Right, here’s what we want you to do. Go and get ten of your nearest and dearest gaming buddies, and ask each of them what their favourite videogame genre is. We’ll just wait right here… have you done it? Good. We’re guessing that the most common response was either ‘shooters’ or ‘racers’. With that in mind, Full Auto 2: Battelines should be one of the greatest games of all time, as at its core it merges the two together. You pick from a selection of vehicles before strapping ridiculously sized weapons to it, and then drive around like a maniac trying to blow your rivals to hell. Imagine Burnout with guns and you’ve got a good idea of the format. Unfortunately, Full Auto 2 lacks the finesse and addictiveness that Criterion manages to muster up, and always feels as if it’s playing catch-up.

Battlelines’ main flaw is that it fails to implement a tight control scheme to keep up with the frantic, intense carnage that is happening on-screen. Handling really isn’t up to the task and you never feel like you can gracefully fly around a corner with poise and grace. Granted, Full Auto 2 is very much in the gritty, edgy realm of thinking, but it would’ve been a lot more appealing to pick up if the driving mechanic had been solid. In its favour, it does try to be as varied as possible; its Career Mode in particular offers a substantial amount of depth. Rather than just pose you with the challenge of subsequent races, you’ll have certain objectives that are essential to progress. It may be a matter of simply finishing a race in first place, or taking down a specific number of opponents. It certainly stops proceedings from feeling stale and the promise of unlocking additional cars and weapons only sweetens the deal – throw in online functionality and it’s certainly not a title that lacks options.

There’s no doubt that Full Auto 2 is an exhilarating game to kill a few hours, but underneath this layer of entertainment there’s little that’ll really hook you into its premise. There’s only so many times you can blow up an opponent before yearning for your car to handle better; as an arcade racer it just doesn’t deliver the goods necessary. If you’re desperate for the next-generation of Burnout, keep waiting, and racing fanatics only need look at the mighty MotorStorm for all their highdefi niton racing kicks.

Simon Miller