Review - Full Auto

If you look down the line, into the future of Xbox 360 titles, you see some pretty complicated games coming our way. The likes of Elder Scrolls IV and Mistwalker Studios' Lost Odyssey and Blue Dragon are designed to change gamer perceptions of Microsoft's console. Out of the gate, though, Xbox 360 titles have fallen back on the themes that made the original Xbox so popular: sports, FPS games, and racing. The Xbox already has two popular racing franchises to its name. The exclusive Forza Motorsports is a powerful sim, while the multiplatform Burnout series finds its shiniest home on the Xbox. Full Auto, by developer Pseudo Interactive, tries very hard to interest the 360 owner with a brand new way to race. Strapping weapons to cars can only lead to good things, right? Unfortunately this modern title, in the vein of SJ Games classic Car Wars, fails to do much more than explode prettily in the interested gamer's face. Read on for my impressions of this disappointing title.

• Title: Full Auto
• Developer: Pseudo Interactive
• Publisher: Sega
• System:360

There shouldn't be much here that can go wrong, right? The concept, at least, seems like a sure thing. Fully destructible environments, impressive weaponry strapped to interesting vehicle designs, racing through the streets trying to gank your opponents. There's even a new use for a design element we've seen elsewhere: the application of the Prince of Persia time-rewind to the racing genre. On paper, and in E3 previews from last year, the game looks like a sure thing. Not a testament to the storytelling power of gaming, to be sure, but a solid action game that will distract folks from playing Halo 2 on their four hundred dollar console.

Things start off well. The game's tutorial makes it clear from the get-go that your aim is speed, to an extent, but the real way to impress the title is by blowing stuff up. The game walks you through the various components of racing the Full Auto way. You have your boost bar, refilled by doing slides and jumps. You have your unwreck bar, which is refilled by blowing stuff up. Weapons can be mounted front and back, giving you a number of options when you're out on a course. There are several gameplay types, including basic racing, time trials, wreck point targets to hit, and qualifiers to run. There are also 'underdog' races to run, where you're outclassed by every other NPC and still have to make it to the finish line in one piece.

All of these elements somehow combine to make the most shallow and uninteresting game I've yet played on the 360. The first time you play you find dark satisfaction when a car explodes, hit by one of your hood-mounted missiles. The first time you make a mistake use unwreck, you smile in appreciation. By your third or fourth race you're settled in, driving your opponents into trucks and laying open building facades with machine guns. You're playing by rote already. You keep opening up new matches, hoping there will be new elements revealed by different race types, but you're disappointed. Within the first half hour of play, you've seen every trick this game has up its sleeve. At least it looks nice.

As a 360 game it would be hard for Full Auto to look bad, and it doesn't. Graphically, the game is solid. The textures are nice, the autos are bright and move well, and the user interface is well thought out. Even here, I don't feel entirely satisfied. With a few exceptions, the backdrop you'll be racing in is very bland. The game that Full Auto begs comparison to is Burnout, and the intricate and highly themed tracks of that game make the dingy street corridors here look quite sad. There's a jump-cam effect that gives you a cinematic view of any aerial maneuvers you perform, but when the camera returns to a first-person perspective there is a jarring sense of discontinuity; Even if your car hit the pavement in the other camera mode, you're still in the air when control is returned to you.

Most frustrating, though, is the stuttering that persists throughout the game. In heavy traffic, you can pull the trigger in rapid succession and rack up an impressive number of kills. Vehicles respond in a realistic fashion, explosions bloom, shrapnel flies, all while you speed along the track ... the system is placed under a heavy load not just occasionally but frequently in this title. Knowing that, the pausing that takes place when in a heavy combat situation is intolerable. At times there is a disquieting 'driving through butter' sensation as the action slides to a crawl. This slowdown doesn't take place during every crash or explosion, but it happens often enough to be a distraction from the only thing this game has going for it.

The most frustrating aspect of this title is the purity of the experience. The game may only do one thing, but it does that one thing fairly well. I really want to like this game. I could see myself occasionally popping into Full Auto for an online match with someone on my friends list, or trying for a new wreck point max to blow off some steam. The key is that, in this vision, the game is a $20 download from Xbox Live. The depth of this game is very similar to what I've seen from some of the better Live Arcade titles, and the simple gameplay bears a resemblance to those downloadable morsels as well. The price Sega is asking for this game is a slap in the face to anyone browsing the recent release wrack. My vision is false, and in reality this is a $60 title you have to physically drive to a store to buy. I recommend against that. If you're in the mood to blow stuff up while driving, rent this one instead. It's just not worth the money for the variety or consistency I've seen here.

