Codemasters over the years have become synonymous with racing games, releasing such titles as the addictive DiRT under the legendary Colin McRae name, as well as last years release of GRID, both of which proved to be eventful and technically sound racing games.

FUEL is the latest racing game to be delivered under the Codemasters name, this latest title is developed by Asobo Studios. FUEL already has some uniqueness about it that certainly makes it stand out from the crowd of vehicular games. For instance, before the game even released it earned a Guinness Book World Record award for being the game to feature the largest playable area 5,560 square miles (14,400km), driving from one end to the other is said to take at least 3 hours in the game, with no loading screens. That's certainly impressive, and a look at the game's map is certainly overwhelming. As big as FUEL's tank may be, just how well does it handle on the dirt-filled roads when you've got an incoming tornado?

Gameplay:

The concept of open-word driving games may not be new, you could easily fire up GTA IV for example and have an entertaining time just cruising around Liberty City for your first time. It is however games such as Test Drive: Unlimited that seemingly got the ball rolling for open-world racing, whilst EA's Burnout Paradise injected some much needed adrenaline into the mix. This recently released title from Codemasters looks to take open-world driving to the next level, the next massive level, that is. As mentioned above, it's absolutely and insanely massive.

The only real gripe with the gameplay is the handling of the vehicles itself and the content, more specifically the races. There's no sense of real weight to the vehicles, which often leads to sliding about far too easily. The bikes themselves fair a bit better in this regard, and naturally the terrain and vehicle in use has some effect also, though the handling is frustratingly just not at the point, for an arcade racer, where it needs to be. The career races and challenge races are fine, though they ultimately lack variety, fortunately the differing environments and dynamic weather effects help in this regard somewhat. Career races tend to get a bit more exciting later on, especially when you're following a track for a while then suddenly that dastardly GPS seems to be indicating for you to drive off a cliff... well that's where all the other racers have just headed, so here goes...

FUEL almost certainly needed a GPS, and its thankfully got one, too. It's been mentioned, the gaming track is huge and having that map and GPS at your disposal certainly makes life so much easier. It's actually also vital for most races, as you're required to come off the track sometimes, it would certainly be easy to lose track of where you're meant to be going without it (as guided by the sometimes erratic over-headed red arrows).

In the single-player, the main racing attractions are career and challenge races, there's several of these per region, each is exceptionally large, and if you're not contempt with driving from A to B when you feel you've completed or had enough of one area, simply open up your handy map and select the Heliport icon for where you'd like to be warped, or rather that is have a helicopter drop you off at your desired locale. Other than crashing your vehicle into a large lake, this would actually be the only time you can expect to see a loading screen. Driving from location to location is seamless, and will naturally take bloody ages as well (the one time I'd actually welcome a loading screen instead). Winning races earns FUEL points, which is needed for buying and unlocking new vehicles. This is just as well, as some later career races and challenges require a variety of differing vehicles, so ultimately the player is required to play both career and challenge races in order to juggle their allotted FUEL for future vehicular purchases.

Once you've had enough of racing for a while you can go free-ride offline (and as the 'offline' implies, this can also be played online with your buddies), this basically enables you to cruise around at your leisure, which can be used for hunting down discrete oil drums and finding some scenic locations all in the name of a couple of achievements. During free-ride you can also change your vehicle on the fly. This is particularly handy in scenarios such as hill climbing or similar, your bike may be sliding down, dive into the menu and get a buggy, and up thee shall go.

There's various vehicles available including bikes, and of course cars, as well as some modified buggies and trucks more suitable for differing terrain, such as the thick grassed woodlands, or a speedy buggy to plough through the thick mud, which proves all too handy, especially for the Helicopter race challenge, where chances are you'll have to come off the beaten track and follow the chopper, beating it to the finish line. This I've found to be one of the more entertaining challenges, perhaps it's because there's no GPS to guide the way, you simply rely on your wits, follow the chopper, dodge obstacles and keep an eye out for the red smoke near the finish line before attempting to floor it ahead of the helicopter. Other challenges include time trials and typical A to B races, as well as for another one having to catch-up with the marked vehicles ahead and crash into them. The latter actually reads more exciting than it is, you simply just have to catch up and touch the car and move onto the next one. Maybe it's my desire to want to ram them of the side off the road with ease that I would much prefer, but alas that wont get one too far in this racer.

