My Summer Car is still the ruthless king of ennui simulators

destructoid.com:

Games like Gran Turismo and Forza and Assetto Corza are partially fantasy games at heart. They are built for you to be able to get off on cars and car culture and shiny paints and lifestyle that you are likely never going to have. My Summer Car is not like those games. This game is about realism. You don’t get off to this car because that’s sick.

That’s how developer Johannes Rojola described his design vision for My Summer Car in an April 2015 video on YouTube. He wasn’t talking about the driving model, as believable as it is. Neither was he describing the intricately designed systems that control your car’s performance. No, he was talking about the “shit music” playing on the radio and the fact that when you drink a beer while driving, your vision is obscured by the bottle in your face.

By his philosophy, “realism” isn’t in shiny sports cars that accelerate differently and slip on wet tarmac. No. Realism is trying to get the heap of junk to start in the first place.

My Summer Car is a lot of things and nothing at the same time. The title of the game refers to the Satsuma AMP, a rusty coupe that you find in pieces in your driveway. Part of the game involves putting it together, piece by painful piece, but that’s neither where it begins nor ends.

You’re some worthless youth in the middle of rural nowhere Finland. Your parents are off on vacation, leaving you to your own devices. Try not to burn the house down. I’m serious. That can happen.

It’s easily a 5-minute drive to the nearest (and only) town, and your only means of getting there is on a moped, in a tractor, or with a boat. When My Summer Car first appeared on Early Access, you had a van and a septic truck that you could drive, but now the van doesn’t turn up until