Full Auto

"Classic Sega or classic failure?"

Full Auto is an interesting game, it's a game that didn't receive as much hype as some critics would lead you to believe and it delivers on exactly what was promised no more and no less.

Graphics

The graphics in Full Auto should be considered next gen. When you consider how much action is going on screen at once with all the reflections and explosions and car damage it's just insane. There are 1000's of trackside objects for you to plow into and destroy as well as buildings and cars. I'd complain about some how the textures in the game but there is just so much going on all at once it makes this gripe very small. There are a few frame rate hiccups every now and again but they won't hurt the experience and they only happen when you have a big explosion right in your face with quite a few cars there with you, again when you consider everything that's going on its respectable.

Sound

Lets be honest here, the music sucks like every Sega racing game in history. The good news is you can stream music from an ipod or computer or you can play music you ripped to your hard drive. The explosions and car crunches sound really good and the Dolby 5.1 is very well done, in fact its better then just about any game out there, you can hear cars approaching, missiles coming at you, shotgun and machine gun blasts and you can tell where they are coming from via audio clues alone.

Control

Some people will complain the game just plays strangely, but those people I believe were expecting it to control exactly like Burnout. Well this isn't Burnout and the controls are pretty good once you get the hang of how it all works. After a couple hours with the game I had no trouble timing my power slides to perfectly drift around corners and get out of the way of debris. The weapon aiming while driving takes some getting used to and like they say practice makes perfect. There is nothing better then hitting a ramp at 150 mph, landing, drifting around a corner and mid drift aiming and shooting a missile to kill whoever is in front of you.

Game play

At first this game put me to sleep, I started believing the reviews were spot on and this game was going to be a failure. Well after a couple hours getting the car physics down and plenty of practice aiming while driving I got to say this game is damn fun. I said above how great it feels to blow someone up mid drift but that's just the start of it. With some good playtime you can start pulling off truly insane maneuvers that will blow your mind and beg for instant replay. This reminds me the games instant replay is really good but it does have flaws. You can go into replay at any time during the race and zoom in or pan the camera; you can also control the speed of the replay. The problems occur when you're letting the game just play it out at full speed, it sometimes picks odd camera angles that don't showcase the action the way you want it to. I wonder why you can't control the camera when the replay is running at full speed.

Playing this game on Xbox Live is pure fun. Get a group of friends together and just blow the crap out of each other, the online multiplayer is easily the best part of this game and damn does it run smooth and lag free.

The physics…oh the physics. Everything you can see you can destroy in some fashion. There are tons of roadside objects to shoot at or drive through. You see a train, go ahead and blow it up and watch it block the road behind you. Want to cut a corner? Shoot a missile at the edge of the building and drive on through. This is where the game gets it depth; you can make your own shortcuts or road hazards. You wont be doing this from the get go but in due time it will all come together.

Overall

This game screams Sega, if you were expecting some super deep racing game then forget it, of course that doesn't mean the game doesn't have its own level of depth. This is the kind of game we used to play in arcades, its great in short spurts but could be tedious if you play it for hours on end unless you're playing on Xbox Live. Should you buy it? That's for you to decide but if you like fast racing with a little strategy then at the very least give this game a shot.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/17/06