Buzzin Games

Racing Game: Fuel - Games Review

This month saw the release of Fuel, a racing game for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles from Codemasters. The hype was big.  But was it worth it?

Fuel, the press release told me, was built on ground-breaking technology to give the game a huge world of “atmospheric beauty and awe-inspiring size fully open to race and explore. There is 5,000 square miles of game world to explore, making it the ‘biggest game ever made’.

This unprecedented racing playground features dramatic weather effects, including tornados, blizzards, sandstorms and lightning, a full day / night cycle and enormous environmental diversity, from the snow-capped dormant volcano Mount Rainier to the arid Grand Canyon and everything in between.”

Fuel allows gamers to pick and choose their route, races and career progression while extensive multiplayer options allow up to 16 players to race against each other in pre-set events, explore the world in free ride or create their own challenges and share them online.
It includes a wealth of over 70+ quads, trucks, bikes, cars and even hovercrafts that race across both land and water to choose from.  But is a wide range of vehicles, terrains and race tracks enough for an arcade style racing game in 2009?

Like a lot of other gamers, I was really getting quite excited about the release of Fuel.  After all, Codemasters know their stuff right? Unfortunately, Fuel may look great, and may offer you more race track and vehicles than other racing games.  But frankly, that’s not enough.  And after the initial buzz of excitement Fuel falls well short and fails to deliver.

You can play Fuel in two different game approaches: Free Ride and Career and Challenges.

Free Ride is very similar to the Freeburn gameplay in Burnout Paradise.  Unfortunately, the similarities with Burnout Paradise don’t stop there.

Fuel: screenshot

The game’s Career and Challenges mode allows a player to fast-track to the beginning of an event without having to travel between each race. The main emphasis of the game is career events and the challenges offer extra interest level as missions. Unfortunately, most of the Career and Challenge events are simple standard races against a grid of 8 other opponents.
Similar to Burnout Paradise, your progress in the Career and Challenges unlocks more vehicles.
Fuel is an exciting game filled with 72 career events, 196 challenges and a vast land available to roam freely in freeride where you can collect oil drums, liveries and vista points.

On a more positive note, Fuel has online multiplayer races for up to 16 players.

Furthermore, the game comes with a race creator that allows players to design checkpoint races and can form part of the endurance challenges. Competing online with up to 15 other players is Fuel’s best point.  Though I’m not sure the gameplay is going to keep anyone’s interest for too long.

In conclusion I would say if you haven’t already got a racing game for your PS3 or Xbox 360 then you will possibly enjoy Fuel enough to warrant a purchase.  However, if like me you were hoping it would be an improvement on what I already have, think again.

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