Full Auto

Written by Nick Doukas  on December 16, 2005

Hands-On Preview: The decapitation of Larry LeadfootЕ

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Full Auto is the new next gen, all-out auto destruction/racing game from SEGA and developer Pseudo Interactive that promises to meld Mechassault with Project Gotham Racing. After a little hands-on time with this whirlwind force of nature I've got to say Ц it looks like they're succeeding in a big way. Featuring intense speed and incredible stunts and jumps, as well as insane combat with huge cannons and other armaments, Full Auto definitely holds much promise for action junkies everywhereЕ

The demo only sports one track and a choice of two cars (the final version will have 21 cars, as well as selectable weapons sets for each class of vehicle and numerous tracks chock full of destructible environments both urban and more natural, open landscape) the Vulcan - a cool looking muscle car in the vein of an old Mustang or Camaro that sports powerful machine guns and a missile launcher or the Python, a big old caddy styled cruiser with a massive shotgun mounted on the hood and a grenade launcher in back Ц perfect for taking out foes on your six.

The first thing you'll notice about the game is the fantastic visuals. Running in hi def, Full Auto looks spectacular, with nicely modeled, heavily detailed vehicles and weapons as well as sweet environments that shine like a new penny. The textures on all of the buildings are sharp and clean with nice lighting, high quality bump mapping and realistic features while the cars look great, with sparkling chrome and deep, rich reflective surfaces. Once the action gets going Full Auto immediately cranks the destruction meter to eleven and beyond. Ripping up huge chunks of real estate is an amazing experience and you'll be flabbergasted as you tear everything - and I mean everything - to ribbons, as chunks of plaster and concrete explode from building faces in a shower of intense particles. Every signpost, tree, dumpster, mailbox and trestle is up for grabs and blowing virtually every object in your path to pieces is great fun, but it can also affect your race in more ways than you can imagine. Besides sending a missile straight up your opponent's tailpipe you can also target bridges and neon signs, among other stuff, and bring it crashing down on your rival with a perfectly placed shot. You can use the strategically placed ramps around the course to get the jump on the competition and blow out the windows and columns in corner buildings to create a better turning angle. Since virtually every object is fully destructible, you're pretty much only limited by your imagination.

The sense of speed is wonderful, but it's the unbelievable carnage that starts to really impress the more you play. Being in the middle of a pack of cars all hauling ass around corners and through the streets, into tight back alleys and leaping off ramps while tracers ricochet all around you and explosives thunder in front and behind is powerful to say the least, and the incredible scenarios that ensue are nothing short of spectacular. Hitting jumps switches your perspective into a cinematic mode, and this adds much style to your racing, not to mention that it's breathtaking to watch. Skidding around corners and stitching your adversary's vehicle with 50mm slugs before sending a missile through his gas tank is the essence of this game, and destroying your opponents comes complete with a satisfying slow-motion shot of their messy demise. Speaking of which, the physics in Full Auto are outstanding, with stupendous crashes where cars flip and roll the length of an entire city block, blasting through glass windows and neon signs, on-fire and spraying pieces of shrapnel everywhere. In fact, your own crashes are presented in a similar fashion, and those are almost as much fun to watch as your enemy's wrecksЕ.almost. All the cars show real time damage and you'll see trunks, hoods and doors fall off as well as shattered glass and torn up bumpers. The sound is also great with huge, loud explosions and the scream of tortured metal at every turn, not to mention the whine of ricocheting bullets in glorious 5.1 surround.

As much fun as all that demolition is, sometimes you really screw up and go flailing into a steel girder or careening off a ramp sideways as you explode into a huge fireball. Not to worry Ц the Unwreck feature in Full Auto allows you to rewind time Ц the screen turns sepia toned and you'll watch the last few seconds of the accident go backwards to the point where you can completely change the outcome of that moment. Instead of crashing and burning, zip back a few moments and take that turn a little sharper so you line up properly and take out the clown who just took you out in that little alternate reality. Good stuff to be sure, although this feature will be disabled in the online portion of the game. However, you can still look forward to blasting up your buddy's rides, something that's sure to be a thrilling encounter given the quality we've seen so far. That said, there are a few slowdown issues present in the incomplete build, but that's to be expected in a demo version. There's nothing to indicate that Pseudo Interactive won't have the framerate locked down solid before the game goes gold.