1.79???

When was that game developed, 1982? How long has it been since gas has been 1.79?

Tell it like it is.

There's even a new use for a design element we've seen elsewhere: the application of the Prince of Persia time-rewind to the racing genre.

What's the "new use"? Oh wait, there isn't one: it's a direct ripoff. Please don't try to sugarcoat at all what is an obvious grab at existing genre money.

Designed to change perceptions

designed to change gamer perceptions of Microsoft's console

And that's the problem. Instead of focusing on public perception [msversus.org] a game designer should focus on a great gaming experience. Again it's marketing and greed driving a game instead of artists.

Three actually

The Xbox already has two popular racing franchises to its name. The exclusive Forza Motorsports is a powerful sim, while the multiplatform Burnout series finds its shiniest home on the Xbox.

What about Project Gotham Racing?

Alienated Average Joe

Until I can go down to my chain store and buy a console for MSRP or less, I could give crap less. As far I am concerned the Xbox 360 so far is a failure.

The only way to get one is to be put on a waiting list to buy a vendor bundle, where consumers are forced to pay for hardware and games they don't want. Or buy one grey market off ebay, risk getting screwed on fraud, and a gurantee screw on price.

Yeah I'm so excited.

Interstate '76

This concept has been done before - and better - in Interstate '76. Fun game, great story, and groovy funk soundtrack. Very unfortunate that the sequel, Interstate '82, sucked.

Saw this on G4

And I thought to myself "That's it?". Just like in Zonk's review, I was surprised by how little depth this game has.

C'mon, this is the 360! Next gen! I want a hundred tracks to race through(big ones, too, think Carmageddon or something), I want 30 unique weapons, I want 60 types of vehicles(cars, trucks, etc), and maybe some variants. how about a "defeat the big rig" a la The Road Warrior or something just to spruce things up? Crazy power ups? Power downs?

Nope, it appears to be a 187 ride-or-die like game.

So great, it's Vigilante 8, but with prettier graphics.

AutoDuel anyone?

Any other oldtimers here pay AutoDuel on their Apple IIGS's way back in the day? That's what I'd expect from a game like Full Auto these days. A duel mode, a quest mode with exploration to different cities, and a really need upgrade tree that allows you to play to your own melee strengths. Mines and smokescreens for some, machine guns and flamethrowers for others.

The clue's in the developer's name

"Pseudo Interactive"?

I mean, come on. That says it all...

(What marketdroid imbecile thought that would be a good name for a company? Why not go the whole hog and call it 'Games On Rails' or 'Recycled Ideas'?)

pr0n

...fails to do much more than explode prettily in the interested gamer's face.

Sorry, I have never really been all that excited to have anything explode prettily on my face, no matter how interested in it I was. This review, and game for that matter, gets a Brokeback Mountain award. Of course, I am a male gamer, so the female gamers out there may have a completely different view on the matter.

Yes, in case you were not paying attention, I just insulted male homosexuals and women inside of two sentences. The streak of celibacy continues!

Why does everyone hate this game so much?

I have Full Auto - I bought it the first day it came out. Every review I've read is negative. I just dont get it. Yes, full auto is Oblivion, it doesnt have hundreds of hours of single player game. But ya know what, when I get home from work, tired, maybe a little bit frustraited - its A HELL OF A LOT OF FUN TO BLOW STUFF UP.

Thats what this game is made for, its not Project Gotham, its not Oblivion - its a game about blowing stuff up. If you don't like blowing stuff up, fine - but dont call it a bad game.

My $0.02

The really cool thing about the 360 is that you can go Live Marketplace, download the demo to this game, and try it out. If you like it, buy it. If not, don't... makes reviews less necessary when everyone can review the game themselves. I tried the demo, didn't like it that much - is fun for a few minutes but nothing I could really get into - so I didn't buy the game. Conversely, I tried the Fight Night 3 demo and never expected to like it but had a total blast - so I'm going to buy the game.

