Review - Full Auto 158
- Title: Full Auto
- Developer: Pseudo Interactive
- Publisher: Sega
- System:360
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??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
1.79 per Liter.
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:2)
"For years, Iraqis have enjoyed subsidized fuel prices, with gasoline costing about 5 cents a gallon. Last month, prices increased to 27 cents a gallon as part of a phased plan to remove subsidies and bring prices into line with other Persian Gulf countries."
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
And it was not like the 80's, Gas prices have went up from under $2.00 since the last couple of years.
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:1)
Re:1.79??? (Score:2)
Re:1.79??? (Score:2)
Tell it like it is. (Score:2)
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.
Re:Tell it like it is. (Score:2)
I didn't know that Prince of Persia was a 100% original game. That's amazing, really.
Re:Tell it like it is. (Score:1)
Not a new design element per se, but rather a new implementation. Having played Full Auto, I wouldn't say this is sugar coating, just an accurate description.
Re:Tell it like it is. (Score:2)
It's very hard to come up with a completely new concept. Implementing it well however can make all the difference.
What do you expect? (Score:2)
I think you're expecting too much from these slashvertisements
Designed to change perceptions (Score:2)
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.
Re:Designed to change perceptions (Score:1)
Re:Designed to change perceptions (Score:2)
Defecting to "That Other Platform" (Score:1)
Your logic is that publishers have no interest in promoting a platform? What do you think the games get played on?
The competitor's platform. This could be Xbox 360 vs. PS3 (joypad/fixed), or it could be Revolution vs. Windows Vista (mouse/fixed), or it could be Nintendo DS vs. PSP (joypad/mobile), or it could be Nintendo DS vs. Windows Mobile (touch screen/mobile). Heck, it's even current gen vs. next gen, especially on Windows where the generation curve is continuous rather than stepwise. Only publishe
Three actually (Score:2)
What about Project Gotham Racing?
Re:Three actually (Score:2)
Re:link (OT) (Score:2)
Re:Three actually (Score:1)
Re:Three actually (Score:2)
Oh sure in some soft rich boy benz you might find it easy to control, but a real high powered sports car is anything but.
Re:Three actually (Score:2)
Disclaimer: I don't own a sports car. I don't actually own any kind of car. I do the website for the official swiss importer of Lotus and Caterham cars, so I know lots of sports cars owners and get to drive their cars from time to time.
I think the point here is that at equal speeds, a sports car is easier to keep on the road than a "normal" car. The Caterham cars are actually nothing
Re:Three actually (Score:1)
Re:Three actually (Score:1)
Re:Three actually (Score:1)
Best game I have played in awhile, I love getting chased by police and shit.
Alienated Average Joe (Score:1)
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.
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:2)
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:3, Insightful)
So you don't own one and have made up your mind? Very grown-up of you. MS has sold 600,000 of them and it's a 'failure'.
Well, I actually own one - bought it from Best Buy a month ago - it's very cool. Hardly a 'failure'.
Wait a couple weeks - MS says they're going to flood the market. 'Supply issues will be gone', so sayeth Mr. Moore.
Then, when you've trie
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:2)
If Microsoft had only been able to get 100,000 out the door - that would have been a 'supply problem'.
But they've sold -a lot- more than that.. something like 600,000 last i saw. That's just a case of more supply than demand.
And it's not like they're selling sneakers... these things are exceedingly high end and difficult to manufacture.
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:2)
Right.. because you have any clue what you're talking about...
"Guys, if you enjoy your toy, enjoy it. Who cares if someone expresses an opion contrary to the "360 Way"? Every single one of you losers gets all upset any time someone rips MS! Try having sex once and a while, it helps."
Again... because you have any clue what you're talking about. Nobody was
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:2)
That shortage thing is so last month.
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:1)
If you want something that's in high demand and short supply, you pay for it in some form or another. Systems are available without bundles at MSRP if you're unwilling to spend the time to track one down. If you're not willing to invest time in that, your next option is pay more cash for it.
