere.

My advice, check it today's game. It has quite a lot of game play to offer, though I suspect once you've completed a few jobs things will become a little stale.