Preview: Fatal Inertia (360)

We do love a good futuristic racer. Aside from the two pioneering series' of the genre - Wipeout and F-Zero - we still even get some enjoyment out of the second rung titles like Extreme G and Quantum Redshift (remember that one?). So with the arrival of the Fatal Inertia demo on the marketplace we just had to give it a try. Oh, we wish we didn't.

Even before we began the download alarm bells were ringing, not just from other Xbox Live users claming it be the worst demo ever, but also the fact that it was only slightly above 300mb, which even for a racing title is surprisingly small. We then began to play and our fears were realised. At the start of the race, textures had still yet to have loaded in with them popping up five seconds later and graphically overall the game is lacking.

There does appear to be a bit of depth to the single player experience though. During the career mode you can unlock various upgrades and ways to customise your craft. You also get the ability to change the colour, add decals and all the other stuff that seems to be included in all racers these days. And of course we've already been promised the possibility of more vehicles and upgrades as downloadable content.

Controlling your craft bears a resemblance to many futuristic racing titles through the use of standard floating physics. The only real problem we have with the controls is the ridiculous use of the boost. Instead of limiting it like other racers would do, now you have it all the time. While holding the button to charge it you actually slow down, releasing the button sends you flying forward at twice the speed. However, by the time this has happened you may as well just have carried on racing normal and you'd be in the same position as you would be if you used the boost.

The demo does have one or two redeeming features though, which are the weapons (located on pads on the floor). These are not really about damaging your opponent, instead they're mainly used to cause much annoyance with our favourite being a cable that can be attached to another craft with the opposite end fixed to a piece of scenery. Speaking of which the locales themselves are quire impressive. While what is displayed during the demo does not show off the game particularly well, the other tracks that are available in the full game look far more interesting to race around. But these aren't enough to redeem an otherwise uninspiring demo.

We really hope that what is on the marketplace is in fact and incredibly early build because if it isn't then there is no way that Koei's newly formed Canadian Studio can turn this game around in time for its September release.

Words by Adam Gulliver