FlatOut

This game is just plain fun. No need to worry about car mechanics or over the top customizations, just select a race and play! I was surprised on the graphic scalability with Antialiasing samles, direct 3D hardware, resolutions, refresh rate and anisotropy filtering. Sound setting too for 5.1 surround, and so on. All in all an impressive game for 2004.

Flatout is a demolition-derby style racer. The graphics are pretty tight even by todays standards, and the races can be very exciting on most of the tracks. The cars look great, and there are dozens of them to choose from; from crappy derby cars to old American muscle mobiles, all the way up to beautiful racing machines. The damage modeling is top notch too, with cars flying to peices in absolutely amazing looking crashes. Debris from destroyed scenery and vehicles litter teh raceway and actually become obsticles on your subsequent laps. It's a shame that the game doesn't have more advanced replay options; it comes only with a standard replay after the race is finished, the only option of which is slow motion (you can't even choose the angle manually, theres only a few preselected angles to use). When it came out, it's claim to fame was the fact that the guy driving your car could be thrown through the windshield in a particularly brutal crash. There are even minigames involving throwing your driver through hoops and over high bars, etc. It's amusing at first, but eventually proves to be the games major flaw; your driver will fly through the windshield ALL THE TIME. Sometimes you'll hit a curb or have your bumper hit by another driver and your dude will go flying as if he had an ejector seat. It can be especially frustrating considering the difficulty of the game. Especially in the later stages, one inconvenient crash can easily mean that you're better off restarting than even bothering to try catching up. Occasionally funky physics will send your car flying out of control from hitting even small pieces of debris or taking small bumps from other cars. To sum it up, I had alot of fun with Flatout, but eventually gave in to frustration caused by it's various problems. For five bucks, you'll definetly get your moneys worth. However, if this sounds like a game you'd enjoy you might want to consider one of its various sequels (for the PC and consoles), which fix many of the problems that the original had. Oh, and get a controller to use with it; keyboard controls suck on this one.

I just want to say that Flatout is an amazing amount of fun. It could be my new favorite racing game. The graphics are quite good, even by today's standards. It has a realistic graphics style with a slightly overbright color palette. The shadows are well done, and hitting things sends pieces flying. Your driver also goes flying, ragdoll style, if you hit a solid object. On a Radeon 3870 I can set it to full detail with 4x AA and full Anisotropy, and the frame rate is perfectly smooth. The game has great physics. A little bit arcadey, but with a very natural feel that makes immersion really easy. The controls are fully configurable. The menus are structured like a console so the whole game can be operated with a gamepad. Playing with a gamepad seems to have zero lag and is responsive. The music is upbeat guitar rock. It won't win any grammys, but it suits the game well and gets your energy up. In the long term I'll probably turn on just the sound FX and play other music. The sound FX are quite good. Overall an excellent, visceral, extremely fun racing game. I tend to giggle while playing it, which is an endorsement all its own. A steal for the price.

Game developers have for quite some time been obsessed with the fps, the graphics and seeing how shocking they can be. In the process many of them have forgotten something. Games are meant to be fun! This awesome driving game reminds you of just that! Every time the ragdoll driver flies out of the windscreen I laugh! And the damage factor makes the races truly engaging as well. On top of that the actual driving physics is excellent and the cars feel like big rear wheel drive beasts. The difficulty is set just right so there is a definite sense of achievement too! With the extra ragdoll and smash derby mini-games this game hits the ball out of the park with a 5 star rating for me. ' If you're into fun games get this one. If you love driving games get this one!