Customization also has its place within FUEL, from decking out your driver with newly acquired clothing or giving your ride a new paint job. You can even compete in custom made courses online, as well as creating your own routes and competing with other Xbox Live users. Naturally you can return back to your map at the menu and choose a race, or merely whilst free-riding just drive upto to the nearest available race, and off you go.

Graphics:

The immediate driving game enthusiast who jumps straight behind the wheel and gets on with good old fashioned racing, one of the first things that will likely pop out to you is the visuals, and that immediate effect will likely be a negative one. There's some noticeable 'jaggies', and as for popping out, there's some texture pop-in off in the near distance as you drive your way through heated desserts and forests, although such things certainly did no harm to the overall likeability of the rather massive, non-racing game: Oblivion, which has some similar problems. Although FUEL has the benefit of going at greater speeds for the most part, the motion blur certainly helps to hide such problems around parts of the environments.

Some of the more nicer noticeable touches, are the motion blur whilst picking up some speed and the use of shadows bouncing off of objects in the environments such as buildings and trees. It might not sound like much, but during the daylight cycle it's one of those things that certainly stands out more.

Eye candy is all well and good, and certainly gives the first impression, though ultimately it comes down to just how fun a game is to play, or in the case of FUEL, how the vehicles handle in their environment. Though naturally there are some visual treats for your eye balls, the sense of scale, and of course those all important weather effects, rain, tornadoes, and lightning seem to do the trick and set the tone much more appropriately, and more importantly bring some sense of urgency to some of the races at hand.

Sound:

FUEL does have some suitable tunes available whilst driving, though many, and maybe it's just personal taste, come across as very un-exciting; an option to skip tracks using the D-Pad or similar would have been appreciated (the D-Pad merely doubles as the movement for the right analogue stick). FUEL's audio effects are passable, although not quite to the high quality of other Codemasters titles such as DiRT or GRID, the engine noises for example whilst varied seem to lack the needed punch. The audio is perhaps one of the weaker aspects to FUEL, though the sheer combination of scale and variety to the environments, and certainly the sound effects for the game's incredible weather effects most certainly over shadow any other audio shortcomings.

Longevity:

FUEL offers plenty to do to keep you occupied with career and challenge races, although after you get through a few regions these soon become very repetitive. If you want to take in the sights a bit more and just drive around, then you can easily get lost for several hours, and there's plenty of Vista Point scenic sites to be seen, all in the name of achievements of course.

While the FUEL experience may soon start to become tedious for those that fill up the tank, due mainly to the game's gameplay mechanics, regardless of which driving enthusiasts will find some entertainment here, if not in some of the career and challenge races, then driving online in free-ride with upto 15 other players/buddies is sure to offer some cheap thrills. FUEL always seems to have an odd balance, it has its occasional adrenaline-fuelled racing where something incredible happens, whether that be racing to the final chequered flag down a very steep hill on a motorcycle whilst trying to dodge trees and other obstacles, or simply keeping your distance from a near-by tornado. Moments such as these always seems so few and far between, which certainly makes you appreciate them more when they happen, but the rest of what you're left with, bar one or two interesting challenge races, ultimately the remainder feels more of a chore to play.

Overall:

It's difficult to be too critical of a game that has accomplished so much, with the right balance FUEL could have been something truly phenomenal to experience, there's certainly enough achieved here that combined into a sequel and some further gameplay fine-tuning could be one of the more finer racers to appear on consoles. The first open-world FUELled outing however will certainly be worth trying out for those that look to master every racing game, for other gamers, there's certain enjoyment to be had here, though it's not all adrenaline-fuelled, perhaps taking a test drive before purchasing would prove a wise decision.