Auto Assault

AA Game Review - Ten Ton Hammer

LadySirse — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 14:16:24 -0400

High Speed Fun Abounds

Game Chronicles posted a game review today of Auto Assault. Was it a run away hit or a stall?

If you loved the Mad Max movies, or played Interstate 76, or Carmageddon and always hoped that someday they’d make a massive multiplayer online game based in a world where cars do more than just get you around, your day has come. Auto Assault, brought to you by NC Soft, the same people who have done amazing work with such titles as City of Heroes and City of Villians, and Tabula Rasa, is a fast-paced MMO with a focus on vehicular mayhem.

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where only the strong have survived, Auto Assault pits three powerful factions against each other, the Humans, the Biomeks, and the Mutants. Choose to play as a member of any of the three factions and start on the road to high-speed killing.

Read the rest of this review and see if this is a game for you.

Bit-Tech Sizes Up Auto Assault System Demands - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 14:04:46 -0400

Bit-Tech shakes out Auto Assault's hardware demands

And now for something completely different. We've shown you a steady diet of Auto Assault gameplay reviews, now here's one that looks at the game's tech-quisites.

The greatest performance increases for most people, though, will be to lower the Shadow slider to close. If you’re having problems with high quality Shadows you should try Medium quality before you just turn them off. All our mid-range cards performed very well with just the Shadow Quality at Medium, and the shadow distance slider set half way.

Overall, you can get a great experience on any of these cards - the gaming isn't outrageously demanding.

Check out the nuts & bolts of Auto Assault at Bit-tech.net.

Techgage Reviews Auto Assault - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 13:33:25 -0400

Auto Assault Gets Techgaged

Techgage awards Auto Assault a decent 77%, and I have to credit the author with playing the game a few weeks before reviewing. I'm still left wondering why the score wasn't higher, based on the scanty number of complaints (mild complaints, at that) the reviewer offered.

Is Auto Assault worth a purchase? Yes, even though it won't get an incredible score. While I actively enjoyed the game for two weeks, the game still has a lot of bugs and problems that need to be addressed. Despite these issues, this is a great MMO, especially given that you don't need to devote 8 hours a day in order to accomplish a lot. You can literally jump in for an hour and log out satisfied.

See the Techgage review of Auto Assault, then check out our Auto Assault @ Ten Ton Hammer community site.

Auto Assault Reviewed at iAfrica - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 15:45:21 -0400

An Auto Assault review that reads like a preview...

In one of those strange reviews that gives a banal score without really describing what's to dislike, iAfrica gives Auto Assault a 7 out of 10. I do appreciate the perspective of someone not really into MMOs, I just wish the perspective was a little more... critical.

A welcome feature is the ability to create up to twelve different characters on each server. This allows you to experience the different races and classes at any time. So when you get bored of one character just switch over to the next one in line.

You may feel disorientated at first, but things soon become second nature. The user interface is comprehensive but well laid out so that everything is literally a click away. There is even a bandwidth monitor notifying you how strong or weak your connection is. Needless to say, a broadband connection is definitely required to fully enjoy this game. You will experience lag here and there but this is only because there isn't a dedicated local server yet — you'll connect through the UK server.

iAfrica's review of Auto Assault is available by clicking here, and if your interest survives the score, check out the Auto Assault @ Ten Ton Hammer community site!

3D Gamers Reviews Auto Assault - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 09:37:33 -0400

Auto Assault reviews continue their downward spiral...

3D Gamers questions the actual innovation that Auto Assault brings to the genre - giving the game a middling 69%.

On the surface, Auto Assault presents some new style to the MMORPG genre. However, it does not take long to notice that the game is really just a typical MMORPG with cars and some bugs that show its lack of maturity as a game.

One of 3D Gamers's major gripes was a lack of community, no real "massiveness." I agree, but not for the reasons cited. Gamers get a sour taste in their mouth when they see "Population: Very Low" on the Server Select screen, and begin looking for evidence to justify their suspicions that this is an "unpopular" game, rather than enjoying the experience for what it is. An impression that a game is unpopular exerts a downward force on subscriber numbers just like mass popularity draws gamers like ants to honey.

Make no mistake, the biggest reason World of Warcraft is popular is because it's popular - it was the first MMORPG that had the beans to hit a critical mass, resulting in a nuclear explosion of subscribers and servers. Bottom line: please, please replace "Very Low" with "Normal" or something values neutral, NetDevil. Please! /opinion off

Check out the latest NetDevil review at 3D Gamers.

AA Reviewed by Vancouver Sun - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Fri, 26 May 2006 14:18:55 -0400

Auto Assault reviews abound... here comes the Sun.

The Vancouver Sun just reviewed Auto Assault, giving the game a 4 out of 5. Our own review shows that 4 out of 5 reviewers give Auto Assault a 4 out of 5.

t all adds up to fast and fun game play.

You hop out of your souped-up vehicle in town and move around with your character. But the town graphics and movement are jerky and a step down from cruising around the landscape terrain.

Finding missions is easy in Auto Assault - I mostly found myself having to smash apart villages searching for an item, delivering a parcel to another town or knocking off some mutant creatures or their boss.

Read up on the Vancouver Sun Auto Assault review, and if you're still in the review-reading mood, check out Ten Ton Hammer's Auto Assault "first glimpse" review (we bucked the trend and gave AA a 4.8 / 5 - we likes it).

