Codemasters have been very hit or miss this generation. They seem to have the racing genre down to a science, and have pretty consistently turned out decent games in that department, however one only needs to look as far as their other endeavors to know that they're not the end-all-be-all of codehouses.

...and that's why I'm worried about FUEL. It has the potential to be fuck awesome, but quite frankly, looking at some of the footage, I'm concerned. The game looks as-of-right-now like it was created in the Far Cry 2 map editor, and I believe will either swing one of two ways. It'll either be too overwhelming and open-ended, causing you to amble around aimlessly, a-la the last quarter of GTAIV, or it will fall short of it's ambitions, and wind up as more of a hub-centric racing game, which may wind up fine in it's own right. Simply not what we were promised.

Have a look for yourself. What do you think?

Well it wasnt Codemasters at first to begin with. This was that game way way waaay back when called Grand Raid Offroad that floated around for a while. Then Codemasters picked up the studio and renamed the game and gave the developers a bigger budget to work with. 

What does all that mean? 

Nothing as far as I know. Either way I'm still quite interested in the games dynamic and sporadic weather system plus the massive and sickenly diverse game world.

Asobo studios has quite a lot to prove of themselves...Pixar movies to games isnt the greatest launching pad. Tho they managed to get the interest of codemastes who already have a solid stable of racers.

Seems Kotaku shares the same view of the trailer.
Kotaku Link

Not heard much about FUEL.  How will it be different from Pacific Rift?

choupolo


Not heard much about FUEL.  How will it be different from Pacific Rift?

Its supposed to be open world (similar to Fail Cry 2) and multiplatform.

Interesting idea but difficult to pull off.  Would be fun to wander around aimlessly but ultimately pointless.  And there's little point to having an open world when your 'track' will be defined as they usually are in your average race, whether its rally or circuit racing.

There was a game called Xpand Rally ages ago that tried 'open-world' racing.  Only ever tried the demo.  It was fun and of course the tracks were defined giving you directions and destructible obstacles deterring you from going off in the wrong direction.  If you wanted you could go off in the wrong direction - but there wasn't really anything off track to find, so there was no real point to go exploring, especially since you were in a race and would inevitably lose or be disqualified for taking short-cuts.

I think all you need in a rally game is the illusion of an open world rather than actually giving it to you.  Unless you get to drive home after the race.

I wonder if they were thinking of doing a 'Dakar Rally' type section... that might work, but would need to be much more involved than just driving from A to B, maybe adding considerations for fuel, supplies, mechanical failures etc.

It seem that its open world as in you drive to the race you want. Like how you pick a mission and drive to it in GTA4 or something. Because if it wasnt mentioned i would think that this is just a normal offroad racer.

'Dakar Rally'

Hell yes.

Seems Kotaku shares the same view of the trailer.
Kotaku Link

That's where i saw the video, but I hate linking there, no less using their content, so I elaborated a bit.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/949/949379p2.aspx
There is a race thats about an hour long. Plus you can make your own 30 checkpoint race.

Even if the game isnt a success, I hope the engine (A.C.E.) in the game gets picked up and used elsewhere. That thing sounds impressive. I think Asobo is a bit in over there heads, but they certainly have some nice tech.


http://www.gametrailers.com/player/45998.aspx

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