Go on, you know you wanted a really decent game to get your teeth into before it's time to return to the Office in 2016. And I think I've found it in Trucking 3D! Construction Delivery Simulator - it's freemium, but quite reasonably so, this coming from the Game Troopers stable. Moreover, the driving is intuitive, and the layouts and time limits genuinely challenging.
Get ready for a challenging parking sim adventure in different map locations, as you drive, park and deliver construction materials.
3D high-quality graphics
Test your parking skills in Alaska and Chicago, and many other realistic locations
42 levels to play, including 6 special missions
4 different trucks, 4 special vehicles
4 types of game-play
Many upgrades and exciting achievements to gain
All along the Trucking 3D adventure you will have to prove your truck driving skills in various conditions. Some of the levels will only require you deliver materials to the construction site, while others will add to your quest, by giving you the opportunity to cash in on some bonus time points. Other levels will have you follow a big truck ahead of you, to test your ability to follow directions exactly as told. Rewards and achievements will add to the fun of your missions, while upgrades from pick-up trucks to lorry trucks and even big trailers, American trucks will help you go from one level to another with great success.
Here's a brief walkthrough from me:
As a full Xbox title, you're signed in automatically to your gaming account - nice to see and there are achievements to earn.
Three scenery areas are shown, one of which is 'coming soon', with Game Troopers still working on it. Here's the first level, in the snowy streets of Alaska. Don't worry, everything's town-based, we're not talking hours of lonely driving over the Alaskan wilds and ice fields....!
You can view the action from any angle or camera position, thanks to everything being rendered in real time - go where you like and admire your truck from any aspect, etc.
The analogue steering wheel option is perfect and the throttle/reversing control ditto - master using the two in tandem and you'll be driving as intuitively as in a real vehicle. The gold arrow shows the direction of your next drop-off or pick-up, while a faint green 'column' highlights where you need to park (perfectly) in order to action the next stage of the mission.
In practice getting perfectly lined up in the parking zones is tricky and made harder by everything being against the clock - you only have so long to accomplish each mission, otherwise it's back to the start again...
As you drive, you use gas and at some point you'll almost certainly run out, which means time to use the freemium top ups of virtual cash or a direct purchase of more gas. Happily, the amounts required are reasonable and there are no exploitative freemium tiers here.
Drive well and you can earn cash and gas as you go, though most people will still need to dip into freemium regularly.
You also get extra time added on for good parking, so it pays to get this side of the game nailed.