If we didn't know better, we'd say Sony is planning to release a powerful new console this November. That seemed to be the case when we visited Sega today and walked into a room full of shiny new final-version PlayStation 3 development kits running the latest build of Full Auto 2: Battlelines, the sequel to Pseudo Interactive's combat racer released for the Xbox 360 last year. Pseudo and Sega apparently want to be among the first to produce two games on brand-spanking-new hardware, since Battlelines is a PS3 exclusive just like the first Full Auto was particular to the 360 earlier this year. At any rate, we got our hands on the game for the first time since E3 to check out how the madcap multiplayer mode is shaping up, including a new game type and a look at a new map.

　　But to start off, we tried our hand in an eight-player match of the traditional competitive racing mode to get a feel for it. The short version is that this is the Full Auto you remember--the focus is still on outracing and outgunning your opponents at an insane rate of speed. But we noticed a few minor tweaks here and there. For instance, you can now fire your primary weapon by clicking R3 (the right analog stick), which makes simultaneous free-aiming and shooting easier than it was before. We also got to try out a near-final version of the PlayStation 3 controller, with its triggerlike L2 and R2 buttons, which obviously made accelerating and braking a lot more precise.

　　Sega's big tagline for Battlelines is "destruction matters." According to them, this means that all the havoc you could cause in the first game--which was often more pretty window dressing than anything--will this time have more gameplay relevance. What it really boils down to is that you'll be able to shoot down a bunch of the scenery to really ruin your opponents' day. In the sample race we tried--which had us winding back and forth between massive containers in an industrial shipping yard--boxes, pipes, and other big heavy objects hanging overhead were constantly blocking our path, thanks to the other racers' weaponry (this should hopefully prove to be a useful new offensive option for savvier players).

　　Things will supposedly blow up even better than before in Battlelines.

　　Afterward we got to try Full Auto 2's new deathmatch mode, which is also available in a team variant and which had us simply battling it out with seven other cars in a sparkling city square with an underground parking garage to hide in and lots of glass-fronted buildings to smash. Buses and other vehicles often came hurtling through, presenting yet another obstacle. A few power-ups were available, such as a mortarlike superweapon and a wrench that repaired some of our car's damage. In the final game, you'll be able to choose from a number of cars and weapon loadouts, but we only had a cluster-missile launcher and minelayer on our default car in this demo. The action here was fast-paced and chaotic--pretty much what you'd expect from Full Auto, except that instead of driving a linear course, we were raging in an enclosed area that was sealed off by an artificial energy barrier in some places.

　　Lastly, we tried the new base assault multiplayer type on the same map. In this four-on-four mode, a bomb is spawned randomly in the middle of a map that has a base for each team at either end. The objective, obviously, is to get to the bomb first and deliver it to the other team's base when it explodes. Whether or not you're actually in possession of the bomb when this happens, your team will get a point. Finally, we heard about one more new multiplayer mode called cat and mouse. From the sound of it, this one has two players racing against each other, while the rest of the pack simply guns for them and tries to disrupt the race as much as possible. We should find out more about that one in the months ahead.

　　Sega says the new career mode will provide a compelling path into the enhanced multiplayer mode.

　　Full Auto 2 is looking good and solid right now. The art style is unmistakably similar to the first game, and the level of visual fidelity is actually just about the same, from what we saw. The textures might be a little sharper and some of the effects a little more real, but visually the two games are pretty comparable. Performance was fairly fluid, though the frame rate bogged down some during intense moments. However, the developers are targeting a consistent 60 frames per second for launch, and Sega says the game is in the feature-complete alpha stage at this point, which means the code wizards have a good long while to spend on bug fixes and optimizations.

　　Pseudo and Sega promise there's plenty more information yet to reveal about Full Auto 2--they just aren't revealing it yet. We're talking about things like the events that will make up the revamped career mode, and how the game will utilize the PS3 controller's tilt functionality (which will purportedly be in a meaningful way). It's also worth noting that we played Full Auto 2's multiplayer on the actual PlayStation network platform, so apparently Sony already has its online gaming infrastructure up and running well ahead of the new system's release. Of course, we're just as curious as you are about how the PlayStation 3's first round of games will turn out, so stay tuned for more on Full Auto 2 and all of Sony's other launch titles in the coming months.