Full Auto 2: Battelines Battles For Respect
- May 12, 2006 10:17 AM PST
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Sega and Pseudo Interactive are prepping Full Auto 2: Battlelines for the PS3, so get ready to cause a bit of damage and destruction.
I have to admit that while I enjoyed Sega's Full Auto for the Xbox 360, it certainly wasn't without its faults. Sloppy controls, rigid customization, and a "too linear" single-player campaign really hurt the explosive action vibe that Sega was shooting for. Well, developer Pseudo Interactive has gone back to the drawing board for Full Auto 2: Battlelines for the PS3, and the results may just surprise you.
On the show floor I was able to play the new multiplayer death match mode (the game will support 8-players online), which takes you completely out of racing and puts you in small area arenas. The level I played was in a financial district, so there were plenty of tall buildings and even some underground garage areas to explore. The most noticeable feature, however, were the newly created powerups littered about the arena. Including unlimited boost for a short amount of time to uber-weapons that give you a couple ultra poweful projectiles to shoot at enemies, the powerups help speed up the action once you start playing.
Pseudo Interactive knows, however, that online deathmatch isn't going to fix the problems of the past. To help freshen the Full Auto 2: Battlelines experience, they've undertaken two main tasks -- give players the freedom of customizing their own weapon sets, as well as tighten the game's driving controls. The first is evident right away, so if you want a primary machine gun and a secondary shotgun on your ride, go nuts. The latter is probably the best improvement I saw in the game, with cars now feeling more heavy and more precisely tuned. Powersliding can now be initiated more easily using the regular brakes, instead of the handbrakes which caused you to fishtail too many times, making cornering exponentially less frustrating.
Full Auto 2: Battlelines does one thing right so far, in that it takes the problems of the last game seriously and addresses them in pretty impressive ways. The improved controls are a life-saver, and while I didn't get a chance to see it in action, the game will feature an all-new storyline that focuses more on the Full Auto experience, not just ushering you from one race to the next. Pseudo Interactive has drawn the "Battleline" in the sand, so lets hope they can deliver.
