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FlatOut 2 (Xbox)

Release Date: 30/06/2006

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Summary

Developer:: Bugbear
Publisher:: Empire Interactive

Featuring an enhanced version of the original's lauded physics engine and even faster driving track designs, FlatOut 2 also boasts a plethora of improvements, enhancements and additions to make this the definitive FlatOut experience. Twice as many vehicles, a more sophisticated career mode, additional race environments, double the number of tracks; twice as many mini-games along with brand new and much requested online multiplayer modes are just some of the exhaustive features that are included in FlatOut 2.

Wreck hard in this action racer to earn the ultimate honour of being the dirtiest in the gravel, the deadliest on the race track and the meanest around the streets.

With over 5,000 fully destructible objects on every track as well as 40 deformable parts on each vehicle, physical interaction in a racing game is taken to unprecedented heights with the destructive element influencing players racing tactics like no other driving game on the market. With a greater emphasis placed on causing destruction on the track by offering greater rewards, game play will be even more frantic than ever. Drivers will need to tear into competitors' cars, trash the local scenery thereby littering the track with all manner of obstacles. All in the attempt to wreck their opponents race enabling the collection of maximum performance and cash bonuses, while at the same time trying to concentrate on their own race in a bid to cross the line first.

And with the ever popular Rag Doll mini-games from the original FlatOut making a welcome return and better than ever with 12 Rag Doll events, a Rag Doll Championship as well as online support for Rag Dolls, FlatOut 2 is set to be the biggest, brashest and most destructive action racing game of 2006.

Features:

The inclusion of an enhanced Championship Mode. Multiple cups across increasing difficultly levels, each cup contains a series of races that the player competes in for accumulated totals of money and points.
Online multiplayer modes for up to 8 players on Xbox.
Offline Multiplayer modes on all formats via split screen for up to 4 players
Improved physics engine for an even greater racing feel
Drive at eye watering speeds on the fast tracks with extra nitro boost rewards
Improved opponent AI. Each AI driver now has their own character, biography and individual driving personalities
Unlockable bonus items for the first time including bonus cars, Championship Cups and Destruction Arenas.
Set in the US (the original was set in Europe)
34 vehicles as opposed to the original games' 16
Additional car types including Muscle cars, Sports cars, Pickup Trucks and Compacts (the original only contained Muscle cars)
The inclusion of a garage for the first time to allow the owning of multiple vehicles
Increased number of race environments including Big City, LA Storm Drains, Rocky Mountain Forest, Corn Fields and Desert
60 track combinations over the originals' 36
Alternate track routes included for the first time and the AI use them.
Twice as many Destruction Derby Arenas (six as opposed to the originals' 3)
Twice as many Rag Doll Mini Games (12 compared to the originals' 6)

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Screenshots

GAME Reviews
Customer Reviews Customer Reviews

FlatOut 2; Author: Iain Thomas ; Published: 03/08/2006

Iain hopes his insurance is fully paid up...

Like many other people, right from the moment that I played my first racing game I wanted more. I wanted to drive harder and faster than could ever be humanly possible. I wanted to drive through streets filled with traffic, endangering the lives of countless pedestrians and Sunday afternoon drivers. I wanted to drive right through the middle of a barn, and then wrap my car around a tree propelling myself through the windscreen in a hail of shattered glass and broken dreams.

OK, possibly a little melodramatic but that sums up quite nicely why FlatOut 2 is just that little bit different. It’s not the fastest, nor is it the most in depth driving experience you’ll ever have but that’s not the point. The point is that you’re driving a heap of rusted metal that had seen better days when FDR was in the Oval Office, at speeds that something which is essentially a death-mobile held together with little more than spit and good intentions should never reach and you’re cackling like a raving loon. I don’t think I’ve been as anti-social in a racing game since Destruction Derby 2, all those years ago.

essentially a death-mobile held together with little more than spit and good intentions

Sure, Burnout 3 did takedowns and to my mind it is still the best racing game available but there was one important factor missing. Namely the screams of your opponents as you give them a practical demonstration of their crumple zones.

It’s not just death and destruction though; the actual racing that forms the basis of most of the pileups is solid enough to stand up on its own. While the car physics are a bit too far towards the floaty side of the suspension spectrum, the tracks are well designed and a lot of fun to crash round and there’s a decent number of “tuning” options (I use the word “tuning” loosely, as in this case it means upgrading to an engine that works without driving all of your teeth back into the gums and wheels that are predominantly round) to be bought with your winnings.

Accompanying the various racing options, there’s several stunt modes that range from the relatively sane (attempting to fling the driver as high as possible in a high jump event) to the quite frankly bizarre (aiming to hit giant playing cards in an attempt to make a winning hand in a giant game of poker). While these mini-games were never meant to engage in the same way as the main races, rather provide a brief moment of comic relief, they do that in such glorious abandon that you’ll keep coming back to these long after you’ve grown tired of the vanilla racing.

The Mother

To top it all off, you also have what is in my mind, the mother of all modes in a racing game. Destruction Derby. Eight cars, one arena, seven smoking wrecks at the end. To try and attribute the appeal of it to anything more than a primal quest for dominance, an instinctive love for machines and an even greater love for blowing them up would be making it too complex. This little game mode is all about the catharsis, and is the perfect cure to any frustration caused by some of the glitches that occasionally rear their ugly heads in the career mode.

I’ve already mentioned the slightly floaty car physics, which means that the handling of some of the wrecks can take a bit of getting used to. In addition to this, there’s the slightly random nature of the environment physics. As few as two years ago, I wouldn’t necessarily expect something to fall over if its legs had been taken out from under it. But in a game that makes such a point of the destructible nature of the environments I’d expect a water butt or a fuel tank to fall to the ground shortly after I’ve just smashed through all four of its legs. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case here and a floating tank is a disappointingly common sight.

That aside, it may not be big or clever but it is certainly one hell of a ride and leaves many a racer in the dust.