The 'shooting at other cars' part of this game isn't as fun as the 'crashing into stuff' part. That said, Burnout is a better 'crashing into stuff' racer... Project Gotham 3 is a better 'sim car' racer, and Ridge Racer or NFS are better 'drift' racers. With an uber-tuned-up version of Burnout due on the 360 next month, just wait for that.

What's the *point* of a console?

You know, I read stuff like this, and it occurs to me that I just Don't Get It:

Vehicles respond in a realistic fashion, explosions bloom, shrapnel flies, all while you speed along the track ... the system is placed under a heavy load not just occasionally but frequently in this title. Knowing that, the pausing that takes place when in a heavy combat situation is intolerable. At times there is a disquieting 'driving through butter' sensation as the action slides to a crawl. This slowdown doesn't take place during every crash or explosion, but it happens often enough to be a distraction from the only thing this game has going for it.

Snuh? WTF? Why would you go through all the expense of designing, manufacturing, and marketing a console system, for the advantages of a known, discrete, and predictable hardware set, making an API to market to developers, all so that you can release games that the hardware can't keep up with? Sure, I know that on my PC, I can't run Battlefield 2 at 1600x1200 resolution with all the eye candy turned up to max with 4x antialiasing and expect to achieve a playable framerate. But some other people *can*; maybe those people want to spend extra money for dual Geforce 7800s in SLI mode. Maybe they've got their own liquid nitrogen cooling rig for their 7.2 kW power supply. There are people who can do that sort of thing, and moreover, want to do that sort of thing, so when PC games push the limits of current hardware, at least there's a market for it.

But with Xbox 360 or PS3, nobody can do that. You can't sell a new video card to 360 owners by telling them it will let them run games better. You can't sell games to 360 owners by telling them their 360 can't quite run it fast enough.

So why do such games get released? I for one know that if I'd just spent all that money on a new console, only to find that it chunks like a fudge factory on offically-licensed software, I would not be happy at all.

But...

Who'll post the first "Does it run on Linux" comment?

Once again, graphics can't save a bad game

The xbox 360 really has to struggle against its own features in order to have good games. The great graphics are ... well, great, but because producing them requires work, that's all work not going into things like entertainment value or playability. That's why the old Nintendo games are more fun -- they didn't necessarily spend more or less money, but the vast majority of the money was not going into modeling 3d textures or stuff like that.

streets of sim city?

"Interstate 76" was a far better game in comparison...and just for fun...does anyone ever remember the title "Streets of Sim City"? It was also a similar kind of games with guns on your cars. You could load your built cities from Sim City 2000 into this game and race around.

Ahhh.. who cares

dead rising is where it's at

You, a mall, thousands of zombies, plenty of things to hit them with. No rules :)

I apologize for linking to ign, but the gameplay video is insanely awesome:
http://media.xbox360.ign.com/media/748/748396/vids _1.html [ign.com]

I mean, what game can you take traffic cones and stick them over the heads of zombies? Or take shower heads from a hardware store and stick them into the zombie's heads and get an instant blood shower? Or use a giant cactus to fight them with?

Another good upcoming Xbox 360 game: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (16 player online co-op). 4 player offline splitscreen.

Gimick game

This is the perfect example of a game relying soley on a 'gimick' and not gameplay/value. I like to blow stuff up as much as the next guy/gal (more than some), but that is the extent of interest in this game. The racing machanics are garbage and the combat doesn't hold a candle to even the original Twisted Metal on PS1.

I applaude developers for realizing that people want to blow stuff up, but we need more than that to get any lasting enjoyment from a game. The games that stand out are the ones that keep offering new challenges and escape from the tired old gameplay. Special effects [read: particle effects] and imitating hollywood-style films [read: jump cam] are only cool the first few times. After that, we have seen it and would like to move on.

I fear that the upcoming 'Outfit' game may also rely on the "blow stuff" up theme. Let's hope I'm wrong and there is some substance to it. Luckily there will be a multiplayer demo available for dl. The demo for Full Auto saved me $60.

Live For Speed

I wish they had mentioned Live For Speed [liveforspeed.net]. It doesn't have as many cars or tracks as the big name games, but it is a REALLY impressive offering for a development team of only three people. They appear to be putting a lot more effort into the physics than into flashy features, and it is the only racing simulator I know of that has an autocross editor so you can build your own autocross tracks.

