Wheelman Preview

Vin Diesel. His name rolls of the tongue doesn't it? It sounds almost like something you'd put in your car to make it go faster. Funny that, since Wheelman, Midway's upcoming GTA-style open world driving game, stars none other than the muscle bound man himself.

It's unfortunate that Vin Diesel himself isn't here, at E3 2008 in LA, to talk about the game. That's because his studio, yes, that's right, Vin Diesel owns a video game studio, Tigon Studios, is playing a massive hand in making the game. But hey ho, we'll have to go old skool and rely on our own impressions from our hands-on time, rather than a multi-millionaire Hollywood superstar to tell us how the game's shaping up.

To help we have Pall Pall Palsson, the game's producer, who is sitting beside us in Midway's crowded E3 private meeting room. He takes us through the new features of the game, implemented in the time it's taken us to get back from Midway's Gamers' Day in Las Vegas, twiddle our thumbs in the UK for a bit and then travel all the way back to California for E3. We reckon that's about two and a half months. So what's new?

The Airjack, that's what. Think car jack but, well, from the air. As you approach cars in the streets of Barcelona, the setting of the game, holding down the B button (on the Xbox 360 pad) will cause Milo Burik, Vin's undercover agent character, to hang out of whatever car you're driving in anticipation of the special move that's about to come. When you get close enough to your target car a small arrow will turn green and bang! That's your window of opportunity to release B and send Vin leaping into the air, onto the roof of the car, sliding through the door window, kicking the unlucky driver out onto the street and taking control in one swift, seamless, spectacular movement.

It might sound easy, simply holding and then releasing B, and it certainly isn't hard when you are in pursuit of a slow car and you're in a speeding monster. But go up against a fast car that's trying to escape your clutches and the computer proves itself a handy driver. You'll be speeding around corners, taking shortcuts through the back streets of Barcelona and tearing up the tarmac just to get to the point of having that window of opportunity. And pressing B to make Milo hang out of the car takes your thumb away from the right analogue stick, which takes away Wheelman's vehicle melee combat in one fell swoop. So there's a degree of timing and skilful driving needed to set up the jump.

That said, the airjack is designed to keep the action rolling and the downtime spent ditching mashed up cars and jacking new ones to a bare minimum. Escaping a horde of bad guys who have mashed your motor to the brink of total annihilation? No problem. Airjack that tasty sports car 20 meters ahead of you and keep the mayhem rolling.

Players will get their first taste of airjacking during the game's third mission, Scratch my Back. Here Milo agrees to do a favour for Miguel in order to get at his brother, Stavos. Miguel sends Milo out to airjack three separate stolen vehicles speeding about Barcelona, and it's your job to bring them back without a scratch.

It starts off pretty easy and gets progressively harder. The third car is an extremely fast sports car. "You'll need to get into a faster car," advises Pall. We find the shiniest, loveliest looking car we can and head off in pursuit, using the mini-map on the lower right hand side to track out target. It's difficult but no nonsense fun, smashing through crates, screeching around corners and inevitably inching towards the rear of the slippery eel. Then, after a few minutes of pedal to the floor driving, the arrow turns green and we release B, sending big Vin flying out and through the window into the now captured car. Then it's just a case of driving it back in one piece to the starting point, viewed on screen by a blue light, and the mission is complete.

Wheelman's new airjack mode gives the game a distinct Pursuit Force: Extreme Justice feel - a PSP game I love. And it reinforces Midway Newcastle's goal of making an open world action game that focuses on spectacular car chases and Hollywood style cinematic moments. It's kind of like Burnout fused with Stranglehold, which sounds like a match made in heaven to us. The Burnout feel is no more apparent than in The Fugitive game mode, which can be accessed at any time from the main game world. Here Milo needs to survive the pursuit of tons of enemy drivers. It's arcadey, fast and a blast. And The Fugitive is just one of a number of events that will be unlocked sequentially as you progress.

Anyone in any doubt about how much input Vin has actually had in the game need only listen to Pall for a few minutes. He tells us that despite the star's incredibly busy schedule, there have been two occasions where he stayed in the studio until 2 am perfecting his lines. He's also had a hand in the script, as well as provided constant feedback on some of the more spectacular moves, like the slow motion 360 car turn Cyclone, perhaps Wheelman's most fun action set-piece. Strangely Wheelman isn't the game of a movie, despite feeling very much like it should be. At the end of the day though, that may prove to be a benefit.

We're not without concerns of course. The frame rate is a tad choppy, especially when lots of things are happening at once, but there's no reason not to expect that to be ironed out by the time the game is released. And the jury's still out on the melee vehicle combat, too. But overall Wheelman is surprising us with its sheer fun factor and frenzied driving. For those of you looking for a bit more adrenaline to go with your open world gangster game, Vin Diesel's Wheelman looks like a safe driver.

Wheelman is due out for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC Q4 2008.