Oh, I’ve been waiting for this. My Summer Car has been in Early Access since 2016, and I’ve eagerly awaited the chance to review it for real. It’s finally here, which means there’s no escape. It’s time to pull?? this bad boy apart.

But I want to be upfront: My Summer Car is wildly unconventional. It has an almost incomparable design philosophy, completely shirking the evolution of games that came before it. As a result, it’s clearly for a specific type of person, but I can’t tell you what that type of person is, nor can I tell with any certainty if you would fit in that category. At best, I hope I can get you curious enough to try it. At worst, you won’t get what I’m ta?lking about.

My Summer Car (PC)
Developer: Amistech
Publisher: Amistech
Released: January 8, 2025
MSRP: $14.99

My Summer Car transports you to rural Finland circa 1995. You’re dropped into the shoes of a young adult left unsupervised for the su??mmer. You’ve g??ot a moped, a front-end loader, and a car that has been busted down to its individual components. The obvious focus is getting that car put together, but the end goal? Ehhh.

There is technically a way to roll the credits without dying, but doing so relies on arcane knowledge. Personally, I’d say the end goal of My Summer Car is whatever you make of it. There are a lot of things that you can do, and some of them result in rewards.? There are also a lot of ways you can fuck up, and many of them result in death.

Yeah, death. Rural Finland is a dangerous place and My Summer Car loves to see you suffer. It prominently features a permadeath. This can be turned off, but that comes with ??its own inconveniences. Alternatively, if you’re savvy, you can create backups of your saves so you can resume later in case of catastrophe.

It’s down to preference as to whether you’ll accept permanent death. I always leave it on because it adds much weight to how you interact with the world. You will buckle your seatbelt and drive more safely if you know that slipping off the narrow roads can undo your progress. However, it’s a cruel game. If any of your mortal stats completely deplete (hunger and thirst, for instance), you can drop dead. There’s a chance you’ll be killed if you pick up the telephone during a thunderstorm (I looked it up, and apparently, that can happen in reality). I once died because I didn’t flip the master breaker before changin??g a fuse.

Oh, apparently, you can die if you piss on the TV. I don’t know why you’d try that. I guess if you felt the need to just hose down the living room so your parents know you now own the place. I’m not sure why someone would go to the effort of designing and programming that particular way to die, but that dem??onstrates the developer’s bizarre priorities. One of the new threats is that if you leave the door to your house open, a wasp can get inside. The player character is allergic to wasp stings.

Even if you have death turned off, My Summer Car has many ways to punish you. If you leave the stove on when you leave the house, there is a chance your house will burn down. That's it. No more house. Technically, you can still survive homeless, but I’m sure you can understand why this would be inconvenient. You can also be thrown in jail if you try to ev??ade police or murder someone (either accidentally or intentionally). Otherwise, there’s always the risk of getting in an accident and totaling your car. The worst part of that scenario is the long, long, very long walk of shame you have to perform back to your home.

Wrecking your car isn’t necessarily the end of your Finland adventure. You can drag it to the local mechanic, Fleetari, to repair. As far as I know, you can’t permanently destroy anything, but it’s hard to tell with this game. Fixes require money, however, and economics are difficult. There are a lot of odd jobs you can do, including chopping and delivering firewood, picking strawberries, sucking septic tanks, and selling hom??emade alcohol. However, they aren’t always available and some of them have roadblocks of their own, such as having to pay for the septic truck’s gas.

If My Summer Car has anything like what you’d describe as a gameplay ??loop, it would be work, get money, spend money on car maintenance. But that kind of breaks down when you realize that building the car is mainly for its own sake.

Johannes Rojola has the design sensibilities of a seagull full of cocaine. Efficiency is a foreign concept, and almost nothing added since the start of Early Access has been to th?e benefit of the player. My Summer Car is a nest of side activities, sub-plots (as if there’s a main plot), and cruelty. He goes into minute detail about some of the strangest things. This might be the most complicated simulation of a sauna that humanity will ever create. I’m not sure who else would think to allow you to piss on the stones.

The whole car construction thing is a real work of effort, though. Each piece is affected by physics, so you’re literally picking things up, moving them to where they need to go, snapping them together, then bolting them on. Like almost everything in this game, it’s temperamental. It’s not the most efficient or intuitive way to do this, either. It works, the depth of it is incredibly satisfying, and you would probably never see this in a bi??g-budget production.

