{"id":1617,"date":"2017-05-22T17:45:05","date_gmt":"2017-05-22T16:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/?p=1617"},"modified":"2017-05-22T15:05:59","modified_gmt":"2017-05-22T14:05:59","slug":"euro-truck-simulator-2-sleep-deprived-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidhing.com\/chaotic-tortoise\/2017\/05\/euro-truck-simulator-2-sleep-deprived-life\/","title":{"rendered":"How Euro Truck Simulator 2 became a mirror into my sleep deprived life"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve not slept for thirty hours and I\u2019m driving a truck from Aberdeen to Rotterdam.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m partly past the point I could actually get to sleep anyway, but most of it is that I have a tiny baby on my lap that is getting some much needed rest. I was told they always sleep, but I wasn\u2019t told they always sleep on you.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Euro

Wait a minute…I can’t see my hands! AAAAAAAHHHHHhhh<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019m not allowed to go to sleep. If I go to sleep whilst looking after this tiny goblin wrapped in a fluffy blanket, then I don\u2019t want to think about the end of that sentence. Netflix has been the answer so far, but I\u2019ve just finished House of Cards and I\u2019m in that between-shows limbo so I have turned to my old friend video games to bail me out.<\/span><\/p>\n

That means I\u2019m now driving a virtual truck from virtual Aberdeen to virtual Oslo in Euro Truck Simulator 2.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In order to stave off sleep, I\u2019ve opted for something that requires a modicum of concentration, but not a massive amount of intense brain thought. <\/span><\/p>\n

I wrote a little bit about some games you can play when you\u2019re looking after a newborn on Chaotic Parenting<\/a> and the gist is either go for something that can be picked up in five minute bursts, or something that doesn\u2019t need too much from your faculties to operate.<\/span><\/p>\n

Euro Truck Simulator 2 seems to be perfect. There\u2019s an odd serenity driving a massive lorry through the uncanny valley of England, stopping at these diminutive representations of cities I know fully well include much more than a timber merchant, a lorry dealership, a garage and a job centre specialising in truck drivers.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is something I would like to play in VR. This is something I would like to play over a long weekend with a bottle of whiskey and two days of podcasts to binge on. This is something\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve crashed. Into a lamppost. To be fair, the lamppost came out of nowhere – here I was minding my own business texting, looking away from the road and<\/span><\/p>\n

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is anti-texting propaganda<\/b><\/h2>\n

The speed at which I immobilise my truck after taking my eyes off the road to text is bizarre. My sleep addled brain wondered at the time if there was some kind of fancy eye-tracking technology baked into the game that could tell through my webcam whether I\u2019m paying attention to the road or not – I discounted this theory because I didn\u2019t have a webcam plugged in, not because it\u2019s insane.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"I've

I’ve got this. I can take my eyes off the road to admire the view withou<\/p><\/div>\n

I think everyone has had that moment in a car where they have a near miss because they were fiddling with the radio, trying to fix the air-con or having a fight with the satnav, but this gave me the same sense of lurching horror without the genuine danger.<\/span><\/p>\n

At this point I decide that Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a fair simulation of driving a Euro Truck.<\/span><\/p>\n

Euro Truck Simulator 2 is a sleep management sim<\/b><\/h2>\n

My crash has set me back. I\u2019ve still got seven hours left on the clock to make the delivery so it should be absolutely fine – if I drive absolutely perfectly I should make it in five, I just need to avoid texting or having any more distractions.<\/span><\/p>\n

I cast my eyes suspiciously towards the baby for a moment. I decide that if she stays asleep, I\u2019ll be fine – because I have now forgotten that it\u2019s possible to pause this game.<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve not slept for thirty hours and I\u2019m driving a truck from Aberdeen to Rotterdam – but Euro Truck Simulator 2 now decides this is a problem. I\u2019m about to fall asleep.<\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s a surreal moment where I think I\u2019m having a hallucination as the game is telling me something that I know is very likely to happen at any moment. I know my body, and I know that when I get to a certain point I don\u2019t have a choice about going to sleep any more.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, what the game is trying to tell me is that my virtual truck driving self needs to sleep because he has been awake in game for as long as I have out of game. Apparently, truck drivers get to just pull over and go to sleep when they absolutely have to. I bet they don\u2019t have to worry about babies on their laps.<\/span><\/p>\n

This fills me with such absolute stress. I\u2019m now clearly unable to manage my sleep in both worlds and I feel like this is completely out of my hands.<\/span><\/p>\n

I would like to be able to tell you how great Euro Truck Simulator 2 is<\/b><\/h2>\n

I can\u2019t really attest to the long term playability of Euro Truck Simulator 2, nor the endgame or latter stages of the business sim aspect of it. <\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell you that hiring a few additional drivers to work for you is pretty fun, but I don\u2019t know how it develops. <\/span><\/p>\n

I can tell you it\u2019s nice to buy your own truck, but I can\u2019t tell you how it feels to upgrade it and customise it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Euro

This is a cool truck. I never got anywhere near owning something like this.<\/p><\/div>\n

I have been unable to go back to Euro Truck Simulator 2 now for a year and a half. This isn\u2019t the regular excuse of \u201cI\u2019m a parent and I have no time\u201d as I\u2019ve sunk a fair number of hours into Elite: Dangerous, which is basically this but in space. <\/span><\/p>\n

It is instead because I can\u2019t face going back to that world where I am unable to function on the tiny amount of sleep that I have had, and fighting to get as much done before that tiny amount of sleep catches up with me and renders me unconscious at the wheel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Somewhere, in virtual Rotterdam, there is a builder still waiting for his shipment of lumber and he is never going to get it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Is Euro Truck Simulator 2 worth a look?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019m not going to give Euro Truck Simulator 2 a review score – despite me putting this in the reviews category, this isn\u2019t a review – this is a rambling about not sleeping enough. <\/span><\/p>\n

I would say that I can recommend it for an unexpectedly peaceful and relaxing experience and you will definitely enjoy it more than you expect to. How much more, I don\u2019t know, but definitely more.<\/span><\/p>\n