From an early age, humans know that if they want to be taken seriously, they must learn how to deliver a convincing car noise. Vrrrrummm, they might say. Or perhaps: brrrrrr-bp-brrr. These are the nascent efforts of the budding speed freak, and they must be respected. But once again the realm of videogames encroaches upon the germinal life of the human with pitiless velocity. Car games put a stop to make-believe noise, and introduce fully realised cars on a screen, ready for the racing, shiny bonnets and vrrrrummm noises included. Thus, the imagination dies, and these, the 10 best cars in PC games, are born. Beep beep.

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Kick the tires, whistle at the paint job, spin the keys on your finger like a revolver and then shoot the car with the little laser of unlocking. It’s time to get back on the road. What’s that? Entire country in a state of unprecedented lockdown? I see. Well, lucky for you, we concern ourselves here only with pretend cars, the indoor joy of fictional journeys on virtual roads. Here, my housebound friends, are the 9 best road trips in PC games. Seatbelts on, please.

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There’s only one class to choose in Landlord’s Super: working class. Set in a Midlands town in the ‘80s (a famously prosperous time in the UK when no contentious things happened), it’s a game about the ordinary feats of strength people do to get by. Trading in scrap for cash, finding odd jobs in the construction business, that sort of thing. The kind of work often referred to as “graft”. It’s from MinskWorks, the developer of Jalopy, which absolutely makes sense. Life is as fiddly as their car mechanic sim. It’s arriving on April 30 in early access.

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A barely-functional car, a weird uncle in a bad jacket, a quest of self-discovery and seemingly endless machine-exhausting roads between you and your destination. Jalopy is free today, and a messy, unpredictable road-trip worth taking, although you might want to get a move on. Humble are giving away MinskWork’s eastern european driving adventure free for the next two days, with the offer vanishing on Saturday, 6pm BST, or “while supplies last”, which means it could end earlier. Curiously, no Steam key is given by default, but you can claim one for a single US dollar.

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This is The Mechanic, where Alex Wiltshire invites developers to discuss the difficult journeys they ve taken to make their games. This time, Jalopy [official site].

A lot of people have made the correlation between game development being a janky mess and the car in the game being a janky mess, says Greg Pryjmachuk, the sole developer of Jalopy, a game about driving a Laika 601 Deluxe through the countries of the former Soviet bloc with your uncle. It does seem quite apt.

But he s definitely being a little hard on himself. Jalopy is a game he never intended to be as big as it s become, a project he started to escape from mainstream development. A couple of weeks back, after two years in Early Access, it finally reached its official launch, and with it has come a slew of negative reviews and angry forum threads born of a weight of expectation that Jalopy s rattling old chassis was never really designed to live up to. (more…)

It’s been a long, bumpy road, but Jalopy has finally completed its pilgrimage through the plains of Early Access, and has officially launched. It’s one of those games so distinct and original, it’s no surprise that it’s held our attention for years; a low-budget (and low-fi) road trip adventure from Germany, across eastern Europe on a course for Turkey. All the way, driving a crumbling junker of a not-Trabant through rain, snow and mud in service of your weird Uncle’s latest get-rich-quick scheme.

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The Eastern European road trip Jalopy has almost completed its journey through early access, after nearly two years, and will properly launch next Wednesday, March 28th. You know, Jalopy, the game set in the 90s about driving your uncle from Germany to Turkey in a scrappy Trabant 601. Lots of things to pick up and fiddle with. That one. I enjoyed packing my car and pressing buttons in the old public prototype released way back when it was called Hac, then decided to wait until it was properly finished, so I’m keen to finally see how it’s ended up. (more…)

I’l admit I entirely forgot that Jalopy [official site] getting a Turkey update meant the country and not, e.g. the bird. I was conjuring up all kinds of adventures I could take a turkey on while we played the roadtrip ‘n’ car maintenance adventure. Just me and my feathery friend, the wind in our wings, the radio set to some bangin’ choons, the turkey in charge of map reading… The turkey is called Priscilla and has replaced Jalopy’s Uncle character in my head.

In the real version of this update that doesn’t involve Priscilla and me Thelma and Louising it off a cliff or doing Carpool Karaoke, the Turkey update has added that country as a new environment/route in the game. Behold the trailer! … [visit site to read more]

As Jalopy [official site] continues to trundle on through early access, the roguelikelike roadtrip ’em up has added Bulgaria in an opt-in beta. It’s not perfect but if you fancy pootling over the holidays, it should see you right. Along with adding the twisty and hilly new land, the update adds different road conditions and different tyres to go with them, plus new hazards like oil spills, and pot holes. … [visit site to read more]

As December approaches like a runaway sled and we prepare to say our goodbyes to 2016, it’s natural to reflect on the year as a whole. Those reflections could easily take the form of laments but we’re keeping our focus firmly on the world of PC games, where we’ve identified ten trends that may not have defined 2016, but have certainly helped to shape it. We delve into Sorcery and synthwave, DOOM and Danganronpa, and much more besides.

… [visit site to read more]