Spintires

I enjoyed the demo of Spintires a lot, a long time ago - so I was excited when the full game was released. I was less excited to find myself, seemingly regardless of which map I tried, starting in a garage miles from anywhere and surrounded by dirt tracks so churned up that they might as well have been swamp. In the basic truck you get to start with, I simply could not make it out to civilization. This was on casual mode, so I just gave up. Failure wasn't the issue so much as the fact that I couldn't even get to stable enough ground to explore a bit. Getting stuck on the way to a logging camp or awkwardly trying to manoeuvre through forested hills is all part of the fun, but that oppressive (and seemingly impassable to my unskilled driving) mass of mud and dirt outside the starting garages? Not entertaining. Luckily, I found myself yesterday browsing mods for the game for some reason, and came across something that just might do the job.

This was the best side view I had - but also stands testament to the resilience of the truck, even when routinely bashed into trees. Yes, it is a toy Tonka Truck. Much more suited to my level of skill.

This one had no trouble dealing with the terrible 'roads' outside the starting garage.

Or rivers!

Things got a lot easier when I remembered how important the differential lock and powering all wheels can be.

Not too long after fording the river, I found a paved road which connected some logging camps, sawmills, and a garage. Why on earth this other garage, based on the paved road, wasn't the default starting point for the map I don't really understand. I mean, I'm sure it made it more of a prize when you delivered enough cargo to unlock it, but in terms of difficulty progression it might have been nice to be able to get a feel for handling your truck before asking you to cross miles of mud and a goddamn river to even get to the first lumber camp.

Fully loaded - technically these are logs in game terms, but obviously a dump truck carrying logs would be just plain silly.

Amazing - making it to my first objective.

I delivered one cargo and drove around some more as the light faded, which was pretty cool. When I went back to the game to take a screenshot of the starter truck for the header image, I chose yet another different map, and managed to find one where I could actually go somewhere! I even found a bigger, better truck and managed to load some lumber. Then I saw how far I had to go on the map to get to even the closest sawmill, took my screenshots and left.

Pretty.

Yeah, remember how I mentioned driving into a bunch of trees? Not good for the front of the truck.

There's quite a bit more to Spintires than just hauling cargo - you can winch vehicles, play coop, and there are lots of mods out there, offering a variety of trucks and jeeps, with a couple of military vehicles. But for me, I'm not sure I have the patience needed to fight my way through the muddy Russian countryside.

Attempting to mate with a tree.