Interviews// Full Auto 2 - Producer Interview

Racing games are so old hat nowadays. Simply driving to the finish? Nonsense, these days you have to have some “extreme!!!” factor added to the mix, along with a bit of obligatory brutality. Your rival is no longer just a fellow racer; they are people you must eliminate. For good. Full Auto was a game that took full advantage of this seismic shift in video game racing early on in the Xbox 360’s life, adding weaponry to cars for maximum damage.

Speaking of maximum damage, Full Auto must have made an impression on the carnage-happy, because SEGA are preparing a sequel for Sony’s PlayStation 3 console. Promising bigger and better things than was seen in the series’ debut, Full Auto 2: Battlelines is sure to entice even those with a small hankering for some smackering. SPOnG has a chat with Sega's project director Cord Smith (pictured on the left, right here), the man behind the sequel.


SPOnG: Why did you decide to make the game exclusive to PlayStation 3? Is there a chance of Full Auto 2 appearing on the Xbox 360?

Cord Smith: Obviously, the launch of the PlayStation 3 served as a great opportunity to expose the Full Auto franchise to a brand new audience. With feedback from the X360 version fresh in our mind, we were primed to expand upon the original, adding combat-centric deathmatches, more customization options, a deeper single-player campaign, new cars & weapons, and a few new online multiplayer modes to boot. As for FA2 making its way to the Xbox 360, we’ll have to plead the fifth for now.


SPOnG: What do you think sets Full Auto apart from other combat-racing games of its type, such as Burnout?

Cord Smith: There’s not a combat-racing game on earth with the same level of interactivity and destruction that can be found in Full Auto. This stems directly from the underlying physics engine driving 100% of the interactions witnessed in-game. From beautiful cars that get procedurally crumpled and blown apart, to flying chunks of concrete & flaming debris shooting out of exploding buildings, the world of Full Auto is completely governed by PSEUDO’s amazing physics technology.
Whereas other racing games physicalize a few elements within the game world, Full Auto delivers a far more emergent experience through its completely physicalized environment.


SPOnG: What’s the story behind Full Auto 2? Can you explain the multi-path single campaign and how this will affect the game or storyline?

Cord Smith: We included a fair bit of player choice within the single-player campaign, but spent the bulk of our design efforts on crafting a much more varied experience through a wide variety of event types and a host of dynamic elements such as ambushes and environmental hazards to keep players guessing along the way. Although the overall experience has been deepened dramatically, Full Auto 2: Battlelines is still a pick-up-and-play action game at heart—meaning we don’t force a lot of story where it doesn’t belong. That said, there’s a definite plot progression throughout the Career Mode, culminating in a few challenges that will push your driving and shooting limits.


SPOnG: What are the different cars you can control and how will they control differently?

Cord Smith: We invited back the bulk of the roster from Full Auto 1 but added new aesthetic options and some awesome new recruits to the team. All in all, we have something for everyone: muscle cars, exotics, trucks, SUVs, hot rods, throwbacks, European roadsters, etc. With regards to control, we spent considerable time working out a car handling system that would bridge the gap between what is required for arena combat versus a high-speed race. We worked tirelessly to increase the overall drivability of all the cars, but we also tuned the difference between the footbrake and the handbrake so that players could retain fine-tune control in a race (footbrake) but also whip their cars around (handbrake) in a chase scenario within an arena.