Codemasters recently gave us the opportunity to ask some questions to David Brickley, the Executive Producer for FUEL.

GameParty: Are you trying to compete against blockbusters like Motorstorm for the PS3, or shall you rather take the game to a whole other level?
David Brickley: That would be quite an arrogant claim to make given how good a series Motorstorm is. It's fair to say though that FUEL started off as a world which we've shaped and reshaped to come up with a whole host of driving experiences which we hope offers players of all abilities something genuinely new to enjoy. We're doing something with FUEL that, because of the ground-breaking technology in the game, offers something really fresh and different compared to what's out there.

GameParty: The size of the playground in FUEL is amazing, that we know, but which other features do you offer us gamers to keep us busy with this game?
David Brickley: Well there's a career of more than 70 races, all available to play online; more than 200 race challenges; hundreds of ride and rider avatars to collect; FUEL to use as currency and buy more than 70 vehicles; and a race editor with which you can create and save your own creations in the open world, which as we've said is all open to explore.

GPN: Your plans for the cross-platformsystem, the playability between the Xbox 360- and PC-users, will these be realized or have they gone dead?
David: We'll be talking about that closer to launch.

GPN: How long does it take to complete the longest track in FUEL? And what prevents the gamer from just quitting the game after a couple of minutes playing?
David: I've not seen anyone fail to pick up the joypad and drive for at least half an hour just to see what happens. That's a tremendously potent feature to have at the core of any game. As for the longest race you can make, that would be around an hour - any more and it becomes impractical to QA effectively.

GPN: Are you able to tell us where the developer got the inspiration from to realize the entourages in FUEL?
David: The movie Point Break for one thing. It was a conscious effort to avoid comparisons with Mad Max - there is no combat gear anywhere, it's all NFL helmets and punk wear. These guys are the surfers or base jumpers of our world, extreme sports fans.

GPN: Regarding the name FUEL, is fuel in any way involved in the game? The need of filling up the gas tank once in a while for instance?
David: FUEL came quite late through the development cycle and was chosen because it's genre unspecific - not road, nor off road, just like the game. However it provided a handy solution to a discussion we were having about the currency in game. You don't have to worry about running out in the field, but you need to earn more to buy all the vehicles.

GPN: How is the future for FUEL, are there already plans for one or more sequels?
David: We're just taking it one step at a time.

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