Codemasters Announces New Racing Game, FUEL

Codemasters has announced their latest racing game, FUEL, and anyone have any guesses as to what it focuses on based on the name alone? First they brought us dirt racing with DiRT, then asphalt racing with GRID.

No, seriously. 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." In this terrifying alter-world, oil prices have skyrocketed (well, maybe not that altered), and a "new team of racing junkies" compete against each other across large wastelands in order to win some precious, precious gasoline.

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, FUEL is coming in 2009 for the PLAYSTATION®3 system, Xbox 360 and Games For Windows.

The blurry image above is taken from a brief video clip, which you can check out on the game's official website. FUEL is currently set for release some time in 2009 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Games for Windows. Let's just hope that by then, we won't be racing against roving maniacs for enough gas to drive out and by it.

It's a racing game, so big that it deserves ALL CAPS. It's hailed to have the "largest racing environment to appear in gaming — ever." The game supposedly has a 5,000 square-mile playing area with "no boundaries". Up to 16-players race it out in D.I.Y. cars through places like Nevada's Grand Canyon. The game boasts a full day-and-day cycle and even features a weather system with tornados, thunderstorms, snowstorms and sandstorms. Hope it looks and plays as promising as it sounds.