American Truck Simulator has gone a bit meta by closing a California highway in the game after a landslide at its counterpart in the real world shuttered the road to traffic as reported by Eurogamer.
According to CNN, a landslide comprised of 13 acres of rocks, dirt, and other debris has shifted to cover California's Highway 1 (otherwise known as the Pacific Coast Highway) at the beginning of June 2017. At the time of writing, the section of highway is still closed due to the Big Sur landslide according to a California government website that lists adverse conditions on the state's highways:
[IN THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIA AREA] IS CLOSED FROM 4.6 MI NORTH OF RAGGED POINT TO GORDA (MONTEREY CO) - DUE TO MUDSLIDE REMOVAL - MOTORISTS ARE ADVISED TO USE AN ALTERNATE ROUTE - MOTORISTS CAN ACCESS SR 1 FROM GORDA TO PFEIFFER CANYON BRIDGE /IN BIG SUR/ BY USING NACIMIENTO-FERGUSON RD
The official American Truck Simulator website detailed the update on July 19, explaining that the fate of the in-game road is tied to the fate of the real world equivalent (at least for this particular case. The game's version of Highway 1 will not reopen until the actual road it's based on has been fixed. Given the general pace of road construction these days (along with over 1 million tons of material sliding onto a highway), it may be some time before things are opened back up again. Fortunately, alternate routes exist in the game's scaled-down map so players aren't completely out of luck for traveling through the area.
The United States Geological Survey showed just how bad things are in a tweet:
https://twitter.com/USGSCoastChange/status/870344899719118849?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2…
Reception to the change has been mixed, although the most upvoted comments are a mix of positive messages alongside a flurry of questions asking about the game's 1.28 beta status. If you don't yet own American Truck Simulator, you can get it for $19.99 or your regional equivalent on Steam or direct from the developers on the game's official website.
What do you think of a game changing to adapt to real-world situations? Do you think more games should do events like this, or could it become a hindrance to players? Let us know in the comments below!
