I just opened the mobile app store and wanted to find some relaxing games to play. My goodness, I glanced at all the "masterpieces" of 5G+ and 10G+. My old 16G mobile phone doesn't even dare to download, for fear of being stuck. Think back to the Famicom era, when Contra was only 256KB, and you could clear it several times in an afternoon. What a pure joy. Now, you spend hundreds of dollars to buy a masterpiece, and you want to delete it after playing for half an hour. 😅
But the "Truck Life" I'm going to talk about today surprised me a bit. Since it's all called “Old driver, please take care of me”, we must talk about driving. At first glance, the graphics of this game are not as stunning as those of today's big productions, but after opening it, I was stunned and kept playing it for two hours without stopping. It is not the kind of routine game that lets you complete tasks, draw cards, and rank in the rankings. It just lets you drive a truck, transport goods on an open map, and then... look at the scenery.
Don't tell me, the weather system in this game is quite careless. Halfway through the drive, it suddenly started to rain. The wipers swept back and forth, and the leaves of the trees on the roadside were blown wildly by the wind. At that time, I was driving from the city to the mountains, with clouds and mist in the distance. Suddenly, I remembered the days when I was playing "18-Wheeler Truck" and spent half an hour in front of the 14-inch picture tube TV, trying to adjust the angle of the rearview mirror. At that time, there was no light, shadow, or dynamic weather. The pixels were all over the place, but it was still fun to drive. 😌
Many mobile games now have large maps, but they are all automatic pathfinding and cutscenes, and you don't even need to touch the steering wheel. This game does retain the immersion of manual driving. Although the mobile phone screen is small, there is force feedback on the steering wheel, accelerator and brake, and even the gear shift button is made into a spherical gear lever like an old truck. The modification system is also quite interesting. From the headlights to the exhaust pipes, from the wheels to the paint, it took me, an appearance person, to mess around all night. To me, this is like playing the "Initial D" arcade machine in the arcade back then. You could enjoy ten minutes by inserting a coin for two yuan, but now you spend dozens of yuan to buy a monthly card, but it feels boring.
In fact, I really miss that era. The games were small in size but pure in content. Today's manufacturers are eager to cram all functions into one App, including social networking, PVP, and guild battles, making it feel like clocking in at work. But the game "Truck Life" really dares to be a "stand-alone simulation". It does not force the Internet to connect, and does not pop up the recharge window. Just drive and deliver the goods. Do you think it makes money? It's free to download, and the mall sells skins and coatings. I looked at them for a long time at that time, and the most expensive one was only 18 yuan. Compared with the current 648 card draw, it's like giving it away for free. 😝
So, if you are overwhelmed by the fast pace of life, you might as well give this game a try. Find an evening, put on your headphones, choose an old song, drive your truck, and watch the sunset along the mountain road. It felt like going back to the time more than 20 years ago, when I was watching that small screen and giggling simply because of "successful reversing into the warehouse". It's not a bad thing that games are getting bigger, but it's a shame that they're getting less and less fun. After all, isn't the original intention of playing games just to have fun? 🚛🌇