E3 06: Full Auto 2: Battlelines Hands-On

Last year, Sega introduced Full Auto for the Xbox 360 at E3. This year, they're back with the sequel, Full Auto 2: Battlelines for PlayStation 3. We checked out one of the game's new arena battles.

The original Full Auto was all about races in heavily armed and armored cars. Those cars are back in the sequel, but the demo we saw is showing off the game's new arena battle mode. Here, up to eight players will be able to get online and shoot it out in a sizable but confined environment. The free-roaming quality of the arena battle is much more conducive to combat, letting you swing around and open up on enemies with your front weapons, or drop rear weapons as you make a last-minute escape.

The previous game locked your weapon selections down into set pairs. Now, your weapon selection will be limited by the car you choose, but you'll be able to freely select any two weapons for that vehicle, letting you take a railgun-like recoilless rifle and more front-firing machine guns into combat, for example.

Though it wasn't being shown at the show, the game will, of course, feature a great deal of racing events. These will feel a little different than they did in the previous game, as the cars should have a bit more weight to them this time around, reducing the sometimes-floaty feel of the previous game. Unwreck, which is the timed skill that lets you rewind time after a crash, will be tougher to earn this time, so you'll have to be a little more careful with it. Since you could pretty much rewind time at will and avoid every single mishap in the previous game, this should be an improvement as well.

Graphically, the game has the same style as the previous game, but it does look a touch sharper and more detailed than the Xbox 360 game. We saw a handful of explosions, and the frame rate seemed pretty good.

Full Auto 2 is scheduled for release this November.