FUEL

by Codemasters

Product Features

• Multiplayer support including 2-16 player online support via Xbox LIVE and the ability to compete against friends online in all 70 career races, as well as online free rides.
• Open-world racing across 14,000 square km of streaming game world and 100,000 miles of trails.
• Over 70 unique vehicles, each with GPS support, in six different classes including: bikes, ATVs, muscle cars, SUVs, buggies and trucks.
• Extreme weather effects and conditions ranging from rain to snow to sandstorms and destructive tornadoes, that affect and add to the challenge of the race.
• A wide variety of race types and challenges including: time trials, checkpoint races, circuit races and raid races.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001OAKUZU
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches ; 5.3 ounces
• Media: Video Game
• Release Date: June 2, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,770 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #55 in Video Games > Xbox 360 > Adventure
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: Xbox 360

Amazon.com Product Description

In FUEL players race across and explore the world’s largest racing environment – over 5,000 square miles of spectacular wilderness. Set to revolutionize multi-terrain, multi-vehicle racing, FUEL is a fiercely competitive, open-world game without boundaries. On and off-road, two and four-wheeled vehicles race a massively diverse environment, from scaling the highest snowcapped mountain to racing the deepest arid canyon. Expansive open-world environments. View larger. Dramatic weather effects View larger. In-game mixing of vehicle classes. View larger. Extreme off-road action. View larger. Smoking road racing. View larger. Story In an alternate present, vast stretches of America have become no-go areas as the devastating effects of global warming ravage the continent. Floods, storms, brush fires, tornadoes and hurricanes have driven people from towns and cities into safe zones as extreme weather wreaks havoc, creating thousands of square miles of dangerous uninhabitable areas. People turn to renewable energy in the face of the destruction caused by this catastrophe. But these danger zones have also become a playground for a new breed of racer. With a stockpile of fuel to be burned, adrenaline junkies head into the wilderness to compete against each other in spectacular races against themselves and the elements. Vehicles FUEL features 70 different unlockable vehicles designed to support pick up and play arcade style fun. Each of these feature aggressive styling, unique performance and surface specific handling and can compete with each other no matter how or where they are united. The six different vehicle classes include: Bikes Bikes are fast, quick and easy to handle, but what they have in speed they lack in durability, so ride around trees, not into them. ATVs ATV's four wheels offer more stability than bikes and their size allows them to be able to sneak in very narrow spaces. Muscle Cars Muscle cars have enough speed and strength to face extreme conditions, making them a good choice for any kind of racer. SUVs Powerful, stout and durable, SUVs make up for their lack of speed with all the hit that they can take before breaking down. Buggies The smallest of cars and the easiest to handle, buggies are definitely fast, but durability can be an issue with them. Trucks The largest and strongest vehicles, trucks will not daze you with speed, but they'll knock you out for sure with power. Race Types and Challenges FUEL features a wealth of race types and challenges. Races include A2B Time Trials, Checkpoint Races, Circuit Races and Raid Races; while some of the additional challenges include 'Long Raids'--races that can last for hours--and 'Knock Out' events, which are checkpoint races where the last racer to cross the line is eliminated. Never Get Lost With GPS Each vehicle in the game comes equipped with a unique GPs system. Showing up on the game screen's heads-up display (HUD), arrows display a route that will take advantage of the distinctive capabilities of that vehicle, always indicating that fastest, most appropriate route. Race well and players are alerted to an extra route--one that is riskier, more hazardous--but potentially quicker. Of course, you can always choose to switch the GPs off and forge your own way through the wilderness. Key Features Open-world racing - The largest open-world racing arena ever, with 14,000 square km of streaming game world and 100,000 miles of trails. Vehicles Galore - Drive over 70 unique vehicles in six different classes including: bikes, ATVs, muscle cars, SUVs, buggies and trucks. Weather Effects - Experience how extreme weather conditions affect the race from rain to snow to sandstorms and destructive tornadoes. Race Types - Compete in multiple categories of race types including: time trials, checkpoint races, circuit races and raid races. Multiplayer Support - FUEL features 2-16 player online support via Xbox LIVE. Online Racing - Compete against friends online in all 70 career races as well as online free rides. GPs Technology - Each vehicle in FUEL features onboard GPs functionality ensuring you will never be lost. Online Support FUEL is a seamlessly integrated offline and online gameworld featuring hundreds of challenges across countless locations. Players can compete against friends in all of the game's 70 career races, as well as online free rides via Xbox LIVE. In addition, to these pre-designed events players can use the powerful route editor to create their own challenges set anywhere in FUEL's world and share them online.