FOX News Reviews Auto Assault - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Wed, 03 May 2006 12:56:20 -0400

A "fair and balanced" review of Auto Assault

FOX News gave Auto Assault 3 stars out of 4, which, if we extrapolate, comes out to 7.5 stars out of 10. IGN's score was 7.5 out of 10. Copycats!

Compared to some other online games I've played, the game world was rather devoid of other people to group up or chat with. Those few I did meet, however, were generally mature and helpful.

I also had some technical glitches: Certain sound effects would annoyingly repeat like a skipping CD, and often my frantic key presses and mouse clicks didn't respond until a precious few seconds later.

So far, I'm enjoying this road trip. Anyone looking for an online game that's more Mad Max than Gandalf might want to take "Auto Assault" out for a spin.

Read FOX News' entire review of Auto Assault, then catch the latest in vehicular destruction at our Auto Assault - TenTonHammer community site.

IGN Reviews Auto Assault - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Tue, 02 May 2006 13:04:32 -0400

IGN gives Auto Assault 7.5 out of 10

Among the perceived low points was Auto Assault's handling of the class system:

The character classes are functionally identical across all three factions. You get different descriptions and titles tailored to the style of the faction, but class behavior is different only so far as racial abilities are different. For example, the Biomek vehicles have more hitpoints, the Humans get small energy shields, and the Mutants have some regeneration. Now, I don't necessarily expect one faction to operate differently from another. But if a fighter class is a fighter class is a fighter class, I think the game should be honest about that.

Now, far be it from me to argue (/cough) but in Auto Assault, there are significant differences between fighter classes. For one, the Biomek martial class (Terminators) are far more group oriented than Mutant Champions (which are more defensively-oriented), which are likewise different than Human Commandoes (whose focus is high damage output). Of course they look relatively similar in the early game, in the levels before their ability choices are fully fleshed out.

Reviewers love to paint a game in broad strokes after only playing the low-end game and listening to the embittered, self-proclaimed "experts". I've written some lousy reviews in my day, but I've (hopefully) learned that it's irresponsible to write a review without having something like a full picture. Granted, MMOs are notoriously tough to get your hands around - there's little that's truly objective about the gameplay, which is why concrete (if unfair) little generalizations like "the classes are all the same" tend to flourish.

But see for yourself if you agree. Check out the full review at IGN.

TheChron.com AA Review - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:17:18 -0400

Auto Assault gets a chron job

Chron.com reviews Auto Assault. They love the core of the game; the vehicularly destructive dash around a post-apocalyptic world, but disliked the in-town "out of the car" perspective. Personally, after playing Eve Online and never seeing my little spaceman, I think it was better than nothing. What were we talking about? Oh, Dwight Odelus' opinions, sorry :)

The game play is relatively straightforward on paper: drive fast, kill stuff.

But in practice, it's a frenzy. Smash through a squad of enemies with flamethrowers, send a rocket up the tailpipe of a van spewing radioactive goo.

This isn't the whole of the game, but it's easily the best part.

Check out TheChron.com's review of Auto Assault.

GamersInfo Glimpses AA - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 00:04:07 -0400

An Auto Assault test drive...

GamersInfo.net weighs in on Auto Assault with a "first glimpse" of the MMO that's making our imaginations run wild during the morning commute to work.

Is the game perfect? No. There are still bugs-a-plenty, including with NPCs and missions, but NetDevil is working hard on fixing them. The clan interface can still use some work, and NetDevil has already said they plan on adding in at least a mail system, and other tools to help player merchants sell their goods. There is housing in the game - which you get via a mission. The graphics in the "pedestrian" city are good, though the animations on the players is a bit stiff - but that's not the focus of the game. The missions, on the other hand, often have GREAT storylines and funny lines - it's great to read them a lot of the time. Some can be funny, others touching, while still others disturbing.

Read Auto Assault first impressions at GamersInfo.net. And afterward, if you're still hankering for more AA opinion, check out our homegrown TenTonHammer First Glimpse / review of Auto Assault.

Auto Assault First Glimpse - Ten Ton Hammer

Ethec — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 01:17:13 -0400

TenTonHammer's "First Glimpse" at Auto Assault

Vehicular destruction MMO Auto Assault hit retailers last week, and countless gamers running and gunning their way through a post-apocalyptic earth as you read this. But can "the fastest, most destructive MMORPG ever" live up to the hype?

At least in the low level areas I've been motoring though, Auto Assault has the absolute, dyed-in-the-wool look and feel of a post-apocalyptic game world. Disconnected overpasses, half-collapsed highrises, mutated wildlife and malfunctioning robots run amok, even the rain seems laced with fallout, and if it looks remotely destructible, it is. Sure there's things that don't quite make sense, the brake lights on my lieutenant's Artemis M for one- but if civilization collapsed, I wouldn't draw a bead pulling those fuses (unless it was a matter of survival). But in the Thunderdome-ish attitude of the day, life is cheap and showmanship is at least as important as survival. I could get into this.

Our first impression? 4.8 out of 5 hammers! Why did we give Auto Assault such a high horsepower rating?

Find out here: the TenTonHammer "First Glimpse" Review of Auto Assault.