Overall, Fuel is significant as a huge-world game, but it does many other things competently. It's first and foremost a racing game for all seasons, mixing the on-road with the off-road, and the pavement with the dirt. But above all, Fuel will be known for being a huge game. It's humbling to see 72 races and 160 challenges occupy the same space. At the same time, it's incredible to see a mountain off in the distance during a race and have the full knowledge that, when this race is over, I can point my bumper at that mountain and drive there. Of course, there are racing games that do driving better, but for the sheer diversity and spacial authenticity, Fuel is hard to beat.

Game Details			Loading Reality Scoring
Format	Xbox 360 (all 360 reviews)		Score Meaning: Above average and even teetering on "good." Ambitious ideas along with redeeming qualities outweigh the handfuls of negative, making it worth a look.
Publisher	Codemasters
Developer	Asobo Studios
Category	Racing		Presentation
ESRB	E		Gameplay
Online Players	16		Graphics
Offline Players	4		Sound
Price	59.99		Value Factor
Release Date	June 2, 2009		Final Score

Fuel

When Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion hit the scene, we marveled at its expansive 16 square mile world, densely stocked with caves, towns, and camps traveled on foot and on horse. Then, we cruised Oahu in Test Drive: Unlimited and sampled the island's 1,000 miles of open road in speedy supercars most of us would never see in our lifetimes. Today, we have Fuel, a sprawling 5,300 square mile behemoth of asphalt, dirt road, and off-road driving. Imagine driving what would be the length of Liberty City and still covering less than a twentieth of the total landmass. It's very hard to fathom just how large that is (20,000 miles of paved road + 80,000 of dirt road and barely-beaten paths), but what's even harder to grasp is how varied and dense that space is. First impulses would make you wonder just how detailed and interesting such a large expanse could possibly be. I mean, games are made on budgets, with people, and with schedules. How do you populate 5,000 square miles before the trumpets sound and angels descend? And more importantly, how do you fit all that game space on a DVD9 disk for the Xbox 360 version?

Procedural generation and satellite data. When you see Fuel's "loading" screens, one of the things that immediately strikes you is the absence of the word "loading". Instead, the game's loading screens are actually "generating" screens, using a sophisticated algorithm to create the game world on the fly based on pieces of data much smaller than the resulting data. Otherwise, how would you populate a game with millions of trees and untold miles of roads, buildings, and streams? The immediate downside to that is the amount of time each loading screen takes, on the order of 15-20 seconds each (with the ability to shave off a few seconds by loading the game to your hard drive). Also, as a result of being generated rather than loaded, you will tend to see the same barn or disused gas station several times, but not to the point that it gets annoying. It's just simply noticeable, the same way John Madden repeats himself every so often.

Now that we have dealt with the giant elephant in the room, we can get down to the meat of the game. Fuel's plot places semi-suicidal racers in an American wasteland of mankind's own creation. Oil has run out, global warming has submerged entire cities, and meteorological events eventually destroy any signs of civilization careless enough to take root. Here racers compete for fuel, the currency of the wastes, which you can use to buy new vehicles. Also, when you aren't racing, you can cruise around the map, searching for barrels of fuel, in single barrels of 100 units, or higher value stacks of four barrels, worth 400 units. You typically find barrels near buildings along the road, and many of the buildings coax you to perform some sort of stunt to collect their barrels. However, since many of the buildings are indeed the same, you have to perform the same ramped jump to get barrels that are often in the exact same place. What starts off as an impromptu challenge at every stop quickly turns into easy money, and at worst, a chore.

The terrain is divided up into nineteen zones, each with it's own ecological disaster that makes it unique. For example, the "Ashtray" region was devastated by a forest fire, and several trees still smolder with smoke that blots out the sun. Each zone serves as it's own object lesson about what might await humanity if environmental abuse isn't curtailed. However, the game descends into eviro-snark more than a few times, goading the player on for burning their last drops of fuel under the empty oil wells of the "Dry Rigs" region. Especially in this case, the entire premise of the game runs a little thin. The vehicles you drive never run out of fuel, though you seem to be racing for said fuel, of which there is an allegedly limited supply. The paradox is easy to ignore once you stop calling it fuel and start calling it money, but the dissonance that creates calls into question just how compelling this guilt-trip of a sermon is.

