A great racing/demolition game for the casual gamer

I guess I'm unique here when I say that this game is what finally convinced me to get a 360. Let's go through a little background here. I am what I refer to as a binge gamer. Meaning my interest in videogames really comes and goes. Sometimes I can sit and play games for hours on end and other times I can go months without ever turning on my consoles. Anyways, due to this fact, the games that cater most to my unique tastes are racing/demolition style games. As a result of my erratic gaming habits and the time that I actually spend playing games, my skills fall woefully short of the people who sit in their basements all day playing on XBOX Live.

I guess the real reason why this game appealed to me is the fact that it is the first one of its kind to offer decent game play since the old Twisted Metal series for the PS1.

Now down to the game itself.

Graphics-pretty impressive if you have an HD set with native 1080i capabilities they look great on my 37" W3 Westinghouse set (see my review on it). I certainly don't think that they are the best that the 360 has to offer but for the price, genre, ect. they are pretty good. There do seem to be some small glitches in the game as it transitions across different sections of the disc though.

Game play-Depends on your level of skill as a player and your main genres of interest in games. I notice that the hardcore fantasy and combat RPG folks don't tend to care much for these sorts of games and so they might tend to give them a less than favorable review. As has been mentioned though the levels can be repetitive. If your skill level is novice to average though, you should still be able to enjoy the game. You have 3 ways in which you can complete each challenge: Survivor-Getting by with the bare minimum to move on to the next level, Semi-Auto-Above the bare minimum to exceed, Full Auto-The highest ranking for a given level. The better you score in each race the more cars/paintjobs/weapons you unlock so there is incentive to go back and make sure you get the highest possible score. As has been mentioned the AI can make very easy targets of themselves although if you are of novice to moderate skill level, once you get pretty far into the game you will find it to be a challenge to hit them and there are often time constraints on completing your missions that increase with difficulty as you progress through the game. The two major modes for single player are Arcade where you can just pick up and do whatever you want in a given track or the career mode. Of course the career mode is what you want if you want any kind of a challenge for single player. The problem that I find with the career mode is that your selection of vehicles and weapons can be very limited depending on the type of mission. So you can get locked into some pretty undesirable configurations (i.e. hookzilla with nothing but front firing weapons). There are also head to head and XBL options but I haven't done either of these since I'm not much into online game play.

Weapons and Vehicles-There are an assortment of weapons and vehicles that you will be trying out while playing this game. Personally I find the assault option to be my configuration of choice (forward firing machine guns, rear mines that explode when an opponent gets too close). Even though this is the first weapon configuration you are exposed to I find it to be the best way to cover both your front and rear. Trust me when I tell you that having the maximum fire power in the front of your vehicle is NOT always a good thing. You can easily be sniped from behind by your enemies no matter how well you maneuver. As for vehicles there are many but among my favorite are: The Hitman (an old heavy mobster style car that is fun to do power slides in), The Vulcan-An old muscle car that is decent for handling and pretty durable, The TEC-Well balanced for handling, speed and durability, The Ardent-With a decent all around capabilities matched with superb handling. Among my least favorites were the Trucks and SUVs (With the Hookzilla tow truck being the absolute worst). If you are looking to add more of a challenge select one of these vehicles whenever you have the option.

Now for a summary of the bad:

1. Very limited options in the career mode

2. Not much of a challenge for the hardcore gamer

3. Transitions throughout game play can be a little rough

In conclusion Full Auto is a great game for those with novice to moderate skill level but not a great options for those uber-geek types who spend all of their time on Xbox Live or are hardcore fantasy/combat RPG fanatics. Full Auto is what it is: An easy to pickup, fun racing/combat game where you don't have to spend hours on end just to feel like you are getting anywhere in the game. A great option for those like myself who don't have the time or patience to devote ridiculous amounts of time to videogames.