By Jim Rossignol on April 24th, 2009 at 8:30 am.
Codemasters have released another brief (and actually a little strange) clip for the open-world racer, FUEL, this time showing off the race interface. They’ve also dated it: May 29th across the world. We’re expecting to have some time with FUEL before its release, so we’ll hopefully be able to let you know a bit more about what to expect closer to release.
24/04/2009 at 08:49 Matt says:
Yes. That was a little strange, an entire video dedicated to how ‘awesome’ the map system is? Never seen that before.
24/04/2009 at 08:57 RogB says:
seems a bit distracting to me, i’d end up just looking at the flashy arrows all the time and not taking much notice of anything else.
24/04/2009 at 09:04 Jim Rossignol says:
Presumably you’ll be able to switch it off in the options, it does look like one of those hand-holding devices that can easily be dispensed with.
24/04/2009 at 09:35 mrmud says:
Those arrows are pretty fugly
24/04/2009 at 09:51 Laco says:
It’s not a bad concept for a trailer, but their red arrow system is just not that impressive. It really needed to be a (even just partially) a unique idea for the comparison to work. As it is, the real-world car’s GPS actually looks nicer!
That said, all the rest of the scenery does look rather pretty.
24/04/2009 at 10:00 billyboob says:
distracting is a mild way to put it… that hurts my brains
24/04/2009 at 10:08 Cooper says:
“Sorry, but we could not find the movie you requested”
24/04/2009 at 10:26 Jim Rossignol says:
Hmm, I can still see the vid. Anyone else having problems?
24/04/2009 at 10:37 Tony says:
Man, I’m kind of looking forward to this.
I hope it doesn’t turn out to suck.
24/04/2009 at 10:39 Rei Onryou says:
Having the arrows above the track (and out of the way) works well, rather than having to look to the corner (away from the track) to check out a mini-map. I didn’t like the moving arrows though. Way too much. Of course, it may work well when playing, and just seem strange in a video.
24/04/2009 at 11:27 Heliocentric says:
I loved the Test Drive Unlimited GPS system, the naive way it assumed I was going to follow the traffic laws during a street race.
24/04/2009 at 12:14 Flappybat says:
This looks like it will get really damn annoying within five minutes.
24/04/2009 at 12:18 Owen says:
How very strange. I don’t really get why they’re comparing it to a regular GPS device, when the in game one is clearly inferior to the real thing! Plus it’ll get annoying and distracting as hell very quickly. Plus it makes it look terribly arcadey-racey.
Seriously though, why on earth are they banging on about it like directional arrows in a game are something new?! Weirdos.
24/04/2009 at 12:24 Nero says:
Wow, that’s real distracting.
24/04/2009 at 13:29 Will Tomas says:
Bit rubbish. The game still looks fairly good, but I hope they dispense with the lame teen-rock soundtrack from the actual game…
24/04/2009 at 14:04 Vaynes says:
They could have ironed out a couple more bugs before they released a video about it.
The closest arrow looks to point directly away from the players view rather than the direction of the vehicle. look behind you and the first arrow points behind you.
that would annoy me no end.
24/04/2009 at 14:17 ZIGS says:
Good Lord, the “GPS” (arrows) are an horrible feature, how can they make a trailer exalting that? And for God’s sake, DO NOT include that kind of music in the soundtrack or I’ll have to go around murdering babies
24/04/2009 at 15:08 SpoonySeeker says:
looks a lot better than the standard look-at-the-bottom-right-corner-of-the-screen-to-see-where-you’re-going-and-end-up-running-into-a-wall method most racing games employ.
24/04/2009 at 15:10 unclelou says:
I’d imagine it’s soemthing you turn on and off with a quick press of a button if you’re not sure if you’re still on the right track, rather than something you’d leave on all the time.
24/04/2009 at 15:11 Howard says:
Yeah, I get no video either… odd…
24/04/2009 at 17:02 Chris R says:
Here’s the youtube link of the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5U2E9OFUrc
Watch it in HD.
I don’t mind the arrows, in most racing games I’m looking at the little minimap waaaaaay too much anyway, so this will let me actually watch the track and all the pretty stuff whizzing by.
24/04/2009 at 17:42 Krondonian says:
Well I like it. Reminds me of the arrow system in Warfare maps of Unreal Tournament 3. I like those too.
SpoonySeeker hits it on the head for me- way too distracting having a minimap. Test Drive’s spoken GPS lady was a nice way with dispensing with annoying visual cues, but I can’t see it working in this.
24/04/2009 at 18:24 Bhazor says:
Well it looks better than the Burnout Paradise “tiny map which causes you to crash horribly because you can’t see the road, steer and pick a route at the same time while travelling at the speed of sound” system.
I support this!
24/04/2009 at 22:19 DigitalSignalX says:
Not working here as well unfortunately. The HD youtube was interesting; but I can see that getting really annoying after a while, especially if you have memorized a course. Ideally they could make it less intrusive as your lap count increases.
25/04/2009 at 00:22 Freudian Trip says:
I was scrolling through the comments to make an insightful post on the subject of Burnout Paradise crash-o-matic GPS system but Bhazor’s beaten me to it right at the end.
25/04/2009 at 11:49 Optimaximal says:
It’s a UK Trailer, with footage of a UK traffic jam, then the actual ‘does your Sat Nav look like this’ pic is from the US! DAMN them for their inconsistency!
Game doesn’t look too great either – Motocross Madness was always fun but trying to actually race in it was just maddeningly awful – open world racers (in the literal sense) are often frustrating because the lack of a set path really messes with your sense of direction.
Also, I can’t see a Sat Nav system that shows your shortcuts (at one point in the vid, it takes the rider through a forest) being particular conductive to game play either – the whole point is you find them yourselves!