Game Preview: My Summer Car

So you want to build your own car, from scratch, by yourself. Well in real life that could be quite an undertaking, however, even in this Finnish video game simulation it will take some effort.

In My Summer Car, on the surface, the aim is to build your project vehicle. You have a car-body shell, and a garage of parts to begin putting your ride together.

Beware though, this is a daunting task. To get a recognisable two-door car up and running will take a few hours of clicking away, selecting the correct part, ensuring the size of nuts and bolts is right, and positioning precisely with the correct sized tool.

Eventually you will have a running vehicle that you can tootle around the Finnish countryside in.

Weirdly, while you are building your dream machine, you will also need to maintain your own body. So, there are on-screen meters for Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue, Dirtiness, Urine and Money.

As time goes by, like in the real-world, you become hungry or thirsty. Working on your car causes you to become dirty.

The game world is highly interactive and everything can be manipulated. The phone will ring, you can sleep in your bed, you can get into the conveniently located Scandinavian sauna or shower. The kitchen in your virtual home is functional, and the game begins with a crate of beer (beer is very important in this game) and tray of sausages.

And while these items will relieve your thirst and hunger respectively, again, just like in real life, drinking too many beers will impede your ability to not only drive your new car, but even walk. There is even a control for “drunken speech”, which is hilarious in Finnish.

You also need to manage your bladder, which again can result in some hilarious or disgusting (depending on your point of view) moments.

If you don’t manage your bodily functions and requirements, you could die. If you have the permanent death option enabled, you can say goodbye to all your hard work on the car you had been building.

Cars and trucks are very detailed; each vehicle control works as expected, including the indicators, wind-up windows, a variety of audio systems, headlights, wipers and so forth.

Adjusting the fuel intake for example will alter the sound of the engine. You will learn to recognise the difference and performance changes as you fiddle with the various components. Getting in and giving the car a rev will realistically rock the fuzzy dice hanging from the rear-view mirror.

My Summer Car is an eccentric labour of love from developer Amistech Games and currently in the PC Steam store as an Early Access title.  This means it is quite far from its Version 1 release, but you can play the most current version and tinker around while you await the full title in the future.