Auto Assault a write-off News • News • Eurogamer.net

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NCsoft turns off engine.

NCsoft will be terminating all services for MMO Auto Assault on 31st August, and sending it to the great garage in the sky.

The announcement sprung up on the official website, where the publisher is promising to reconcile money issues with those of you who've paid to play past 31st July.

Unfortunately NCsoft was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, but the website suggests more information concerning the ins and outs of it all will be available soon.

Developed by NetDevil, Auto Assault was released in the middle of 2006 to favourable reviews. It was based in a post-apocalyptic setting that offered persistent world lovers the chance to swap pointy-ears for Mad Max-style vehicles, describing itself as "the fastest, most destructive MMO ever".

Despite all this, it failed attract the numbers enjoyed by NCsoft's other titles City of Heroes and Lineage II, eventually resulting in a merge of the US and European servers last summer. However, this appears not to have helped a great deal, and Auto Assault is now at the end of the road. Ahem.

Keep your eyes on the official website for any special events to mark its passing.

Alternatively pop into our Auto Assault review for a trip down memory lane.

About Auto Assault
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- Release date 12/04/2006
- Publisher NCsoft
- Developer NetDevil
More about Auto Assault
Related game pages
- Auto Assault on PC

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

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Comments (21) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

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chicknstu #1 5 years ago

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it was the impossible crafting system in the cities and complete lack of challenge in the field that turned me off.
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Shrui #2 5 years ago

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Was a cool setting but long term appeal was a bit limited. Also the "on foot" sections were clunky and looked a bit crap.

Earth & Beyond in cars was my feeling of it.
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ZuluHero #3 5 years ago

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It�s a real shame, the game was really quite good, it just was under appreciated by all the elf-lovers. It�s a shame to see niche titles like this go as there isn't enough variety on the MMO front as it is, and when something different closes it just encourages devs to stick with what's 'safe' and that means more of the same for MMO fans.

/Sigh
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Whizzo #4 5 years ago

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Do a proper Car Wars MMO and it'll do the business, do EQ in cars and it will fail.
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Rirekon #5 5 years ago

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pity really, it was a good idea but poorly implemented.
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Psi #6 5 years ago

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shame, i was on beta but never really had a chance to get into it
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Quine #7 5 years ago

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Whizzo +1
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jiveguy #8 5 years ago

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I could never figure out how to get my car to wield a staff and wear purple robes.
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ExplodingClown #9 5 years ago

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Those utterly crap adverts didn't help.
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MrChuckles #10 5 years ago

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The problem was you'd drive you car up to an enemy, park in front of it and then reverse as it attacked you. If it'd had been a racing game with the same mechanics, might have worked well, i.e. an important reason to keep going as fast as possible all the time.

I quite enjoyed going at speed over hills, etc, just was no help for actually levelling up etc.

Mind you, i only played the beta.
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drunkymonkey #11 5 years ago

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I heard from numerous reviews that the communication elements were naff, and considering that MMOs are very much about communication, this was unacceptable.
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Gurgeh #12 5 years ago

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"Do a proper Car Wars MMO and it'll do the business, do EQ in cars and it will fail. "

Ah the old days:

[link url=http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/Autoduel
]http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/Autoduel
[/link]
[link url=http://ww w.classicgaming.com/rotw/autoduel/
]http://ww w.classicgaming.com/rotw/autodu...[/link]

I'd see this working best as a console-only MMO. Instancing with a 16 player limit and use the engine from Flatout.
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Nithron #13 5 years ago

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Would have sold more if you could pick up post-apocayptic hookers.
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Laserbream #14 5 years ago

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Ah what a shame.

When I was playing I always thought that it should have been a console MMO with a guild-wars flavour instead of the overly complicated crafting system.

Say hello to Asheron's Call 2 for me, Auto Assault.
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Tyronne #15 5 years ago

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This does not surprise me as I played the demo and thought it was a pile of shit.
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AOFanboi #16 5 years ago

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I enjoyed the time I spent shooting up the scenery in the beta, but the physics engine was annoying, where you could summersault if you ran over a pebble. Oh, and the on-foot city sections... pain! Why have them?

So, the graveyard so far: Jumpgate, Earth & Beyond, Motor City Online (to the exstent it ever got past beta), Asheron's Call 2, and now AutoAssault.

Zombies: Rubies of Eventide (relaunched as tip-ware), Horizons (how can it still be alive?), Shadowbane (or is it dead?).
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zooms #17 5 years ago

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I played the beta. It was not good. The end.
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vane101 #18 5 years ago

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This always seemed like it should be a subs free game to me. And it came from the makers of subs free Guild Wars. Oh well...
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urban #19 5 years ago

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i knew it was bad as soon as i got on the beta, i entered one of the cities and just thought..no way.
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rudedudejude #20 5 years ago

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Hasn't this only been out like 6 months?
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Shanucore #21 5 years ago

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No loss really, this was the worst MMO I've played. Admittedly I only gave it a few hours but I ran into so many critical bugs (crashes, weapon slots disappearing off my car, connecting to the wrong bloody servers) I just saw no need to persevere.

Shame really, as the concept is ace.
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