Sega has been primed for this next generation for some time. This was clearly evident last year at their E3 booth, when they actually had the only two games really playable to the public for the Xbox 360. There was Condemned, the creepy first-person experience putting you into the shoes of a stressed detective; and there was Full Auto, Sega's tribute to full-glory arcade racing, with a little vehicular carnage thrown in on the side. It was easy to say that Auto scored some favortism out of me, although it clearly lacked the depth that Condemned contained. And that's kind of the case with the final product as well. Not that it's entirely a bad thing.

Full Auto was crafted in house by Pseudo Interactive, who's no stranger to destroying cars in an unlikely fashion. (Cel Damage ring a bell?) In the game, you'll take control of a number of different vehicles, ranging from classy Mustangs to high-powered trucks, that are armed to the gills with weapons ranging from cannons to machine guns to mines, and so forth. Your job? Well, carefully reconstruct the way of your society...ah, hell, I won't lie to you. Blast the hell out of everything, really.

The game has several modes to its credit. You can hop right into Arcade mode and simply blast away; you can tackle Career Mode and learn the tricks of the trade, and then get into a series of different races; you can go head-to-head against a friend offline; or you can hop on Xbox Live and take on up to seven other players while trying to keep atop the leaderboards. You'll see a series of different races come your way, including the wrap-around Down and Back racing mode (where you go down to one point, then slam around to the other); the Lap Knockout (where you must survive each lap against others); the Circuit (where you race a series of races in one long track); and, my personal favorite, Rampage, where you simply tear ass amongst the consumer vehicles and your opponents. Blasting rivals and letting opponents have it continuously help your score boost into maximum velocity, so keep at it.

When it comes to gameplay, Full Auto is simple. Hell, beyond simple. I can see a chimp in a lab toy around with the game for an hour and try to look for more complexity in his banana. You simply keep up at high speeds and blast everything you can. See a building ahead? You can shred it and watch debris pour into the street. Consumer vehicles like tanker trucks and ambulances? They'll rain down fiery chunks after you fire a well-timed missile. It's really quite easy to get into, although there is a neat new feature in Unwreck. This is where you're given a meter to fill and, once at its peak, you can actually undo a wreck that costs you seconds (or a life) and try again. This comes in handy in some competitive races, although some might consider it a bit of cheating. ("I just killed you! WTF?!") With heavier weapons, you can also aim manually with the right analog stick, and fire by pushing it in. You probably won't use it too often, but it's nice to have. The Turbo meter builds as expected, by doing power slides and jumps aplenty.

The game plays pretty well, and online it seems to go rather smoothly, aside from the occasional hiccup that slows the game to a standstill (more on this in a second). But some may be turned off by the simplicity of it all. There is a lot to unlock, including new skins, cars, and tracks that will keep you firing your precious ammunition away, but those looking for any kind of further depth aside from the Unwreck and combo building are going to be slightly disappointed. This game was built with arcade blood running through its digital veins, and as such, won't put the Project Gotham Racing 3 enthusiast off his present course.

As far as the game's looks, I'm torn. On one hand, it does look decidely next gen, with a mostly smooth frame rate, solid car details, explosive environment detail that includes the falling of debris I've talked about, and some great level design. But, I swear, there are moments in the game that I see the frame rate drop from 60 frames per second to...um...FIVE. No joke. I've had some moments in the game where a huge explosion just took place, and, as a result, the game completely stutters. It takes it a while to catch back up, too. I can understand the dramatic cutaways during explosions and big jumps, those seem to be standard. But Pseudo is working with next-gen hardware here. There's no way it should've had this kind of hold-up in these spots, especially when a gamer just wants to keep going with his racing. It's like taking part in a NASCAR race, seeing a wrecked car on the side, and coming to a halt to inspect the damage.

As far as sound, again, I'm leaning on both sides of the fence. The sound effects are fantastic, with all kinds of environmental weapon firing and explosions to rock your speakers. But the soundtrack is rather weak, made up of slight techno tunes and low-level garage rock junk. Fortunately, you can drown this out with your own customized soundtrack, so you don't have to feel completely robbed.

Full Auto isn't a letdown, it just seems a bit more fun-loving than its content-laden competition. That clearly puts it in the arcade category, and those who thirst arcade enthusia will no doubt want endure the thousands of rounds you'll be firing with your weapons. But I couldn't help but think that the game needed a push not only in performance, but also a little bit of depth. There's nothing wrong with having bigger, badder weapons or maybe the ability to blast your own path to get to first, you know. Maybe we'll see something like this in the sequel. For now, if arcade racing's your speed, Full Auto is a fine ride. Otherwise, Gotham awaits.