Product Description

Set to revolutionise multi-terrain racing with the largest environment ever created in race gaming, FUEL will present players with an astonishing no-boundaries playfield that's over 5,000 square miles (14,000+ km²) in size. Creating the ultimate competitive go-anywhere racing experience, FUEL will have players competing across wildly different terrain and executing spectacular death-defying stunts as they race dozens of varied two and four-wheeled rides and explore this epic world on an unprecedented scale. FUEL is set in an alternate present in which whole swathes of the globe have been ravaged by the effects of climate change brought on by decades of environmental abuse. Here oil prices have rocketed and yet a new breed of racing junkie takes to the wastelands, pitting their grungy home-tuned vehicles against each other in an all-new extreme sport as they compete to win fuel supplies. To triumph means travelling the wastelands to challenge the best; from the tsunami-wrecked pacific coast through the Nevada wastelands, including the Grand Canyon, up treacherous snow-capped mountains, thick forests, arid deserts, abandoned lakeside resorts and much more. Bringing this vast, open ended landscape to life is a dynamic weather system with full day and night transitions, brilliant sunshine, torrential rain and everything in between, plus destructive tornados, sandstorms, thunderstorms, lightning strikes, and blizzards requiring mid-race strategy changes. Complete with the ability to go online to explore this massive world and compete in hundreds of multiplayer challenges.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars FUEL: Fun in an ATV OFFROAD FURY kind of way, June 4, 2009

By 

QuickSilverSeven (USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fuel (Video Game)

FUEL quick Review (progress: 2nd base unlocked)

VEHICLES: 8/10 The handling is good, but the motorcycles are the most responsive. The emergency brake is effective and useful. When the stats show a vehicle is meant for offroad or asphalt, it's true. A road vehicle will struggle offroad, but as soon as it hits the road, acceleration kicks in as well as better handling. As you continue to unlock and buy more vehicles with Fuel points, you'll notice faster, better handling vehicles start showing up compared to the slow ones at the start. Overall, responsive controls, nice enough physics and plenty of interaction with the environment with varying terrain and jumps. You start the game with a free ride choice of a buggie or a dirtbike, and can quickly earn an ATV and car on the first zone. Finish the first zone, and 21 vehicles or so will be available to buy with your Fuel dollars, including Monster trucks, new motorcycles, buggies, ATV's and cars. Very nice.

GAMEPLAY: 7/10 For the fastest progress, use the MENU and win the 3 races on Rookie, then jump into the Challenges and complete them. Each time you win first, you get Fuel Credits (and Fuel dollars). The credits offer access to the next Shack Base on the giant map. Unlocking new rides is a highlight of the game.

RACES: 8/10 So far, they're the most enjoyable part of the game. The competition does seem to get a fast start, but you'll catch up fairly quickly, where after that, you can take the lead. Rookie mode is very forgiving, Expert is average difficulty and Pro is tough. The guide arrows are a big help. The biggest complaint? You can't pick your ride (so far anyway).

CHALLENGES: 7/10 Chase the Helicopter is fun, along with a few others, except for the Blitz/CHECKPOINT race, which for whatever reason, they barely give you enough time to work with on the clock. Took plenty of retries to win. No option to change difficulty in Challenges.

GAMEWORLD MAP: 9/10 Enormous. If you're just going to explore, it will take a long time as the reviewer said it would. You can go anywhere in the entire game right from the start in free ride, but you won't be able to unlock any checkpoints or rewards really until you win races and challenges.
You can pick a dirtbike or Dune Buggie from the start of the game and just explore. The terrain to cover gradually changes as you progress, offering new visuals from deserts, waterfronts, mountains, snow, thick forests, wastelands, winding roads, plains and more. The game is seriously massive in scale.

REWARDS: 9/10 Winning races/challenges and reaching new checkpoints in your local zone that you've already unlocked will earn you Fuel points which are needed to unlock new base/shack zones with new races and challenges, Fuel Dollars, to buy new rides that are unlocked by winning enough times, and gear for your rider. The rider gear and paint for your rides is a nice touch that could've been overlooked, but wasn't. It's not very in-depth in customization like Midnight Club, but it's welcome nonetheless. The new rides are affordable and a noticeable improvement on the first set of rides.

