Codemasters is showing off the map that will be featured in its upcoming Fuel, saying that it will cover more ground than any other racing game ever launched.

David Brickely, one of the developers at Codemasters, told Videogamer that the 5000 square mile map which would be the bedrock of racing game Fuel had taken four whole years to be developed by the team. The main challenge was mapping the whole area while also keeping the data small enough to be able to fit it on the game disk.

To better understand the difference in scope between the two games, the developers of Fuel revealed that “I did a little Power Point internally to do it and it zoomed them in to each other. It's like a little postage stamp because I think it does like four kilometres or something”. It's not clear whether a bigger game world, when it comes to a driving title, is better than having a small map. It's very important to have a rich game world. Codemasters must show that it can incorporate as much adrenaline pumping action in their Fuel game as Criterion put into Burnout Paradise. In fact, much of the success of Burnout can be directly attributed to the fact that the game never feels old, mainly because the people at Criterion always manage to put something new and interesting in their release, as showed by the recent addition of bikes.

David Brickley said that the two games are not direct rivals because “Criterion is obviously doing a city-based driving game. We didn't have to infringe on that. And they probably compliment each other quite well. It's diverse”. Fuel will be focused on off road racing and not on urban action.

Look out for more Fuel news as the release day draws near.