If you’re looking for the safest and most efficient way forward, that’s likely to be the one. Keep a look out for dirt paths - these are a part of the game’s background connectivity and appear over the routes players take most often. In one sense Death Stranding is kinder than Dirt Rally, in that it actually provides you with a racing line of sorts. Sudden turns might be tempting when you’re at risk of tumbling off a cliff, but there’s no surer way to tip your teetering pile of packages into a ravine. The answer is almost never to yank the thumbstick in one direction or the other, and that’s a lesson that applies to Death Stranding. Instead the key is in throwing the weight of the car to where you need it, via gentle turns and braking, allowing momentum to take you around the corner. The tracks are tight and exacting, often banked by snow or lined by ditches, and slowing right down for every bend isn’t an option - not if you want to threaten your rivals at the top of the scoreboards. They’re both driven by a physics model that demands you get to grips with the way weight transfers in motion. Dirt RallyĮither the original rally sim or the more recent - and more expensive - sequel will do. Jalopy teaches you to be shrewd and decisive when packing, rather than set yourself up for disaster. Sinking his back and shoulders into the earth will compromise his total stamina, which is what prevents you from sliding backwards down steep slopes or losing your footing in a river. While Sam runs on Monster Energy rather than petrol, the principle is the same. Weighing the Trabant down too much will quickly drain your tank and leave you pushing its bulk into Istanbul on foot - a mistake you don’t forget in a hurry. In both games, the worst thing you can do is attempt to bring everything.

It’s not the inventory Tetris that’s tricky so much as the calculations you’re forced to make on the fly. Without those, the whole trip will eventually shudder to a halt. But you’ll need to leave room, too, for contraband you could sell for a profit at the next stop, and the replacement parts you mind find in abandoned vehicles by the side of the road.

Rather than ladders and cargo repair spray, you’re filling up the Trabant’s tiny boot with spare tyres and car jacks. And, as in Death Stranding, you have to anticipate what’s likely to go wrong.

In this Eastern European road trip, as in Death Stranding, your goal is to make steady progress from one city to another. To hone that process, you could do worse than spend a day or two with the knackered Trabant that stars in Jalopy. Even if you auto-optimise your backpack into a sensible shape, you’ll still have to make important decisions during the journey about what cargo to pick up and where to put it. Packing your load, so to speak, is a crucial aspect of Death Stranding.

Jalopy game trabant