Fuel

One very obvious thing racing games have yet often fail to really do well is recreate some proper back roads. A few games have created free roaming cities. But let’s face it, cities are boring and generic. The whops are where the real fun is to be had.

While games like Big Red Racing (or more recently Motorstorm) let you stray from the track and drive over a few hills, Fuel's game world is completely open ended. It’s the scale that is really mind blowing though - the map spans over 14,000km² in size. Apparently the world will be seamless too, meaning no loading between locations. That is beyond epic. Game trailers so far show airports, canyons and alpine roads. Fuel could be the game to finally take car games up a notch.

The game is set in a post-apocalyptic world, hopefully this isn’t code for ‘barren desert’. It’s all very well having a big map if there’s nothing interesting on it. I’m hoping Fuel's world is alive with realistic winding alpine and coastal tracks as well as some more open desert skirmishes. I’d really like tight racing action which allows players to be creative and take some risky shortcuts. Lets hope the vehicle handling is up for the job and really sharp.

We have all seen weather conditions in games before, but the post-apocalyptic setting allows the developers to take this to the extreme. Racing across the map, expect to bump into the odd twister or firestorm. This has the potential to really up the ante. Imagine being bumper to bumper with mates online, changing your course on the fly to avoid debris, or even cars being thrown about by the storm. Single player should be a blast, but online could be insane!

With 70 cars to choose from including motorbikes and hovercraft, Fuel could be the craziest, most innovative racing game we have seen in a long time. Imagine crossing paddocks, taking shortcuts over cliffs and many other things we have seen on TV to get ahead of those taking the safe route. Races across the entire map with everyone taking different routes could be most interesting. To say this game has potential is an understatement. Our only concern is if the game is trying to do too much.

NZGamer can’t wait to get our hands on this title. New office favourite? Fuel is due to hit our shores end of May this year.