During most of the races and the entire free-roaming mode, the game gives you a great 3D GPS system, that hovers out in front of you. Unlike games like Burnout Paradise that keep one eye glued to the mini-map, Fuel keeps your eyes front, center, and on the race. It's hard to miss a turn. Occasionally, the GPS does get its own creative ideas on how to get you to your location. That may range from missing an obvious shortcut to taking the scenic route. However, the GPS is quite impressionable. If you start driving off road intentionally, the GPS will accept the fact and plot the course directly to the target. But stick to the roads and you will find your path directed out very clearly. Races are straight to the point usually. The only ambiguity comes when tracks shift from on-road to off-road. The GPS follows a special path exclusive to the race, but cues we are used to seeing in the terrain may lead us down roads off the track. Otherwise, barricades and chevrons provide enough visual leads to get you where you are going. The only situations where GPS isn't allowed are on special challenges, like the Helicopter Chase where you try to out race a helicopter in a point-to-point off-road race or the Seek and Destroy race, where you try to catch up to cars police-chase style and tag them.

The free-ride mode leaves you plenty to do when you aren't racing. As you win races, maverick vehicles start popping up, and it's up to you to hunt them down and tag them to win their ride. Meanwhile, you can find new liveries for your cars, and new vista points, which offer great views. Eventually, you get to hunt down radar trucks to unveil all the liveries, vista points, and challenges in the zone. Some of the most fun can be had just tracking down different target vehicles. Choose a helipad near your target, set a waypoint near your target, select an appropriate vehicle, and get on with the hunt.

Vehicles come in all shapes and sizes from trucks, to muscle cars, to dune buggies, to SUV's, to quads, and finally dirt and street bikes. There is even rumor of hovercrafts and drag racers, but I haven't seen them yet. Each vehicle handles completely differently from each other vehicle in the game, but the physics simulation is still quite forgiving. Sliding your dirt bike around turns is easy since it's so easy to keep a squared-up slide. Drifting on dirt roads is easy. It's largely pedal-to-the-metal-action, but a little throttle discipline goes a long way on dirt roads. When driving the large trucks however, it's possible to get traction on only one back tire, leading you to twirl on that back tire, like a monster truck out of control.

The cars experience plenty of damage, but it doesn't tend to affect their performance. However, once your damage meter tops out, one more good jostle will wreck your vehicle and force you to respawn on track... and a respawn will usually cost you the race on the highest difficulty. On the visual side, your vehicle will pick up a little bit of whatever you are racing on. Take the semis: if you race over sand dunes, expect your truck cab and your tires to be caked over in sand by the end of the race. And when racing on dirt roads in the rain, it doesn't matter what paint job you chose, because everyone gets a coat of brown.

One of the more iconic experiences in Fuel is the tornado race. And boy, the tornadoes are the real deal. Not only can the tornadoes themselves ruin your day, but also watch for flying trailer homes, tractors, and downed powerline towers. Some of the obstacles are very clearly scripted while others are believably dynamic. The game likes to throw a lot at you and challenge you to persevere. However, on the other hand, some of the more subdued races are just a matter of racing the course once, coming in around 3rd to 6th, and learning the terrain. Once you learn where your vehicle grips best on the course, the follow up is easier. The saying goes, "Don't forsake the finish line". There is value in finishing the race, regardless

The graphics in Fuel are "standard" realistic. I mean, they look great, but it's nothing to write home about. The only gripes I would have are that the game runs at sub-60 frames, and when things can get really hectic, you might see further drops in framerate. Also, you might see a few graphical flubs every now and then. One flickering decal texture on a house or a rogue triangle gets drawn for a split second. Still, the graphics serve to establish just how massive the world is, with an approximate 40 km draw distance. And speaking of size, one thing I still haven't gotten sick of is road trips. It's so much fun to pick a point in the wilderness you haven't unlocked yet, and just drive there. And with an impressive draw distance, odds are, if you could see in from here in real life, you can see it from here in Fuel.

3.5 / 5

Written by :

edgeofblade

 

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