One of the strangest quirks of its design is how much it allows you to clip through objects, and it’s stranger still that you’re practically required to do it to find all the bolts on the car. Many games go to great lengths to keep things corporeal and avoid letting the player phase through the geometry. My Summer Car just says, “fuck it,�and makes it a feature. If something important falls through the fl?oor, you can find it at the landfill.

But, as weird as the design can get, it’s all in the service of some steadfast commitment to realism. While a lot of death in the game can seem unfair, everything fatal is rooted in reality. Yeah, maybe you don’t expect to die just because you’re chopping wood while filled with more alcohol than a brewery, but common sense wo?uld tell you it’s a bad idea.

It’s also r??ealistic in the sense that rural life is boring. There’s nowhere to go, there’s nothing on TV, there’s nothing to do. Work is sometimes slow to come in, and much of it requires you to plan your day around it. It isn’t efficient to go and suck out one person’s septic tank; it’s better to wait until all your customers require the service and then do a circuit. You can fill the trailer full of firewood all you want, but the guy who buys it will only request it once a week. The dance pavilion is only active on one day of the week, repairs and orders take time to finish, and the drunk who needs a ride home only calls sporadically.

Also, make sure you pay your phone bill. I was wondering why no one was cal??ling with jobs, then realized that the phone company had cut me off.

If anything, the real challenge of My Summer Car is finding ways to fill your time. Frankly, part of my over 200 hours of playtime was spent idling in the game world while reading something at my desk. If you ask me, it’s boredom by design. It really lets ?you feel the ennui and makes the simple feeling of getting in the car with somewhere to go feel impactful. Every accomplishment is magnified. Weird, weird stuff.

If there’s one place I’m less enthusiastic about, it’s that absolutely nothing in My Summer Car is explained. In 2016, I figured out how to put a car together by rubbing stuff together and finding out how it fit. But that only gets you so far. It won’t help you tune the engine or tell you what to do when you blow a cylinder. There’s also nothing in the game that tells you that?? you shouldn’t piss on the TV or that you can cook sausages on the stove by placing them directly on the burner.

This means you must rely on outside information, such as the My Summer Car Wiki. In a way, this makes up for the fact that you can’t just converse with the folks around you to learn things. In reality, you might be able to bring up in conversation that you can only stay awake if you drink a cup of coffee every five minutes and be told that you have caffeine addiction. You might mention to the store clerk that you want to piss on the television, and they’ll say, “I wouldn’t do that, friend. That’s how my uncle died.�That’s kind of outside the boundaries?? of what’s feasible in game design.

Especially since everyone speaks Finnish in Finland. As you’d expect, a lot of this is subtitled, but not all of it. The stuff that is subtitled might be subtitled poorly. There are talk radio programs, and I can’t help but wish I knew what they were ?saying. It does lend to feeling like you’re living in a country that doesn’t speak your native language. Although, since your character is canonically Finnis??h, the exchange student excuse doesn’t make much sense. On the plus side, I now know how to swear in Finnish.

Though, really, if there’s one thing I absolutely hate, it’s the constant degradation of your Satsuma’s individual engine parts. I’m not just talking about the oil and brake fluid, but the alternator and pistons. You can’t just buy new replacement parts, only Fleetari, the mechanic in the area, can fix them. It’s expensive. You have to pull the entire engine out of your car and hand it to the mechanic; he won’t just do it himself at his, y’know, garage. It also takes a little while for him to finish. That would be bad enough, but they degrade so quickly.

It can feel like you’re driving a machine made of gossamer. Even if you don’t bump it around or drive it hard, it’s ?going to need to see the car doctor w??ay sooner than you’d want. You can drive the van instead, which doesn’t degrade or break down, but it feels weird playing a car-building game and having to take it to a different person to repair behind the scenes every couple of weeks.

There’s a popular supplement for the game, MSCedit, which lets you open your save file and modify it. Cheating, essentially. Well, cheating overtly. However, there’s a point at which the game’s obstacles start to get in the way ??of your enjo??yment, and for me, it’s having to worry about whether or not a piston is on the verge of blowing because I drove Grandma to church one too many times. It’s a step too far and probably should have stopped with replacing fan belts, spark plugs, and gaskets. I get that it's part of the game's intentional design �the Satsuma is supposed to be a piece of crap �but I hate it.

As I said, the endpoint of My Summer Car is extremely nebulous. I’m not sure how you’d really reach it without knowing the criteria in advance because it gets pretty specific. Yet, despite this, there are pretty lofty goals to achieve along the way. Getting your Satsuma certified as road-?worthy is one. Winning the rally or drag races would be another. Helping the drunk guy move into a new home is a big event. You only get there by simply existing and surviving in t??he harsh environments of Finland.

