Quick Look: Jalopy

Man, it's too bad GBeast didn't take a look at this game!

Giant Bomb West has been dropping the ball for a while now - half-assed quick looks, Ben playing stupid for the camera, Jason screaming into his mic... yeah, definitely not why I come to the site these days. If Drew could've done this quick look, then it would've been something special.

This was a fun quick look!

This is a great comment, made me chuckle.

So I am glad this video happend. Watch this and then watch Vinny and Alex show Northguard in a QL. One is informative and gives the viewer all the information needed to make a purchase and then you have this and Dan's ATV/Motorcross one. And while just bumbling around may be fun to some people, is the intent of the video to display the abilities of the games or the abilities of those playing the games because one seems to get favored over the other quite a bit. No judgement and I am not taking a side here, but I did want to point out the differences. I prefer the more informative kind but that is just me. I enjoy livestreams and UPF for dicking around. What if you were the dev of this game and this was the way it was shown to the world? Picked up an hour into gameplay by someone who doesn't understand wiper blades? There is some responsibility to big groups like GB to at least do SOME due diligence on their reviews. Otherwise, don't call it the QL which we have all come to know as a somewhat in depth review of whatever game.

I will just say this: I'm still hoping for a Drew/Jason-like hire some time in the future to balance out Ben. Or let Jan do more QLs!

For the first time I did not extend my gold membership when it expired a couple of months ago and content like this will not get me back on board.

Him constantly crashing into the guardrails for no reason except (deliberately?) not looking ahead just drove me nuts!

Greetings from real Dresden/Germany btw!

I hate to pile on, but I was really excited to check this out - and it's almost completely unwatchable. Even when I'm showing a game to my friends in person, I try to make gradual camera adjustments and stuff like that.

I feel like this is the first time I've ever seen a very poorly produced video from GB.

I mean, what is this game? This video does nothing to explain it at all.

Jalopy is a road trip rogue-lite. When you cannot make it to the end of the journey, you can reset, and all of your car's upgrades will be intact in the beginning. Making smart decisions on what you spend your money on, how you maintain your vehicle, and what you barter from what you find on the road are keys to success.

Holy ADHD this was hard to watch. I feel like I know less about this game than I knew going into it.

I put on GB stuff to pass the time on the treadmill. I had this on for today's workout. It felt like the longest workout of my life.

The Dark Souls of My Summer Car.

Dear god this was a bad Quick Look. Intentionally playing badly might be fun in other games but in this video it just made it seem a hundred times worse.

My Summer Car without the hilarious deaths and bad polka, duh! :P

I watched the video before reading the comments and didn't notice the sensitivity issues. At last, a super power to call my own.

@stise: I think they've both been in development for around the same amount of time. Drew covered them when they were even earlier builds. Don't see much progress but I haven't played either, so.

I own both games, playing through My Summer Car now. The main differences are two-fold: 1) Jalopy is way-less of a 'sim' 2) Jalopy has more of a story. That said, I'm 14 hours in on My Summer Car, whereas my Jalopy save is ~2 hours. My Summer Car has more in terms of vehicles & gameplay: chopping/delivering wood, emptying sewage, towing wrecks, police "interactions," boating, tractors, diesels, rally.

They def. aren't games for every one: both feature long stretches of road that are almost like passive gameplay moments. And they both have funky controls. If, like me, you have a soft-spot for, "Euro-Jank" then you'll probably get into either game. Just decide if story or sim is more important.

@stise: 100 people parachute onto an island with only a socket wrench. The first to build a car and drive off wins!

Wait a second you build a car in this?

Also recommend to anyone who likes fast cars to watch fastest car on Netflix. They take 3 street cars and race a super car. I binge watched it last night and woke up to this video thinking it was some sort of 3d rendered 9th episode of someone test driving their sleeper car. It's a fun show to watch Lamborghinis race junkyard cats.

I had to return this back when it was early access because my cursor would not stick to the 'center' of the viewpoint..made it unplayable. I assume it was a dual monitor issue, but I've never seen anyone else have this issue. Would love to pick it up again, but too worried about trying to claim a refund twice on the same game...

Sorry i didn’t have more time to put into this gamefly he quick look! We were planning on recording something else but i had save issues, so I figured i’d be able to show this game off in the middle of a packed recording day but i was wrong.

Jalopy looks fun, been considering getting it as soon it was off of Early Access.

@benpack: thanks ben for acknowledging the problem, that goes a long way. I don't think people try to be negative intentionally towards you with these comments but are just providing criticism. Can you please try to be mindful of ultra high sensitivity mouse movements? I use 3200 dpi so I'm not gonna win any awards for slow movements myself but I'm not streaming for millions like y'all are.

@steveurkel: Yup. Classy, Ben. Good on you, sir. Keep up the almost unanimously good work!

He did in the breakfast episode where he was playing verminetide. He appologised for how much you need to whip around in the game.

@benpack: We all have our bad days and unexpected plan changes, Ben. Sorry for the strident tone in my earlier criticism, but I was just so darn mad at the time. As a very, very amateur home recording hobbyist, I'm always conflicted by listener comments, but some of them have really improved my results. I wish I'd been as graceful to you as I always hope my listeners will be to me.