They win brownie points with me by using ogg vorbis for their sound files. :)

Something the Review Missed:It Bloody Well Crashes

I played an early demo of this game that was released on a magazine CD and liked it. Stupidly I thought some of the apparent short comings were because this was a demo and purchased in on release day... ha stupid me.

What the review fails to mention is how often this damn game actually *CRASHES*. It locks the whole bloody 360 up! The screen freezes, the remote stops responding, and nothing short of pushing the power button on the 360 itself will get it back. And this is in single player campaign mode!

Interestingly the first disc I bought on release day crashed about 8 times in the course of 14 games played! I returned the game the next day and they'd only exchange it. This new disc seems much more stable - but it still crashes frequently. I asked a few people on Live and they reported similar crashing problems. So it doesn't appear to be restricted to my copy/machine.

It can be a fun game. Not my favorite, but a fun one... particularly if you play multiplayer or on Live.

But if I were Sega/Pseudo I'd never have let this thing out the door the way it is! In my opinion, given the slow downs and frequent crashes, this a Beta release not a signed-off on console game!

DON'T BUY IT... save your money for a game that's stable.

Blockwars [blockwars.com]: free, multiplayer, head to head game.

I laugh at this when... ...

Full auto was billed as one of "THE GAME" to get before 360 came out. I think I saw some preview on G4 showing the game, and the developer was bragging "Yah, this is only running on 1/4 of the actual 360 hardware, when the actual game comes out, it will be totally sick!"
Sick my ass, I never trust the marketing people anyway (not even at my own company) and this is exactly the reason!

Carmageddon!

Now that was a cool game. Wish they'd bring that one back.

the real question

Why do people still expect anything more than subpar games with pretty graphics for the majority of xbox 2 games? You are fools.

Should have been Xbox Live MiniGame

The full auto demo on Xbox Live was great. Played it for a few days before getting sick of it. I think the game would have been much better as an Xbox Live arcade game for 15 bucks or so. Its fun and all, but definately not enough to last more than a couple weeks of entertainment. Also doesnt seem too interesting as a rental since every once in a while I have the urge to blow up some cars (so I'll just load up the demo).

Hopefully they'll get smart and convert it (maybe with 1/4 the levels or something) as a downloadable xbox live game

Only one good racing sim ..

Colin Mcrae Rally 2005.

On a decent PC, nothing comes close. Most beautiful and challenging racing sim. Ever.

After playing it, I can't imagine why anyone would want to engage any other sim ... especially a NASCAR one.

NASCAR drivers see 1 turn 1000 times. Rally drivers see 1000 turns 1 time.

Ah, another Zonk review...

...in his inimitable 'special' style. Not as brutal or prolonged an assault on the English language as his classic Mario Kart DS review ("the gameplay is addictively fun") but some gems all the same:

"The game's tutorial makes it clear from the get-go that your aim is speed, to an extent, but the real way to impress the title is by blowing stuff up."

Why not read that back now, seeing as you obviously didn't when you wrote it, and see if you can rephrase it in intelligible English?

"As a 360 game it would be hard for Full Auto to look bad"

Someone hasn't played PDZ.

My 2 cents too

AUSG4 said "... makes reviews less necessary when everyone can review the game themselves."

Unless, of course, you don't own a 360 and are waiting for a good reason to buy one.
Unless, of course, there is truly nothing more to the game than what the demo holds.

I'm old fashioned, I guess, but I like reviews but it gives me a different perspective on things. It also gives me some insight into how well the game will sell and as someone who plays almost exclusively Live with friends, that is critical. If it is perceived to be lame and no one buys it but me, it will be lame to me as I will have no one to play.

Why is this on the frontpage?

Pardon the flame-bait, but why is this on the frontpage? This is a name-less game; if it was a Halo or a GTA I could understand, so why exactly is this on the frontpage? Once more, why is this on the frontpage? Because Zonk wrote it? Once again, why oh why?

Re:When did Slashdot become gamespy?

It's advertised as 'News for Nerds', and like programming, hardware hacking, and pR0n, games are popular nerd hobbies. Relax, you don't need to participate in all the categories.

Re:Huh?

Then just read the first paragraph. It's all you need to know (somewhere around 3/10).

Re:When did Slashdot become gamespy?

If you don't want the Games section to show up on the homepage, you may set your preferences [slashdot.org] accordingly.

Re:The Total Is LESS Than The Sum of Its Parts

Hey, it worked for Have A N.I.C.E. Day.