February 3, 2007
After the success of FlatOut 2

Empire Interactive recently announced that FlatOut is making its next-generation debut on the Xbox 360 with FlatOut Ultimate Carnage. Full press release below:

''Empire Interactive, a wholly owned subsidiary of Silverstar Holdings (NASDAQ: SSTR), today announced the next generation debut of the FlatOut franchise with FlatOut Ultimate Carnage, releasing on the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft in June 2007.

The sales of the critically acclaimed FlatOut 2 franchise have surpassed one million copies worldwide since its release in June 2006. FlatOut 2 has also won numerous awards including on Xbox Best Racing Game of 2006 from G4s X-Play games show (beating off the likes of Need For Speed Carbon and Test Drive Unlimited in the process), Best PlayStation 2 Racing Game of 2006 from IGN and on PC Best Racing game of 2006 from Krawall Gaming Network.''

(Source: TeamXbox.com)



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Personally I didn't think the original Flatout (now budget title for $9.95 on PC) was much to praise about. The soundtrack was old and for anyone who's played the Tony Hawk series you would've been sick of it by now, the crashing physics were poor, steering/drifting resulted in frustration on those final corners and most of the tracks seemed samey. But it still received positive reviews and many people snapped it up on PC/PS2 after the RRP was halved.

Flatout 2 however was a positive sign, a new graphics engine, better soundtrack (but nothing you haven't already heard a million times) and of course better physics. This was the 'Destruction Derby' of the 21st century. Along with this was a host of crazy mini-games to support it where your driver was sent flying through the windscreen in order to achieve his goal from flying through rings of fire, to being used as a human dartboard. The zany mini-games are what seperated it from other games and provided extra gameplay. Just as well the single player championship warranted the same attention too with the extra-adrenaline to sit on par with the infamous 'Burnout' franchise

Now there's another sequel rising. If they could just tweek the AI a little, introduce memorable track designs and get a killer soundtrack along with more of those wacky mini-games, this could well knock 'Burnout:Dominator' out of the stadium and into the trash compactor :D

Even though there quite different I reckon this game will be competiting with the burnout series.

Let's face it, unless Criterion's employees all spontaneously combust or something, the Burnout series will always be the king of the Arcade racing genre.

That said though, from what I've read and seen Flatout (FlatOut?) looks like a fairly decent arcade racing game and I have always had an interest in playing it.

I seem to be branching out into more and more franchises these days, so with any luck I'll be able to finally give this franchise (and perhaps this game) a go and decide for myself what I think on it.

No matter what its a rent before you buy game, there are too many car games these days anyway.

As a gamer who plays racing games quite often, I definitely disagree with you. :P