Been looking forward to this one for a few weeks now, and so I was happily anticipating the arrival of the Amazon fairy this morning to give it a go. (Official Site)

The basic premise is that Fuel is an open world, cross-country racer set in a vaguely Max Style post apocalyptic future where they seem to have little else to do other than race each other across country just for the heck of it. That’ll do me.

I’ve got to admit, my first 20 mins was a little ‘hmm…’ – mainly as the controls felt a little sloppy and my initial impressions were that the gfx weren’t quite as polished as we’ve become used to on this current gen. I have also noticed a few minor glitches apparent in the rendering, but so far they’ve not spoiled my enjoyment at all.   Now though, with a couple of hours in I’m absolutely loving it.

Firstly the way you get a real feel for the the sheer scale of the environments is awesome, but then the HOLY FUCK moment for me was the first track I played where they really crank up the weather effects (“Riders on the storm”), man that was just insane.

The real USP of the game is their promise of a totally open world, and in that respect the really deliver. Most of the races have a fairly obvious track you *can* follow, but equally you can just say ‘fuck that’ and head off road. There’s a sat nav style ‘GPS’ which always shows you where you’re heading and so you can take some pretty insane shortcuts and still find your way ok.

Loads of different cross-country vehicles, Motocross bikes, quad bikes, buggies, SUVs, Monster Trucks etc. And there seem to be enough events and challenges to keep me occupied for a bloody long time, not to mention the open world free-play where you can just cane it around in a Burnout Paradise stylee and muck about all you want.

Ace stuff, Go buy it! (you know it makes sense!)

Want!