There are plenty of lackadaisical simulators out there that revel in their own awkwardness. I’ve stared into the dead eyes of enough Unreal Engine assets to last a lifetime. But My Summer Car is not that. For all its ugliness, its rough edges, and the way it shirks conventional design, it’s a completely earnest prod??uct.

Rojola has said that he is “developing dream games for [his] own enjoyment.�Whether or not it’s your dream game is another matter. For me, it very much is. It’s one that I’ve returned to frequently since its Early Access life for another taste of its brutal depiction of Finnish rural life. The friction it creates with its harsh punishment provides meaning to those peaceful moments as you drive along its winding dirt roads. It might strike some as boring, too cryptic, or too unwelcoming, but regardless of whether or not it’s your kind of ride, it's exactly what it intends to be. There is no experience quite like My Summer Car.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game purchased by the reviewer.]}

The post Review: My Summer Car appeared first on Destructoid.

A bit like Monopoly's get-out-of-jail-free card, you can get out of having to do your time in My Summer Car, no ?matter the severity of your sentence. How? By escaping, course. Let's find out what kind of sentences you can expect in the game and how to get out of ha?ving to sleep in a cell.

What are the prison sentences in My Summer Car?

My Summer Car features various prison sentences related to your vehicula??r actions. Here they are and the punishments they come w??ith:

• Attempted manslaughter: If you have been attacking an NPC and punched them unconscious, you will get a 2-day sentence. This happens with everyone except for someone you have been fighting while in a drunk state, as they won't report you to the police.
• Evasion: If you fail to stop when a police officer asks you to, you will get a 3-day sentence. You might get several such sentences in a row if you have repeatedly done that.
• Manslaughter: Killing someone with your vehicle (by running them over or any other means) will get you a 10-day sentence. Each casualty will add up to your prison time.
• Traffic fatality: Colliding with another vehicle is fine, but if the driver is killed in the accident, you will get a 5-day sentence. Again, each casualty will add up to your prison time.
• Unpaid fine: If you forget to pay a fine, you will get a variable sentence based on the amount owed and how many days have passed since the deadline.

Your final sentence? will calculate all infractions together, so you might even end up with a month-long stay in jail. You can look at the current time by looking at the Teksti-TV. Spending time in jail will decrease your stress, but more than 10 days in the penitentiary will cause your character to tattoo their hands, which can't be removed.

Once your jail time ends, the game will spawn you at the bus s??top in front of Teimo's sho?p. That's all well and good, but if you don't want to spend all that time confined in a cell, there are a couple of alternatives.

How to escape from jail in My Summer Car, explained

Escaping from jail (which you can make easier with the "noclip" mod) means you will be on the run and will have to hi??de from the police forever. They will keep looking for you at all times until you either decide to go back to jail or continue being on the run and live undercover. They won't get tired of this at any point, so this method is definitely not recommended.

Currently, the only safe way to escape jail is using the MSC Editor. This is a save file editor that you can use to modify many of the stats in the game??. Once you have committed a crime and the police are after you, go to your bathroom and save your ga??me.

Now, ?use MSC editor to open your save file, which should be called "defaultES2File." Search for any values containing the words "wanted." Each line will be a crime you have committed and that you are about to be arres??ted for, such as "wantedevasion" or "wantedattemptedmanslaughter". You can use the editor to change those values from 1 to 0. Save, load back the game, and the police will be gone.

If you are already in jail and the game has already been saved, then you can search for the? string "numberofbools," which is the number of days in your jail sentence. If you reduce it to 0, you will be automatically teleported out of the jail. Be sure to also check for any crimes that you are still wanted for, or you will probably end up back in the slammer pretty soon.

The post My Summer Car: All prison sentences and how?? to escape? jail appeared first on Destructoid.

Are you stressed or feeling particularly anxious because of trouble in your personal life? Lucki??ly, there is a great solution: high temperatures. That's exactly what a sauna is for and, in games, they work exactly like in real life. But if you have been wondering how the sauna functions in My Summer Car, keep reading, and?? we'll explain how it works and what you can use it for.

How does the sauna work?

The sauna in My Summer Car works just like one in real life. You have to turn up the t?emperature and use cold water to make the room more humid. The first thing we recommend is starting to work on the sauna quite a bit before you plan to relax in it. We'd say a?bout ten to fifteen minutes of real-time.

