Hairpin Truck

Hairpin Truck is a free 3D truck driving game in the browser. The first job starts on the road with the boxes already on board: you follow the arrows down a valley road and stop in a green box at the customer. From the third job you choose how to finish, the way a real driver does. Park in the box and press Deliver here, or shift into reverse and back the trailer onto the dock for 30 per cent more pay. The camera is yours: drag the road with the mouse or a finger to swing it round the rig, turn it to look back over the trailer when you reverse, and the bay light turns green once you ease onto the bumpers and hold still.

Twenty-four jobs run through six places. Valley Depot starts with boxes on quiet farm roads and docks that go from straight to 45 and 90 degrees between parked trailers. Timber Hills puts logs on a gravel logging road that leans, and Switchbacks climbs three hairpins where the trailer cuts inside unless you swing wide. Hairpin Pass is one lane on a cliff with trucks coming the other way. Lakeside brings tankers, Old Town brings oversize loads through narrow streets, and the Harbour is worked at night.

The cargo is what changes the driving. Glass has a Jolt meter: hard braking, sharp steering and speed bumps crack the panes, so you brake early and roll over the bumps slowly. Logs shift when you hurry on a side slope, and too much lean drops them or rolls the rig. A half-full tank keeps moving after you stop, and the Slosh meter shows the wave running down it and shoving the truck; brake in a bend and it throws you sideways. A bridge girder and a 23-metre turbine blade ride on a steering trailer whose rear axle follows the cab by itself. Z and X, or the REAR arrows, swing the tail by hand, and a pilot car leads the way.

The mountain pass is a road you have to manage. It is a single lane, so when a truck comes down you pull into a turnout and let it by. On the long way down the brakes heat up and start to fade. The engine brake has three stages and holds your speed without using them, and if the brakes do give out there is a sand runaway ramp to steer into. The Harbour jobs happen under sodium lamps and your own headlights, along quays that end in open water, and the last run takes a load of glass down the hairpins at night.

Every delivery pays the job fee times how much of the cargo arrived intact, plus a quarter more if you made it on time and 30 per cent more if you backed onto the dock. Stars count three things: delivered, cargo at 95 per cent or better, and on time. Pay buys upgrades in the garage on the job board. Air suspension softens bumps, load chains hold logs through harder turns, the engine brake gets stronger downhill and tank baffles calm the slosh. Each one opens when the jobs that need it begin, and five cab paints are there for the look.

C cycles three cameras: a low chase camera just behind the trailer, the cab, with the dashboard, wheel and mirrors in front of you, and a high view from above. Drag anywhere on the road to turn the camera round the truck or look around the cab, scroll or pinch to zoom, and double-tap to recentre; the view stays where you leave it, even in reverse. The truck has an automatic gearbox, and you can switch to manual in the settings. If you get stuck, R or the Tow button puts you back on the road for a 15 second penalty, and on the first two jobs a tow comes by itself. Hairpin Truck runs on phones, tablets and computers with no download and no account, and your jobs, stars, pay and upgrades stay on your own device.