CAMERAS: 7/10 Three cameras to click through while riding, the default being the most advantageous during racing, since it gives you a better view of the action. But for exploration, the up close 2nd camera is very nice, really showcasing the detail of your rider and vehicle, bringing you closer to the action. The third view is first person, which is solid and looks even better when you see your vehicle shadow, giving you the sense you're almost in the vehicle, but really, this game should have also included an INTERIOR DASH VIEW, to really get the sense you're inside a vehicle instead of looking at a remote control toy. Overall, good camera views to experience the game world with.

OPTIONS: 4/10 There needs to be more options. You can't map the layout of your controls, there's no way to adjust the day/night cycle or set the time of day in free ride, but thankfully, you can adjust the sound, HUD displays, and a few other minor options for the game.

DAY/NIGHT CYCLE: 5/10 Count 12 minutes of daytime, then realize the entire world takes well over 3 hours or so just to reach the other end. That means every 12 minutes you're riding in moonlight darkness, missing all the scenery during exploration. During races, it's automatically set, which is fine. There seriously needs to be a way to set Constant DAY TIME, Constant Night time, or DUSK/DAWN at the very least to really enjoy what scenery this game is offering. At night, all the details are neglected but for your headlight view.

MULTIPLAYER ONLINE: Unfortunately, I haven't played it online yet, but hear it's good.

GRAPHICS: 7/10 The first time I plugged the game in, the gritty look to the graphics, which appear a bit sharp with very high contrast, didn't appeal to me right away. Night time reminded me of a PS2 game at times, a bit oversaturated and flat looking, but the daytime graphics, once you get used to the high sharpness level, are pretty good for such a giant game world. Just don't expect the detail and realism of DIRT or GRID, which are really refined graphically. Good graphics during the daytime overall. The vehicles look nice, with mud building up if you hit the wet dirt. Characters really can be seen best when riding the motorcycle.

SOUND: 7/10 The vehicles each have a unique engine sound, but once you hit top speed, the constant tone seems a bit dull after awhile. Overall though, the engines sound realistic. Some wind can be heard, with crickets at night. Impacting the ground uses the same thud each time it seems, but I still have much more to discover.

OVERALL: 8/10 The racing isn't revolutionary, but it's fun in an ATV OFFROAD FURY kind of way and is enjoyable. The scale of the map world delivers and offers plenty of variety if you have the patience to explore it, but I suggest playing the races first to see what the game can offer in terms of gameplay and fun. I still have to find a city to explore, as the game is enormous. It was a bit dull before starting the races, but now that I'm finally making progress unlocking new rides, outfits and reaching new checkpoints to new races, the game is fun. Give it enough play time to unlock new rides and you may enjoy it despite the harsh reviews.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Had potiental of being a great game... Had!, June 10, 2009

By 

Marvelous - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fuel (Video Game)

From what was portrayed in the cinimatic teasers for fuel, was deception of what the game really possesses. Though the size of the play area is one for video game record books, it doesn't have the capability to carry this lackluster of a game. In my perspective, codemasters devoted entirely too much time in the shaping and molding the map, and not nearly as much time on the cars and sounds. There'S absolutely no phyics in driveabilty whats-so-ever. This is a dissapointment in following a great game like Grid. This make believe enviroment might have actually felt somewhat real, if the cars, buggy's, trucks, and bikes actually drove with just a little bit realism. I'm not asking for a complete simulation, but couldn't you have given codemaster fans something similar to grid?

Which brings me to my next point. The sounds on this game are so horrible that it will seriously remind you of a PS2 video game sound. There are no distintive sounds, and you will most definitely hear the same exact sound everytime your bike or car cathces some air. I was hoping the muscle cars would at least sound like "a muscle car", nope I was wrong and very let down. It's funny how ever single ride makes the same ticking sound when revving your engine. Also, all the rides just seem slow, it says your hitting a 100, but it feels like 40 miles per hour.

The weather was somewhat satisfying, I can't really complain about the day and night cycle with weather changes. But as it was shown in the trailer... I have yet to see a tornado swarn down on side of the road in the middle of a race. I have yet to see any explosions from cars flippig and blowing up. Also it seems to rain more than anything in this game, I was showing my girlfriend the free roam, and she tells me I hate who ever thought about the amount of rain that falls.

I was very impressed with the size of the map, the different roads, change of scenery, and most imporatantly... no loading times in-between areas. But again this pro can not make this a great game, I might have actually enjoyed my road trip from one end of the map to the other if I had a car that was believeable. I stress how unimpressed I was with the controls and handling of the cars, you would expect codemasters to take it to the next level after giving us grid, but now they decide to pull their punches on this one.