You will fi??nd two saunas in the game, so ??let's see how each one works.

How to use the electric sauna

You will find this one at the back of your house. ?The sauna stove has two dials on the bottom, turn up the first knob, the temperature, then t??urn up the second knob, which is the timer. Both will have to be turned to the maximum. You will hear the stove start making noise. Remember to also close the door, or the sauna will take even more time to heat up. The ideal temperature for the sauna is between 60 and 80 degrees, but the higher the temperature goes, the better it will be.

Be careful not to leave the sauna on the maximum temperature mark if you are not using it, since it might catch fire. Also, while it works great for relaxation, sitting inside th?e sauna too much will increase your thirst.

After the temperature has gone up enough, which you can check by looking at the thermometer on the wall, you can start pouring water on the stones. You will find a small bucket with a ladle inside the sauna, or outside. Bring it to the bat?hr?oom and fill the bucket up with water by clicking the action button. Then, bring the bucket inside once you are ready to relax and pour water on the stones, by right-clicking. That will fill the room with steam and make it much better.

If you are ??having difficulties throwing water effectively on the stones, try to check where the water is going when you throw it. Also, try placing yourself right in front of the stove while aiming the bucket a bit higher.

How to use the firewood sauna

This other sauna can be found on the island, in the cottage that is right there. To heat up this one, since there will be no electricity, you will have to use firewood. Get ready to chop some wood, then open the hatch and throw the wood insi??de. You can? throw inside as many as you like, but four is the maximum amount of wood that will burn at the same time.

Once the wood is placed inside, press the action button to light the fire then close the hatch. Wait for the ??temperature to rise, again between 60 and 80, then get ready for some relaxation. The firewood sauna can also be used to cook meat and fish, which you can do by placing raw pieces on the stones. Once the flame is lit, just place it, and it will slowly cook while you are relaxing.

There are two a??chievements you can get by using the sauna. One is the "Welcome to Finland," which you will get by simply using the sauna successfully, and the other is the "Golden Steam" achievement, which you can unlock by, well, doing your business on th??e stones.

The post How to use the sauna in My Summer Car appeared first on Destructoid.

Fire up the sauna. My Summer Car, Amistech’s bizarre car-assembly ennui simulator, is finally ready to leave Early Access. It’s a little awkward right now, but it sounds like the switch will be flipped tomorrow.

Wow, can you believe it’s been eight-ish years since My Summer Car launched into the world via Early Access? I can’t. In fact,?? it feels like a bit longer than that for me, since I was eagerly anticipating it for quite a while before it finally reached my hands.

It reached a rather surprising level of popularity. It’s an extremely unconventional and unfriendly game. While its main focus is around putting together a junk heap of a car, you have basic needs like ?thirst, hunger, hygi??ene, and stress. Also, piss. Every so often, you have to relieve yourself, and it doesn’t matter much where you do it. And to cap it all off, you can die. Finland is an unforgiving land of inebriated drivers and moose. You can be killed picking up the telephone during a thunderstorm or forgetting to switch off the main breaker before replacing a fuse.

Even if you turn permanent death off, it has little regard for your time. You may find yourself stranded after a ?bad mistake, struggling to make money, or just waiting for something to happen. It feels deliberate in the way it forces you to slow down and take things in. I love it. It’s one of my favorite games ever.

The last update before it leaves Early Access isn’t its biggest one, but it adds a few interesting features, like m?ore voice lines for your cousin (the guy who drives around drunk and will give you a lift if you’re stranded). He’ll also sometimes end up as your cellmate if you get arrested. What a weird game. Its developer, Johannes Rojola, has some strange priorities for what to add to gameplay. For a while, brewing booze at home and selling it to a friend was the best way to make money, and then he changed it so your friend will ask you to drink with him. You can only get so drunk before you completely pass out, so it’s actually a big hindrance. I could go on about the strange design.

Amistech is currently working on a follow-up, My Winter Car. As the name implies, it is a similar concept but set in the winter. Like I was before the release of My Summer Car, I’m pretty amped to get my hands on it. It sounds like My Winter Car will hit Early Access soon, but how so??on is soon? With the way Amistech works, it could be soon or it could be less soon.

My Summer Car is available now on PC. It leaves Early Ac??cess soon (pr??obably very soon).

The post Believe it or not, My Summer Car is fully assembled and ready t??o leave Early Acc??ess appeared first on Destructoid.