When the most-played games on your “next-gen” system are throwbacks to arcade games and mini-games from previous generation games, you’re officially in a game drought. Full Auto hits at a good lull time for the 360 when owners are hungry for anything that shows off the reason they really bought the system, but before the delayed release of launch-title stragglers like Oblivion and Ghost Recon. In some respects, Full Auto delivers a fun experience, even if it is a short-lived one.

Full Auto is as sharp-looking an Xbox 360 game as you could expect to find. The game easily stands shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the better looking titles on the system; though this can be either a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you view the system’s current graphical state. Personally, I didn’t have much of a problem. Cars are well designed, shiny and take all sorts of damage during races.

Track designs look and feel great. As with most other racing games, you’re confined to a short part of a track during races. Once inside the races, the short tracks begin to feel much bigger as you uncover various shortcuts that will take you below streets and even through some buildings. On top of that, nearly everything on the track can be leveled. This leads to all manner of explosions, debris and burning wreckage. If you like your explosions big, you’ll love what Full Auto has to offer.

All of the shiny cars, explosions and destructible environments come with the trade-off of a choppy framerate. While it isn’t a persistent, game-breaking problem, it is noticeable and can slow down the otherwise fast-paced action.

Full Auto’s soundtrack is comprised mostly of electronic music. At least, that’s what I’ve been told, though I could barely hear it because of the low volume setting it defaults to and the sounds of chaos taking place throughout the game. So, to that end, its good that the weapons fire, crashes and explosions sound great; otherwise who knows what you’d be listening to.

Full Auto can be most aptly described as Burnout meets Twisted Metal. Rather than simply racing around a track and causing chaos, you’re armed -- allowing even more chaos to rise around you.

Career mode is where most of your time will be spent. Most of the mode’s objectives build off the game’s straightforward gameplay; blow up everything and cross the finish line first. As you play through events, you’ll unlock new cars and more weapon configurations. Machine guns will eventually give way to a rocket launcher and so on. Rather than creating your own combinations, weapons are selected in sets of two, which is an attempt to keep the game somewhat balanced; you’re either a “forward fighter” or a “backwards” one. This makes more of a difference earlier in the game since later weapons are naturally more powerful.

Events in Career mode are each slightly different, though most boil down to winning the race. As you scream through the game’s busy streets, you’ll skid and slide around corners building up boost power. At the same time, you’ll also rack up points to build your Unwreck Meter, one of Full Auto’s more inventive mechanics. Anyone who has played a racing game in the last, well ever, has wished they could do a certain part over. The Unwreck ability allows players to do just that by reversing time and allowing you to replay a short portion of the track. At first, I was a little apprehensive of the feature’s effect on gameplay, so I was surprised to see just how well it blended into the game and didn’t throw things off-balance. Even if you manage to reverse time, there’s no guarantee you’ll fix a mistake on the next try.

A number of other modes are also available, so there’s always something to do… at least in theory. The problem with the other gameplay modes is that once you get into them, they all feel the same, bringing us to Full Auto’s major failing – a lack of personality and depth. While the gameplay behind the game is solid, there’s really nothing there to hold you for longer than a few hours. Unlike other successful car combat games, like Twisted Metal and to some extent Mario Kart, Full Auto teems with generic designs that really don’t feel all that compelling.

Online games allow up to eight players and are loads more enjoyable than the Career mode. The only real downside to online play, other than the occasional asshole competitor, is the slight lag that seems to come with every game. Also, Unwreck isn’t available in competitive matches, though the loss isn’t all that noticeable. Two-player head-to-head matches are also available, though these matches come with the added “enhancement” of lag. Still, the matches are playable.

Typical of most arcade racers, Full Auto isn’t that difficult a game to jump right into and play. After picking up the game for the first time, the most difficult hurdle I faced was figuring out that what the game referred to as the “Left Bumper” was what I had been calling the “Left Button”. After getting over that five-second learning curve, I was off to the races and never looked back. A.I. is pretty aggressive, especially in later matches, but even the most aggressive of A.I. is susceptible to a few machine gun rounds or a missile to the tailpipe.

Vehicles are split up into four classes: A, B, C and S. Cars in the A class are fast, but lack the armor of C class cars (which, naturally, lack the speed of the A class cars). Each vehicle can be equipped with a primary and secondary weapon. These include standard armaments like machine guns and missiles, as well as unique items like a back-mounted grenade launcher and a close-range shotgun. Weapons can be modified to give more power to one while downgrading the other. Leveling up weapons increases their damage output and will even grant special powers at certain levels. For example, missiles gain the homing ability. Other than gaining special abilities, there’s no real reason to upgrade since even at their most basic levels, weapons still do a hell of a lot of damage.

If taken as a simple arcade racer, Full Auto is a fun diversion. Look any deeper, and you’re only setting yourself up for disappointment. The game simply doesn’t have enough variety to be entertaining for more than a week, making it a better rental than purchase.