I normally have a pretty strong stomach but this mouse movement nauseated me.

I think the key problem with this video is that Ben already did a lame, dismissive look at this game on UPF (which made the game look terrible), so I think most people expected a real QL to address that and be like "Well, we screwed around with it before, but here's a slightly more serious look where I actually read some shit on how to play properly." It seems kind of insulting to the devs to do this to their game TWICE. Once is one thing; GB is known for goofy, totally unserious quick looks..but this feels like insult to injury and way too dismissive. And I say that as someone who doesn't even think this game looks that interesting.

Ben seems to have a hard time expressing positive excitement about something he likes. He does it to DOTA too, whatever you say about that game, if you play 5000 matches, you must love it. There is a line between goofy and being dismissive. Given the reach of the site it could really impact the games sales for the sake of a miscommunicated bit. Either way I'm gonna mark it up to him still finding his voice on the site. Every new hire goes through it, it took Dan a real long time to settle down. It wasn't until he went to New York that he really found his GB self.

@stanleypain:

It was a different time back then, you often had to wait in line for hours just for a handful of polygons.

@rigas: I've never heard of this game before, and this Quick Look made it seem fun and interesting to me. Which part of the QL seemed dismissive to you? He ends by saying it seems neat and he wants to spend more time with it.

I was kind of annoyed about how clueless Ben was in this quicklook as well ,but at the same time I really found the game interesting. Not quicklooking this would have been a misstake.

All those "salty" comments are valid criticism. You might not feel the same way they do about it, but at least 50% of the comments are mentioning one or two very specific things. So its as safe bet it matters to those people. I wouldn't call it being pedantic actually getting physically ill watching a video.

Look. Having played Jalopy in early access and now. If Ben hadn't played the way he did, *which isn't that different to how a typical game would go*, then the quick look would have been over in ten minutes when he got to the motel and the trigger for the next day failed (or some similar game breaking bug.)

Someone on staff really needs to lower the dpi setting on that mouse. I've noticed it for months. How do these guys even play first person games like this? I'd imagine it would make first person shooters unplayable. It's nearly unwatchable.

It's pretty weird seeing people complaining about Ben jumping into this without having all the mechanics down, because blindly jumping into a game they've never seen before, and not really paying attention to what's going on is pretty much classic Giant Bomb.

For anyone who's interested in it, it's a pretty cool little thing. For as clumsy as it seems, what Ben showed here is a pretty accurate representation of your first half hour or so with the game. The controls are weird, the stacking is awkward. It's not clear what you're supposed to do with items, and there's not really any indication that you're supposed to sell your stuff to the petrol station attendant. I had to spend a good amount of time on the wiki and reading Steam discussion posts before I really understood what I was supposed to be doing.

The content is also extremely limited, and basically the day's trip that Ben went on is the extent of the gameplay loop, only with selling stuff and upgrading/repairing your car. Repeated through about 5 different environments that you can travel back and forward through to grind out stuff. I think the "story" is exceptionally mundane, and the game is actually better when you leave Uncle behind and cruise around on your own.

For all it's faults, the game has an extremely strong aesthetic, and manages to be remarkably melancholic. There's something very appealing about driving through a half flooded dirt road in the rain with the radio turned up, and slamming on the handbrake and jumping out into the mud and rain because you found a mysterious crate on the side of the road.

+1 to that. All feedback is good feedback (yes, even shit-posting, which also drives up positive engagement as a counter) - and kudos to Ben for looking at it and taking it into consideration for the future. Dan is a perfect example of this - he got so much borderline-hateful comments at first (including some really frustrated negative stuff from me) but he really did improve and work that into his "heel" persona, to the point that GB just wouldn't feel as "alive" and "colorful" as it does without him.

Ben, keep on keeping on - personally I've noticed your increased comfort level and confidence in front of the camera, and the rest will follow with hard work.

What if there was a game that evoked the driving of Deadly Premonition, and combined that with the attention to detail of the first Gran Turismo?

I dunno man... this looks kinda shitty to me. WTF is with that NPC car behavior; I feel like it should be way better for a game about driving and atmosphere and stuff.

Saw Ben play this game during UPF and he didn't care about it then, why give it to him to QL now? The second I started the video and heard Ben i knew it was going to be a bummer. In the UPF he signaled clearly that he wasn't going to even attempt to take it seriously. Did the whole ql, didn't turn on the wipers once. Dissapointed -_-

@ducksharp: Free content ? I have payed for my gold membership for many years , and believe me I don't just pay for the subscriber content. I pay because I love what these people do. The podcast , the quicklooks , the XCOM series etc etc. if they produce something I don't like I'm going to let them know. i think they want to keep my subscription money. Also I think they like feedback from all their revenue producing customers. To be fair I don't hate this quicklook, I just wouldn't mind to be just a little more informed while watching it. Will they act on my comment ? Probably not. Will they read it and take it into consideration? Maybe. Do they appreciate the feedback , I hope so.

I'm sorry to say, my friend. I'm a fan , and I'm here for the gameplay. I just like to be informed by the funny and friendly people at giant bomb. This was kind of funny , but not super informing IMO.

@benpack:

Thanks for the feedback! Keep 'em comming Ben.

@trust100:

I'm sure your right, your assumption in probably correct :) .