Action, racing, fighting, shooting, role playing best games for those who looking to find something, not just to waste a time playing tiny flash games.
Monday, April 22, 2013
FlatOut Ultimate Carnage
One day, I went 90 miles per hour in my car and crashed into a fence.
The shift in momentum was so intense that my body flew through the
car's front windshield. Eventually, my body smashed onto the pavement.
Yet, that day I suffered no wounds. While this might sound like a
miracle, or perhaps a plot element out of an M. Night Shyamalanfilm, I was simply playing Bugbear Entertainment's arcade racer, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage.
The PC version is a port of the Xbox 360 game which released in 2007.
Has it made any improvements to become the ultimate racer or is it just
flat out boring? The answer lies somewhere in between.
In many ways FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage
is a lot like the Burnout racing games. It doesn't feature any traffic,
but destruction is rewarded with either speed boosts or points.
Although the game doesn't offer the same speed as Burnout 3 or F-Zero
GX, it still holds its own. However, what good is speed if your car
handles poorly? Thankfully, the cars handle pretty responsively in
FlatOut, but you'll need a gamepad to properly take advantage of the
controls. Even though the default keyboard controls are functional, the
game was clearly designed for the Xbox 360 controller. Even the menus
are mapped with Xbox 360 buttons.
Once you get your preferred control setup taken care of, you'll
notice that cars maneuver pretty well. If, however, you do find yourself
crashing a lot, you won't have to call it quits because the physics
engine is pretty forgiving. Hit a pole? You'll be okay. One area that
could use some improvement is the track layout, which feels a little
simplistic and shallow. The race tracks feel consistently narrow and the
alternating routes are usually two-second unrewarding detours. However,
my biggest gripe with the racing is the satisfaction of power sliding,
or the lack thereof. Attempting to power slide won't yield rewarding
benefits and will often lead to fishtails.
The most effective way to race is by wreaking havoc. Ramming into
opponents will give you speed boosts, which you'll need because your
opponents are pretty aggressive. As a matter of fact, this game offers a
good challenge overall. The Beat the Bomb mode requires you to reach
checkpoints before your car explodes. This is an interesting take on an
old school racing concept, and it's friggin' hard! Not only is it tough
to get good times in races, but it's hard to achieve the game's set
goals in its non-racing missions as well.
Like the Burnout series, FlatOut offers missions that reward
destruction and stunts with points. In the Carnage Races, you will be
tossed into a checkpoint-style race, and your objective is to wreak as
much havoc as possible to score points. A non-racing destructive mode is
Deathmatch Derby, which pits you against a dozen or so drivers in a
dangerous arena to either rank up points or be the last man standing.
But Deathmatch Derby isn't the only non-racing alternative. A big
portion of the game is the stunt jumps. Like famous stuntman, Evel
Knievel, who used his motorcycle to jump over heaps of buses, you too
will be traversing over obscene distances through the air.
Except that in FlatOut you, literally you and not your car, will do
the flying. In the stunt mode, you'll drive your car a short distance
and preload your jump with a launch button. The earlier you hold the
button, the higher you'll fly. However, hold it down too long and your
driver may shoot up instead of forward. As your driver goes airborne,
you can slightly alter your landing trajectory with the directional pad.
If you come up slightly short, the game allows you to do a last resort
body flop, which can be a lifesaver at times. You're going to be doing
this a lot as there are twelve different stunt tracks, each offering its
unique, silly twist to the mode.
Rather than simply jumping over buses, the stunts in FlatOut will
have you doing zany things. One stunt will require you to launch your
driver through an arch of fiery rings. Later, you'll become the bowling
ball in an oversized bowling alley setup filled with gigantic pins. Then
there's the track that has several gigantic basketball hoops, where
you're the basketball. If you're feeling lucky, there's a "royal flush"
card game that launches you into a humungous wall of cards. Each card
represents a point value, and your job is to rank up the most points.
While there's a ton of other modes: soccer, football, darts, etc... It
all essentially boils down to your ability to properly preload a jump.
The stunts are arguably the best thing about the game, and it's enhanced
when you play with friends.
Luckily, FlatOut offers both online and offline multiplayer.
Unfortunately, your offline multiplayer experience consists of passing a
single controller around the room. What adds to the disappointment is
the fact that you can only play the stunt modes together. There's no
split screen racing in this game. The online multiplayer isn't perfect
either and requires gamers to have either a Games for Windows Live
account. Once you get online, you'll get the chance to participate in
all of the game's various modes: races, Deathmatch Derby, or stunts. My
online experience was definitely playable, but the frame rate seemed too
hitch a little more.
However, even offline, the frame rate was very inconsistent. A major
issue that I ran into with my Steam copy of the game is that FlatOut
does not run well on mid-to-lower-end machines. I tried the game on a
GeForce 7800 GTX and an ATI X1900, but both ran at mediocre frame rates
on medium settings. The game would also hitch on the high settings for
my GeForce 8800 GTS. Perhaps this can be fixed with a future patch, but
it's a shame that, in its current state, my pretty decent gaming rig
cannot run the game better than an Xbox 360.
If you do manage to get FlatOut running at a decent frame rate,
you'll notice that it's not a bad looking game. There are some good
environmental effects like dust, smoke, and fiery explosions. Things
like wood pieces will break and your car will be able to run over them.
Driving into these obstacles and other cars will take a visual toll on
your vehicle. You'll eventually see dinks, bumps, and your hood might
fly off. If you're able to run the game on high settings, you'll notice
that the textures look pretty sharp. However, in addition to frame rate
issues, the graphics engine also suffers from clipping. On more than one
occasion, a barrel or pipe got stuck in my car.
Also somewhat of a mixed bag is the audio. While the sound effects
sound natural for a racer, the music is a generic mix of hard rock.
Although it isn't terrible, the track list is pretty short, so you'll
hear the same songs on a pretty frequent rotation.
The Verdict
FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage tries to be part arcade
racer and part simulator, and for the most part it works. The main
problem is that it doesn't push boundaries in either direction. So if
you're trying to get immersed in a realistic racing game, you're better
off with Grid. If you enjoy silly stunts and racing at insane speeds
then you should wait to see how Burnout Paradise PC turns out. Still,
hybrid racers of this type are pretty rare on the PC in this day and
age, and this is by no means a bad game. So if you're looking for a fun
and silly racer that may not blow you away, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage may be the racer for you. So go break a leg, or two.
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