Game Preview: Fast & Furious: Showdown

Perhaps surprisingly, there haven’t been many Fast & Furious branded video games for the home market. Maybe that’s a good thing, given the shoddy development with which game creators usually try to piggy-back film brands.

Activision is responsible for publishing some of the biggest video game titles going around, such as Call Of Duty, Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft. This time around it is putting its weight behind a racing game tie-in to the Fast & Furious 6 movie, which hits Australian cinemas on May 24.

The F&F movie franchise’s biggest hero, Vin Diesel, recently took to Facebook to confirm the subsequent Fast & Furious 7 film will be released on July 11, 2014.

Fast & Furious: Showdown will allow players to get behind the virtual wheel of some of the world’s hottest vehicles and race across epic locations around the globe.  Players can team up through two-player co-op, and take part in a collection of high-stakes driving missions.

Diesel and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson front the returning cast in Fast & Furious 6. Since Dom (Diesel) and Brian (Walker) executed the Rio heist that toppled a kingpin’s empire and left their crew with $100 million, our heroes have scattered across the globe. But living on the run, unable to return home, has left their lives incomplete.

In the game gamers will have the ability to switch between key roles, from driver, gunman, tactician to daredevil. Players can also build and modify their dream car with a variety of fantastic upgrades and performance perks.

Alongside 31 different missions is a Challenge mode in which players can test their skill at completing over-the-top objectives, while an online leader board allows racers to compare challenge scores with friends and gamers around the world for ultimate bragging rights.

Fast & Furious: Showdown is expected to be available on May 22 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles. The game is rated M (Violence) by the Australian Classification Board.