[A note from the Evil Editor™: We're continually striving to separate ourselves from the pack of carbon copy gaming sites out there. To that end, we've decided to phase out simply "reporting the news" and instead serve up conversations about it. This, then, is our first stab at that...]
Before we delve into the conversation, we’d like to show everyone the latest trailer for Fuel, the off-road, open world racing game coming this May from CodeMasters & Adobo Studios. Fuel is to contain over 5,000 square miles of open terrain and all different types of unpredictable weather that can affect players trying to stay on course.
As a humorous prelude, this is what happened when Tyler Curtis pressed play…Warning, you’ll either laugh or run like hell:
0:07 : Ooooh….Fuel! I never watch this network.
0:13 Mmmmm. What a nice Sunset.
0:15 Broken down adobes and a shiny future city on Tatooine….ok, I’m interested
0:17 Snow-capped mountain helicopter shot means I should look for Gandalf and the fellowship
0:19 Ooooh! Laser Light show at Sunset in the RV park on Lake Tahoe. Hope its Floyd…
0:21 F***. Acid Flashback. Someone give me a rope to hang on to…
0:26 TWISTER!!! COW! and another Sunset…I sense a pattern here…
0:29 Some guy on an excite bike gives another rider the finger…at Sunset (sigh)
0:31 Did that car have six headlights??? What is going on here?!?!
0:33 Mad Max cameo…at Sunset.
0:34 Off road hemorrhoid-inducing bmxing…I have put my sunglasses on at this point.
0:36 Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! Watch BigFoot crush some pre-wrecked cars…
0:37 Ozzy Osbourne at…phew!…SUNRISE. (I hope)
0:38 Is that a long nose chopper going against an off-road bike? Gangsta!
0:40 Cars without hoods. Man, 3D artists are getting LAZY.
0:41 Ozzy Osbourne doing tricks his team of doctors do not approve of.
0:42 SNOW BIKES! Wait, what?
0:44 Must have been hallucinating. Now they’re Dirt Bikes.
0:46 Another Sunset…or Sunrise. Paging Tevya!
0:48 Over the shoulder angle of another excite biker during the golden hour of…you guessed it…Sunset.
0:55 By this time I’m singing “Fiddler on The Roof” in the kitchen so I miss the montage of Motorstorm rejects sloughing through corners with lightning and explosions in the background.
0:56 The CodeMasters logo emulsifies.
1:00 I write the following satire ala Fiddler’s “Sunrise, Sunset”:
“Sunrise….Sunset…Sunrise…Sunset….Swiftly flow the days. Excitebikes turn overnight to Monster trucks, Blowing up every single day!”
Cory Appleton: I dig the direction they’re going with Fuel, it looks like a cross-platform Motorstorm. I really like what they’re doing with the weather effects too and would have liked to see more gameplay showing the affects of the weather on the racing.
John Robertson: I don’t think it looks much like Motorstorm at all, it’s much more serious than that. I’d be shocked if CodeMasters put boost capabilities or lava flows into this game – shocked and disappointed. Hopefully the online will be worthwhile as that’s often where a lot of re-playability comes from in modern racers.
Blake Grundman: This video looks like the game is trying to deliver on the promises that Motorstorm made at the launch of the PlayStation 3. Yet there is only one brief glimpse of footage that shows vehicles of different types of racing against each other, (Dune Buggy and Motorcycle) otherwise it appears that the races will be broken up into heats by vehicle type. You know what else? I’m wondering how the weather really interacts with the races? They show a Tornado in the distance, but in the clips it never interacts with the vehicles. Will it be playing an important role in the game? Plus, in more of a general observation, it looks like the weather and seasons will run the gambit from summer showers to winter blizzards, but that may simply depend on the environment used. There also may be a day/night cycle, because the clips seem to show sunrise, dusk and everything in between.
Jason Evangelho: This is going to be an ambitious title. And like you Blake, I sincerely hope they make the weather more than just eye candy. Now, I would be thrilled if FUEL launches right out of the gate with several of the features that Criterion have worked into Burnout Paradise. Things like a real time day/night cycle as you mentioned, a persistent and seamless online multiplayer, a slew of objectives…Burnout Paradise and GRID have been the most played racers in my console to date. Maybe I’m biased here, but I’m really pulling for this to be a critical and commercial hit.
Cory Appleton- Here’s my problem John. No matter how much they separate themselves from Motorstorm, you have to admit that they look awfully similar. I know other games that have been cranked out by CodeMasters have been good and I’m not saying that this one wont be, but it has so many things in common with Motorstorm, that I can’t help but think this was a way for them to capitalize on the ideals that were put forth with games such as Pacific Rift. Outcasts on a wasteland or adrinaline junkies on an island, sounds roughly the same to me seeing how they’re partaking in off-road racing that the normal crowd might steer clear of.
Bob Alaburda: Quick tangent guys: I think it is very telling that the PS3 is still chasing the ghost of its pre-launch promises. Sure it looks great, but is it fun? No one seems to care since seeing that Killzone pre-rendered trailer. All told, the 360 and PS3 are very difficult to separate in terms of graphical capabilities, but Sony needed to hype its slight graphical superiority to justify the $100 price difference, especially since Blu-Ray wasn’t too prevalent at launch. Just look at games like Valkyria Chronicles. By all accounts, an amazing game that woefully undersold. Or pretty much anything on the PSN.
Liz Wise: Right, I don’t think amazing graphics are something to be admired on the PS3 anymore…they should be expected.
Bob Alaburda: I think the real story here is that we all get worked up whenever we see one of these beautiful trailers, because we remember how awesome the graphics on the PS3 were promised to be. And unfortunately, it hurts the legitimately great games that don’t necessarily have the AAA polish.
Jason Evangelho: Does it? I remember seeing the first trailer for GRID and just being blown away. That game had some insane polish on it, but believe it or not it wasn’t what you’d call a commercial success. Was it too difficult for the average gamer? Did the weak online component hurt its reputation? Personally I loved it, but the AAA polish didn’t necessarily propel it into the stratosphere. You also have to keep in mind that CodeMasters is probably working with a very large budget on this one.
Lloyd Hannesson: We all agree it looks incredible, but how will it play? Fuel will supposedly encompass 5000 square miles of playable terrain, how will they control events and access to this world? A fully open world racer would be damn hard to do, and chunking it out into separate races would almost defeat the point of rendering all that terrain. I am looking forward to checking out Fuel just to see how the developers made it work, but I’m not holding my breath!
John Robertson: For me it’s a must-buy already. I love racing games, whether they’re realistic, arcadey or just downright silly, they’re all fun and all usually worth it. GRID and DiRT (both from Codemasters) have been particularly impressive, explaining my desire for FUEL.
Fanky Malloon: In my gaming life, I have found no matter how impressive a trailer to be, the proof is in the pudding – or playing, as it were. This looks great, but how does it handle? What are load times like? How easy is it to set up a season? How easy is it to permit or restrict vehicle types and race types? Are all vehicles available on all maps? Will the online modes be smooth? The new trailer definitely peaks our curiosity, but they’ll have to keep pushing the actual gameplay if they want to succeed here. This is an admirable start.
GOT AN OPINION RACING JUNKIE? SOUND OFF BELOW!
Popularity: 15% [?]
4 comments