Head-to-Head, Xbox Live, and Arcade in Full Auto function quite similarly. You’ll pick a race style from the following choices:

Down-and-Back – Race to an end point, then race back along the same line back to the start.

Rampage – This requires gamers to eliminate bystander vehicles (by shooting or slamming into them) and make it to the finish line under time.

Point-to-Point – A typical rally-type race where the start and finish points are separate.

Circuit – A complete course that is connected, as in NASCAR. These events consist of multiple laps around the course.

Lap Knockout – An event on a circuit course where the car in last case on each lap is eliminated from the tourney. Last car alive wins.

Once you pick your event style, it’s time to choose from the available courses. There are several options for each mode, however, some of these will be locked and cannot be raced until proving your worth as a racer. Most of the courses are urban, but there are some canyon and country blasts that are featured. The urban settings are mostly used, as they contain much more hustle and bustle- which is another term for fodder to these potent machines.

Next it’s on to vehicle selection. The vehicles in Full Auto run the gamut; from slick, chopped rods to work trucks complete with snow plows. The cars aren’t licensed, but you will notice striking resemblances to actual production units. If the Roughneck ain’t a Jeep Wrangler, I don’t know what is.

Pay particular attention to the three statistical categories when selecting your whip. Durability, Handling, and Speed are self explanatory, but they mean different things in different events. Durability, for example, is much more important in a Lap Knockout event, since opponents will be looking to eliminate you from the track. Basic races are usually won by the speedy, good handling units, but heavier vehicles can still gun these vehicles down if they draw a bead on them. Each vehicle has multiple munitions options as well. Some are more offensive based, while others are completely destructive in nature. Equipping a vehicle with weapons should also be based on the event at hand. Rampage events, for instance, require durability (since you’ll be wrecking into as many bystander cars as you shoot) and a strong, forward firing weapon for swift elimination of targets.

Gameplay Controls:

The control scheme is, not surprisingly, one part racing game and one part action shooter. The left stick does the steering while the right and left trigger accelerate and brake respectively. A turbo boost function resides on the left bumper, and the important “Unwreck” feature is activated with the right bump. Camera views can be switched on the fly by pressing up on the D-pad. Down on the D-pad is a preset that automatically queues up the replay system. Nice.

A and B handle primary and secondary fire, while the right stick can be clicked for primary weapon shooting. Y allows gamers to look behind their rides for a drawing a bead for a rearward-firing weapon attack, or to stay out of the lane of incoming fire. And if the going gets too tough, you can always activate the self-destruct command with a touch of the start button.

There are five controller presets which vary the basic button layouts, but you’ll have to stick with the general steering and aiming defaults throughout. Pitch invert, stick sensitivity, and vibration toggle round out the list of controller settings.

Shoulda zigged instead of zagged…

Of course the control is straight arcade, but you will notice a large difference in handling from car to car. Weight, specifically, changes the handling characteristics of a ride immensely. Those vehicles that are more durable are those vehicles that are (usually) heavier, and therefore more like boats when it comes time to turn. Aiming weapons is always hard on the move, but the sheer firepower in Full Auto makes the experience more a function of shooting many rounds- sometimes wildly- as opposed to shooting a few rounds accurately. Arcade feel all the way, baby.

Overall Gameplay Impressions:

This is a low-frills title that pretty much throws gamers into racing and blowing up stuff. Some may not care about the general layout of games, but others may take issue with the lack of organization of this title. You basically pick your poison and go at it. Don’t expect the sketchy plot to mean anything, or for the Career mode to be anything more than a bunch of races strung together. Just remember – Full Auto is created by arguably the most influential coin-op developer of all time. In-game action is their forte, not making a console title feel all organic and stuff. I think it’s the next gen and time to step up to the feel of a complete game from start-to-finish, however, the argument can be made that combat racing can never exist outside of the simple, arcade-like realm in which it resides.

The actual in-game action is sweet of course. Races are truly intense, as players weight the pros and cons of shooting while driving. Go for the kill shot? Go for the finish line? It gets much more interesting online/in multiplayer, as the driving and shooting line predictability is thrown right out of the shattered window.

The Unwreck feature is a good concept, as it prevents players from having to retry and restart on a regular basis. Unwreck, however, is a bit flawed, as wrecks aren’t always just about the first second or two before impact. A string of poor driving decisions usually lead to the mishap, and unfortunately, you can’t always go back to the point where your ride is on the racing line. You may rewind to a spot where your car is already doomed, thus turning the Unwreck system (at times) into more of a replay of a wreck similar to the one attempting to be undone. It’s frustrating at times, and takes away from an overall good feature for the combat racing genre.

Although not the best looking racing game on the Xbox 360 (nor the best looking shooter on the 360), Full Auto holds its own with recently released extreme style driving games. The emphasis on total mayhem has been handled quite nicely from a graphical perspective. The claim of “most destructible environments to date in any game” by SEGA is surely true, as everything has been modeled to implode at some point or another. Careful attention has been taken to create objects that destruct in an unrealistic fashion, but I mean this in a good way. The Hollywood eggshell objects work well in Full Auto, as simple love taps make things go crash, bang, and boom which is always more interesting than undisturbed backgrounds in the combat racing genre.

The car models are obviously extreme and non-licensed, but they definitely resemble early and late-model autos, trucks, and SUV’s. The sensation of speed involving these autos is on par with the extreme racers from the Xbox and Xbox 360, so don’t count on being disappointed with the overall velocity of Full Auto. The resolution is fine too, and the detail is pretty good for the amount of craziness that ensues, but I could still have used a bit more texture work.

Smoke ‘em if you got ‘em…

Audio

The idea of a highly-specialized soundtrack with new tracks and up-and-coming artists may be a thing of the past with the Xbox 360’s Media Center compatibility. You can kind of see this trend with the soundtrack of Full Auto. There’s little substance to it which is a bit eye-opening as this style of game is designed for high-octane driving tunes.

Sounds effects are on the very extreme side and synthetic, mainly because the genre is fantasy all the way. The arcade-like effects work well with the gameplay, and should help gamers with decent 5.1 systems really get into Full Auto. Explosions are frequent, and thankfully they sound thundering through the proper system. Basic metal-to-metal contact (which also happens frequently) comes across arcadey, but again it works, and should put a smile on your face if you’re into trading paint.

The Bottom Line

Full Auto feels like a high-end arcade game optimized for the Xbox 360 hardware. This makes sense coming from one of the most successful coin-op devs of all time, but I’m not quite sure it’s the right concept for next-gen systems.

There’s a slight lack of presentation, continuity, and flow to the entire title, which unfortunately breaks Full Auto down to its core elements- combat and racing. While combat and racing are great together, most of us will be yearning for more from next-gen software.

Full Auto is undoubtedly fun, but $60 fun? For some extreme race and gun gurus…yes. But I suspect most all-around gamers will leave Full Auto wishing for more.

More info about this iso, it passed the security sector, failed the pfi sector, dmi sector, media id, video file system, and splitvid format is not tested because the files are not there, thus not tested.

What this all means is that the stealth check on this iso has failed. so play it but dont play it online before you get your 360 banned.

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