For the record, I picked up my system in bundle form at Costco for less than the retail price of all the components, and I didn't get stuck with any crap. Xbox 360 Pr
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:2)
Its hilarious. I'm not sayin the 360 is a piece of junk, it clearly has some power, and hopefully some decent games will come out for it, but for a company with that much money and market sway, to think the rarity
Re:Alienated Average Joe (Score:1)
So how do Linux users find an Xbox 360? (Score:1)
Check out the Xbox 360 Inventory Tool to check your local Best Buy, Circuit City, or Future Shop (in Canada) for an Xbox 360 Premium system.
The blog says that the tool requires the .NET Framework 2.0. I have a feeling that the .NET Framework 2.0 in turn requires Microsoft Windows, as it probably introduces a load of APIs that Mono does not know of. A lot of people on Slashdot suggest that people who complain about the lack of games on minority personal computing platforms such as Mac OS X or Ubuntu Linu
Interstate '76 (Score:1)
Re:Interstate '76 (Score:1)
I wish someone would resurrect that game and port it to the XBox 360; I would gladly pay $60 for that.
Sigh!
Re:Interstate '76 (Score:2)
Ahhh, memories (Score:2)
A new sequel to that would be great... actually, a prequel would be excellent, 1960s cars... nice... or actually 1940s would be pretty cool too... real gangster style car chases with tommy guns.
Re:Interstate '76 (Score:1)
Twisted Metal (Score:2)
I remember playing the orginal on one of those demo discs that come with magazines. Good fun actually, remember playing the demo a few times. Never bought the full game however as i felt I'd got everying I was going to
Re:Twisted Metal (Score:1)
Twisted Metal was released for the playstation in '95, infact it became quite a popular series
And Super Mario Kart before that. If I remember correctly, SMK is the granddaddy of vehicular combat on video game consoles.
Re:Twisted Metal (Score:2)
I remember playing this bad boy on my 8086 and loading it using 3 5 1/5" floppies.
Then I upgraded to a 486 and the game was no longer playable since everythign would happen too fast. lol
Saw this on G4 (Score:2)
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.
Definition of Next Gen (Score:2)
Re:Saw this on G4 (Score:2)
It'd be fun to race a $4000 striped Datsun 510 with a Carburated/MSD/headworked/camed/headered KA24E, aluminum flywheel and brake disks, and tight suspension against a $50000 turboed Corvette. You could PWN them at simulated autocross, then get
AutoDuel anyone? (Score:1)
Re:AutoDuel anyone? (Score:2)
Re:AutoDuel anyone? (Score:2)
The clue's in the developer's name (Score:2)
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'?)
Re:The clue's in the developer's name (Score:2)
pr0n (Score:2)
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 sentence
Re:pr0n (Score:2)
Why does everyone hate this game so much? (Score:2)
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 g
Re:Why does everyone hate this game so much? (Score:1)
I do agree the game needed more complexity and depth to it - and for them to fix t
Re:Why does everyone hate this game so much? (Score:1)
I really liked the demo, but $60 seems a bit steep for an experience that is ultimately kinda shallow. I'll wait to get it used or keep my eyes open for a price drop.
I'm unemployed, you insensitive clod! (Score:1)
if it costs half a days pay (if you are paid decently (after taxes))
Though I have a degree, there are few to no IT job postings in my hometown that take recent graduates. Most want somebody with experience (code word for somebody who was laid off during the dot-com crash or during the outsourcing boom). I send my cover letter and resume and get 0 responses. I can't save up the money to move to another state because even fast food doesn't want to hire me, possibly because of some unstated conclusion that
Re:I'm unemployed, you insensitive clod! (Score:2)
Yeah, that's a hot-button of mine. I don't believe in the term 'overqualified' and think that HR and other hiring resources in companies should not be able to disqualify candidates based on that notion. Example: If you have 40 years of experience, imagine how much you could teach my team in the three years that I may get to keep you?? You'd have seen software/hardware errors that my team hadn't ever experienced, and could relate that e
My $0.02 (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Xbox Live still requires broadband (Score:1)
Live Marketplace ... makes reviews less necessary when everyone can review the game themselves.
Not necessarily. I know a lot of families who aren't willing to upgrade from $120/yr dial-up Internet access to $480/yr high-speed Internet access just to download video game demos, especially if such an upgrade involves moving house. Does anybody have sales figures comparing the PS2 and original Xbox in geographic areas with broadband and in areas without?
