Fuel For Your Anticipation

With a rich flurry of racing games under their belt, such as Colin McRae: Dirt and Racedriver: Grid, gamers may be concerned that Fuel is merely being published - as opposed to fully developed - by Codemasters. The developers of the game are Asobo Studio who have a short track record on game titles which, so far, haven't had resoundingly positive reviews.

In Fuel, we're offered a post apocalyptic view of the future. Accelerated global warming (caused by vehicle pollution no less) has caused the seas to rise. Add to this heavy weather, with tornados, sandstorms, blizzards, lightning and thunderstorms, and much of the USA has been abandoned. What's left are normal roads, dirt tracks, damaged tarmac and the new unexplored wilderness for racers to cover.

Races are checkpoint-based, but how you get from point to point is up to you. No really! Completely up to you. Asobo insist that there will be complete freedom of environment and this will be due to the Asobo Concept Engine (ACE) making anywhere drivable as long as the vehicle has something to grip to. Original concepts saw Asobo wanting to replicate the whole of the States using ACE, itself utilising licensed satellite data and imagery. Reasons for reduction to a mere 5000 square miles plus of wilderness have - they say - nothing to do with the sheer area of the landmass, but to ensure there are enough exciting things to engage the gamer.

So all you'll have is a wavepoint marker at the top of the screen that'll point to the next checkpoint wherever you are on the map. You then criss-cross the States taking risks on jumps, short cuts and varied weather systems which can be seen coming on the horizon and avoided. These weather detours will obviously add time but weather can alter the environment. Tornadoes can throw items into your path, sandstorms deter your vision and rain and snow make surfaces far slicker than they may have been before. No need to worry about the public. They've gone hidden somewhere else leaving you to concentrate. Travel from dusk ‘til dawn and on into the night to meet your objective.

Seventy plus vehicles are promised ranging from bikes, cars, quads, trucks, buggies and dragsters in both on and off-road styles. There are even hovercraft. Initially it's rumoured that you'll start with a single bike but as you complete races gaining gold, silver or bronze you'll receive currency which buys faster, more varied rides. Vehicle attributes allow you to pick and choose the best for each race. Although not available for tuning we're told that there will be customisation that can make your vehicle look just right, and will make sure that online your opponents will know who dissed them.

Given the vastness of this environment some may be worried that they'll be undertaking massive race events akin to doing the Le Mans 24 hour in Gran Tourismo. Asobo have pinned the maximum race time on a much more acceptable hour-long duration though. What they want is a more arcade feel to the game with more of the fun put back into racing. Thus racers don't have to worry about driving across vast tracts of land to get from race to race if they don't want to, there's a handy dandy helicopter that'll give you an airlift. The option is still there to drive off into the wilderness though!

Online we're expecting about fifteen people to be able to enter a session. They'll not be limited to racing with you but can just go off and do their own thing if they want. You'll be able to build multi checkpoint circuits to challenge others with, and as always the on-line player is far less predictable than the AI player, adding a whole different level of challenge.

There is some trepidation here. There has to be when any company unknown in a certain field steps up to the challenge. In Asobo's defence the imagery they've realeased looks stunning. Many videos of gameplay look amazing and you can see a satisfying level of development from earlier to later footage. Add to this the fact Codemasters are backing them with their track record of racing games which is hard to beat and you'd consider, given their longevity, they know how to make the right choices.

Fuel promises to be everything that's been suggested. An arcade racer that's fun and frantic with enough to please both single and multiplayer audiences. The clock is ticking and the end of May approaching. Bring it on!