American Truck Sim's New Mexico DLC has hit the road

Do you know the way to Santa Fe? I do. I drove there this morning. Albuquerque too (I only just learned how to spell 'Albuquerque', so expect me to write it a lot), plus Roswell, Farmington, Socorro, and indeed the whole state of New Mexico, which has now made its much-awaited debut in American Truck Simulator.

I wrote in my American Truck Simulator: New Mexico review-o-feature yesterday that the New Mexico DLC - the game's first paid add-on state- has a surprisingly different vibe to the existent recreations of California, Arizona and Nevada. There is a great deal of beauty in the landscapes, but the settlements are a little bleaker, especially architecturally, and this creates a sense less of escapism and more of making do. It feels like a more authentic vision of modern America, outside of its biggest cities, somehow, though I can't speak to whether it really is not.

As such, I definitely consider it an essential - it transforms my all-time favourite road trip game from a sightseeing affair into far more of game of long journeys across changing landscapes, and makes it now feel like a country (even if it remains just one corner of it) rather than a zone. Anyway, I say a whole lot more about that here.

Anyway! The news is that New Mexico is out right now, available via Steam. It's £8.99/$11.99, and on top of all that atmospheric, hypnotic stuff I keep jaffing on about, it includes these things:

• Over 4,000 miles of new in-game roads
• 14 major cities, including Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Roswell
• 11 custom rest/truck stops for parking and refueling
• More than 600 completely new 3D graphics assets
• Complex and realistic custom-built junctions and Interstate interchanges
• 8 new company docks and industries
• Unique landmarks both natural and man-made
• New Mexico achievements to unlock

And here's my usual plea: I know this sounds like the most boring games in the history of boring games, but it is not what it appears to be. Yes, there is truck simulation, and things to repair, and hotkeys for arcane brake locking functions and roads and roads and roads and roads recreated with worrying accuracy. It is that game for the people who want it to be that game. But it is also this game: night-driving with the radio on, amazing scenery in your peripheral vision, servant to no-one, at one with the road and the song and rumble of the engine. It makes me feel better about life on days when little else can.