![]() ![]() Without going too cut-and-paste happy with the press release, there are now twice as many tracks (60), twice as many cars (34), twice as many mini-games and destruction arenas (18) and thousands more trackside elements to smash into splinters with your speeding engine of death. The physics, the game modes and the sheer range of options have all been significantly improved. A sneak preview of Damien Hirst's "Bangers Suspended In Brine"įor this second spin around the stock car track, Finnish developer Bugbear has opted for the spit and polish approach rather than any major overhaul. ![]() Perhaps wisely, the rag doll stuff is toned down this time and restricted mostly to the mini-games, where the amusement actually complements the gameplay rather than interrupting it. Being able to catapult your virtual self through the windscreen made for an eye-catching gimmick, but did rather sell the game itself a tad short. It doesn't help that FlatOut was sold almost entirely on the basis of its admittedly hilarious rag doll physics system, and the small yet ingenious notion of having a driver who constantly forgets to buckle up. But it's been a rather quiet sort of success, not really making an appreciable impact on the hive mind of the gaming public, the obvious merits of the game predictably overshadowed by the marketing hurricane unleashed by EA to promote its glossy Burnout sequels. Released less than twelve months ago, it garnered good-to-glowing reviews (not least from this very website - "a hair's breadth from being legendary" howled Pat Garratt) and has since clocked up over 800,000 sales worldwide. With this in mind, the original FlatOut is a curious beast. In other words, smashing the ever-loving crap out of everyone else. How many people playing Turbo Esprit on the Spectrum actually bothered chasing down purple drug cars? And how many hurtled around the city, knocking stick men off ladders? Why did everybody with an Amiga own a copy of Indy 500? Was it for the lifelike recreation of the world's most tedious motorsport, or was it because you could drive backwards around the track and watch the ensuing pile up in slow motion replay?įrom Destruction Derby to Driver to Burnout, some of the most indecently entertaining car games of recent(ish) years have succeeded by encouraging gamers to do what's fun rather than what has always been deemed "right". Often the best ideas - or, at the very least, the most fun ideas - come from doing things wrong.
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