Full Auto 2: Battle Lines

Platform: PSP
Verdict: Mardy Max.
Rating: 2½/5
Everyone knows that the future is a barren wasteland where oil is more precious than life and catwalks are filled with leather, spikes and loin cloths. Tina Turner may not need another hero but Full Auto 2: Battle Lines demands you to be one, for better or for worse.
As heroic deeds go however it'll certainly take a concerted effort from the Homer as the road to victory is a particularly disheartening odyssey – the ridiculous quest to overthrow a weather computer by driving like a drunk is a painful and glitchy road to hell.
The expensive licensed soundtrack may delight some but unfortunately belies the quality of the game as Battle Lines comes across as an unfinished symphony of destruction that at least heavy metal fans will glean some joy from.
With a variety of play modes to choose from and only ad hoc multiplayer (yet another PSP game to sadly shun WiFi), Full Auto 2 is a generic and predictable package that ticks the usual boxes but adds little new and as the pint sized brother to the PS3 game, it's lacking the one thing that made it interesting – the ability to rewind time and correct your mistakes.
Anyone who's crashed their car for real will know what the benefit of hindsight brings and with the ability to crash, rewind and avoid that nasty collision, Full Auto 2 on the PS3 allowed the player to be courageous and experimental, safe in the knowledge that an unsuccessful manoeuvre could easily be corrected. The explosions looked nice too.
Without the hook of rewinding time, Full Auto 2 is reduced to an average game of driving erratically and shooting wildly. With the PSP's limitations and some sloppy programming, the choppy frame rate and twitchy controls mean it's functional at best and barely a joy to play.
Those with a penchant for road based destruction would be best advised to plump for Burnout because even though Full Auto 2 is packed with weapons and destructible set piece environments, it still can't match the visceral quality of its nitrous peer. There's also the next Wipeout on the way where the future is decidedly cooler.