While on this same intermission as my shower thoughts (continuity between threads? Le shock);
My Winter Car, it from the maker of My Summer Car (further shocking developments, you may now bring a single (1) hand to your face to comfort yourself at this point in reading and hide further disgust as you continue reading (you may lower it at any point as you are a free thinking person and not a machine or a trained animal), comes a rather masochist simulation of a dreary, horrible life in Finaland (fuck it this made me laugh so in the post it shall stay) during winter circa the late 90's (specifically '99, as stated during every loading screen) as basically the hard mode version of the latter game while the former is a direct sequel to it (you play the same character four years later, sans girlfriend/baby*, previously built car and work van, with a brand new thing to fill the void: alchohalism, hurray)
The sun is up and its light out for a total of six in-game, with the high temps being around zero, with the nights hitting -20, -30, with some real bad days reaching as low as -50. You have to maintain your body temp, as well as sweat levels (too much can make you freeze to death in your own jacket).
You have the luxury of seeking full time (in game) work doing a dull, repetitive routine for eight in game hours for five straight in game days (ie, literally all the actual sunlight hours during that time, only getting to see a lit up horizon both ways, if you're lucky) if you fail to make enough money doing the previous odd jobs of the last game to keep the rent up on your swanky new apartment in town, as well as bills necessary to keep it and the previous house's lights on (the cold from earlier can freeze the water pipes in either, cutting off access to water* if you let them get too cold).
What was once
the project car, one which you were born in, is now a random (the car itself is the same model, for a given value of 'same') project you seek out to pass the time while you wait for work, with the money you have left over after bills
and groceries, as above all else this is still the same, weird, janky 'life sim' that it's the sequel too, complete with optional permadeath mode (which literally deletes your save the actual second you fully die).
Said car is not in your possession at the start, and must be sought out via posting on a local board at the service station, with literally 99% of the parts necessary to fully build your car sourced with a classifieds magazine updated twice a week with randomized ads with randomized parts (and prices for said group of parts) for it. There is literally hundreds of parts in total on this car, absolutely dwarfing the amount of parts needed to get this thing road worthy (between the more complex front end and RWD layout of the new car, there is quite literally several dozen parts needed just to get wheels on this shitbox). Parts are, again, source from ads, where you need to call the number provided and wait for the package to arrive after a few days, with random quality to said parts ranging from basically new to rusted junk fit for the scrap heap.
In case that wasn't complex enough, the other new, main selling point of this sequel is that, on creation of a new save file the game will randomly roll up a brand new junker for you to fix up, complete with custom VIN. There are four different trim levels available over the six years this particular model was offered ('71 to '76), complete with a face lift for the last three years. There are several different options available on top, everything from color of both the exterior and interior trim, whether it had bucket seats, all the way to having both a 4-speed manual or 3-speed auto (both with additional reverse gear on top), optional LSD/open diff with different gear ratios, ride heights, and even a high performance version of the 2.0 engine it normally houses.
That sounds neat, until you realize that you need you get this vehicle road legal, both to drive on public roads and for more fun with rally racing. In order to qualify for a vintage tag you need yo have ALL parts as specified by the VIN on your car, and while you can just slap together a roller from any old random junk you get sent in the mail, the standard tag has shorter renewal intervals to keep to as well as needing to constantly pass the inspection. And yes, there are the occasional police checkpoints to check for the aforementioned tags, speeding, and sobriety test. The sequel also has added the fun and joy of automated speed cameras, complete with mailed tickets with photo proof of nefarious driving habits.
And you will probably get caught and might have to spend actual (in-game) time in in-game jail because, like it's predecessor, the end game lies in building a fast rally car. To that end (and to add to the already, frankly ridiculous, pile of random parts mentioned above), you can buy performance parts for the car and even install actual race equipment like roll cages and actual race seats with harnesses (for ludicrous sums of money). Which...you have to in order to even compete in the first place (as well as aforementioned legal tags requirements mentioned above, on top of the money realities touched on even further up). You can end up wrecking your car bad enough to need actual repair work done to it, costing further time and money and effort.
This game is truly sadistic and an exercise in tedium.
And yet...
In the brief time since it released, I have somehow managed to wrack up several dozen hours of playtime already, the total of which can be found
Here. I play on permadeath, and have already been killed and had to restart at least three times. The last one was the wild culmination of working on of those work shifts, getting caught by the one and only police checkpoint I've seen in all this time playing on the commute hime, both sped through it way over the speed limit and thus failed to stop soon enough to catch it (causing a brief and boring 3 foot long police car chase while I slid to a stop), and was subsequently hit and killed by another passing motorist. I have spent however long since last post typing this out to talk about it, and will immediately jump back on when finally done posting this (I may even use this post as the basis for an actual thread about both games here when I get the urge to post again).
You may now fully gasp in horror and disgust, if you have not already done so by this point in reading (again, if like, that's what you're in to man).
The weird janky map from before is shrouded in snow, and even though it's dark most of the day, the nights are bright enough to see quite a bit (a marked improvement over the original, with its pitch black nights), with a rather lovely sky box full of stars that twinkle, and while the radio is all the old material from the first game and while, ugh, AI generated music is used to pad it out, not only can you turn off said shitgen music, the actual new additions to the soundtrack are all great, with the standouts (IMO) being a couple of jazz numbers, which with the night time atmosphere and soft hum of the cars climate control going in the background makes for a relaxing experience.
While you no longer have the old car, the new project in turn feels more personally connected to you, the player. My current save file (longest portion of previously mentioned gameplay time and longest in-game too at over 4 weeks and going strong), I rolled a beautiful little rambler of a car, base model but with a manual, radio, and power brakes (you can get them without power assist brakes) standard in baby blue with a tan interior and bucket seats, and through meticulous effort, and extremely lucky rolls to keep getting side gigs to hold off steady employment on the side, I have pretty much fully built the exterior of the vehicle (missing a hood), and about 75% of the interior done, and while the last bits are all the small, fiddly bits up front (I'm pretty sure I still need a full climate control housing assembly), I do have most of the color matching pieces to go with (including a door with the correct trim color and post face lift, which my roller is). And it's fully unique to me.
And if, as much as I hate typing it, I happen to get killed and lose it, I get the chance at a whole new, unique, vehicle, with a rare chance of getting a fully kitted out GT model with high performance parts standard for the vintage tags.
I'm probably just an insane gremlin who's found his niche game, one that's busted and early access as fuck, but I can see with the prescience of a time traveller that I will put hundreds of hours into this janky mess.
