Loads of big American cities have been recreated to varying degrees of faithfulness in video games over the years, but the vast stretches of rural emptiness and small towns that fill the vast majority of the geographical US rarely get their due in gaming. That's why I was so excited to learn that, after eight years of hoping and waiting, my hometown of Cape Girardeau, Missouri was going to appear in American Truck Simulator - the one game out there that against all odds actually gets rural America right.
Earlier this month, developer SCS Software revealed a few screenshots of their digital recreation of Cape Girardeau, and they're beyond perfect. They've recreated the brick streets through the downtown area, and the old city hall building that overlooks it. They've got the mural that stretches across the floodwall at the edge of the Mississippi River, and a near-exact recreation of the parking lot that sits next to it. They've even got the beautiful old B'nai Israel Synagogue that stands in the shadow of the St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church next door.