This game is definitely a renter and not a purchase for full retail price. No way, you will become very bored of not being able to crash, drive with a cockpit view inside the car, or run away from a chaotic tornado. I advise you rent first if you are still undecided, better to spend 8 bucks then 60 and be stuck with it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Allow Myself to be as Objective as Possible..., December 30, 2009

By 

Eric H "Not a big fan..." (Chicagoland) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fuel (Video Game)

I received this game several weeks back from a friend of mine who didn't want it -- he hadn't even unwrapped the box due to his total disdain for any kind of game that doesn't allow the player to kill others.

So I took it off his hands and gave it a whirl. I had absolutely no idea how good or bad the game was, so I was as open to it as a very liberal teenaged political activist of some sort. Immediately I noticed early on the complete lack of any story per se. All you know is that global warming has somehow totally destroyed society, and has scorched the earth. Leaving the planet in a state of chaos with constantly shifting weather patterns, dried lake beds, and cities that have been nearly totally destroyed by the sheer awfulness of Al Gore's prophecies. Luckily for the off-road crowd, it left the planets supply of all-terrain vehicles intact, so let's go racing!

You begin the game with no money and only a small handful of slow, poorly-controllable vehicles. I noticed in my very first race how utterly bland the racing is. There are no turbo boosts, no powerups, nothing to modify or change the racing scheme. You glide to the end of the race with very little, if anything at all except trees and other trees to get in the way. And as the game went on, and I amassed more money, cars, and territory to race in, nothing really changed to any discernible degree. Sure, the vehicles I had were a wee bit faster, but they all retained the slimy controls. This game sits in this extremely awkward and weird gray area in between smooth arcade racing and complex racing sim, but it fits to neither very well and only feels slimy and unnatural to drive; like some mischeivious chef smeared cooking oil over everyones cars while they tasted his cupcakes.

Something I soon became aware of is the way the game works the crashes. When you crash, and you will crash plenty of times, the game immediately goes to a loading screen to re-process your car back onto the road. However, the manner in which they determine a crash is entirely inconsistent. You will slam into a redwood tree at 95 miles an hour with no ill effects (on a motorcycle, no less), but if you bump over a small rock, at speeds slow enough to count the trees, you crash. It got to the point that I avoided ramps, jumps, or major inclines of any kind, for fear of the game arbitrarily crashing my vehicle despite a perfect landing. And, just to really get under your skin like a tenacious insect, they often re-spawn you facing a wall, a sheer cliff, or the wrong direction entirely, forcing you to slowly back up and realign your car to the race. And with the way the AI behaves, you probably won't lose anyway.

You see, this game doesn't use rubberband AI where the other cars all stay pace with you to give you direct competition no matter how you drive, instead, every other vehicle blasts off at the races beginning at a thousand miles an hour. However, they all hit the brakes towards each races end to allow you to essentially take the game. I almost got the suspicion every other AI car had betted on me to win so they threw the game. This happens EVERY single race, and it gets to the point of utter absurdity. The only thing that ever changes is the occasional race where one car behaves absolutely perfectly to the end without missing a turn or jump. Of course this really got to me, as it felt like the game was just f***ing with me or something.

One of the selling points I noticed with this game is the fact that there is something like 5500 square miles of gameworld to explore. And believe me, that is a lot of open space. There is an achievement for driving from the Northwest corner to the southeast - I attempted this only to give up after an hour and a half left me less then halfway there. And honestly, the only difference in the terrain is going from grassy mountaintops to snowy mountaintops to sandy mountaintops. It's basically just 5000 square miles of palette-swapped hills. So all it really comes down to is that there really is nothing to explore here. It's an empty world with nothing in it except the occasional paint scheme to find, something which you really shouldn't give two sh**s about. Do you really want to slowly chug your way up some random mountain, just so you can unlock a paint scematic for a single car you may not even have yet? I started to wonder if anyone on the development team brought forth their thoughts on the worlds complete emptiness or if they simply passed time until their checks came in the mail.

I give this game two lonely stars for it's bland, uneventful, hard-to-grip racing. it feels like no one really gave much on the actual racing mechanic of this game. However, I will give this game three stars overall, as I still play it despite all of it's (major) flaws. Maybe that is because it's the only racing game I have, and motorstorm is a PS3 exclusive.

So in leiu of nothing better, this game just barely holds down the fort. However, if you had to choose between an old hotwheel your sisters toddler just put in his mouth, or the car your wife has to get yourself to work, which one are you going to decide on?

This is a pass. Wait and see if these halfwits can come up with anything better.

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