Re:Xbox Live still requires broadband (Score:2)
Seriously.. I generally think, at leat with the XBox 360, that the people who are adopting -now- are the kind of people who generally have broadband and have bought into the whole 'Live' deal. Maybe I'm wrong but that's my feeling.
Original Xbox will be EOL'd (Score:2)
people still have dial-up?
Yes [slashdot.org].
the people who are adopting -now- are the kind of people who generally have broadband
But later on, once people who had continued playing current-gen consoles have been forced to migrate to the Xbox 360 due to a lack of new releases for current-gen consoles, will the Xbox 360 have any significant advantage over the PS3 in geographic areas where no ISP offers affordable high-speed Internet access to residential customers?
Re:Original Xbox will be EOL'd (Score:2)
As for PS3 vs. XBox, there isn't much point in discussing that given that the PS3 isn't even available and very little is known about it's on-line functionality. That said, rumors are saying that Sony is going to
Re:Original Xbox will be EOL'd (Score:2)
It's also half the price and appeals to a large portion of the market.
Personally, I do own a PSP because of Prince of Persia / GTA three-dee goodness on the road. But I guess that's just personal preference.
What's the *point* of a console? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
That said, there are reasons to buy a console: fun games. If you are looking for latest and greatest graphics and sound, the PC is it. But for games that aim for the fun factor, consoles have a lot more to choose from. I've got a Gamecube and PS2 at home and there is no shortage of in
Conversely.. (Score:2)
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
the problem is that the PC game buisness is obsessed with making the best games possible no matter what the requirements. To keep up with the latest PC titles you need to spend several thousand a year at least.
wheras buy a console which is generally a few hundered at most and you will see n
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
While you can't buy a new gfx card for a XBox360 or a PS3 you actually can run the games in different resolution, thanks to HD-TV, so I am wondering if it makes any significant difference to run this or other games in PAL/NTSC instead of 720p HD-TV, it are after all only half or less the pixels to calculate.
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
it's been happening since the SNES days, if not earlier.
I know for a FACT Metal Slug 3 would slow down at random spots. That was for the 500USD NEO GEO. The cart cost more than X360 Value Pack.
However, the console's gimmick is that not every game does it and if it does, it's consistent.
Re:What's the *point* of a console? (Score:2)
But... (Score:1)
Once again, graphics can't save a bad game (Score:2)
streets of sim city? (Score:1)
Re:streets of sim city? (Score:1)
Ahhh.. who cares (Score:2)
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
What really sucks about the game... (Score:2)
Re:What really sucks about the game... (Score:2)
I was wondering about that myself, but I guess we'll see what it's like when the game is released. I would imagine the level of the zombies' awareness is something they'll heavily test and tweak.
Re:Ahhh.. who cares (Score:1)
Gimick game (Score:1)
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
Re:Gimick game - perhaps offtopic (Score:2)
The environment itself is static, to the extent that you can't blow up buildings and other hardware, but when it comes to cars Burnout:Revenge is awsome in my opinion. I've had the game for a month or so, and I think I'm almost 70% done. I can't really speak to 'racing mechanics' but I can tell different cars by the way the 'feel' when I excellerate/corner in them, if that's what you mean. There aren't any cars in Burnout that I can compare to real-world cars.
The single-box m
Live For Speed (Score:2)
They win brownie points with me by using ogg vorbis for their sound files. :)
Something the Review Missed:It Bloody Well Crashes (Score:2)
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!
Int
Re:Something the Review Missed:It Bloody Well Cras (Score:2)
I laugh at this when... ... (Score:1)
Sick my ass, I never trust the marketing people anyway (not even at my own company) and this is exactly the reason!
Carmageddon! (Score:2)
Re:Carmageddon! (Score:1)
Re:Carmageddon! (Score:2)
the real question (Score:1)
Should have been Xbox Live MiniGame (Score:1)
Hopefully they'll get smart and convert it (maybe with 1/4 the levels or something) as a
Only one good racing sim .. (Score:2, Insightful)
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
NASCAR drivers see 1 turn 1000 times. Rally drivers see 1000 turns 1 time.
Ah, another Zonk review... (Score:1)
"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 h
My 2 cents too (Score:1)
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
Re:When did Slashdot become gamespy? (Score:1)
Re:Huh? (Score:2)