FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage Comments by Rob Fahey

"Know write something intelligent about the review instead."

Nice.

Sounds like a nice game. I'm more into arcade racers than sims. Loved Burnout 3, great game for short bursts. And apparently this is even better. But unless they create a (poor) port for PS3, chances I'll play it are slim.

The problem is this; Ultimate Carnage has some seriously, shockingly dodgy physics in places. Most of the time, the physics is fine; overstated, certainly, with many items seemingly weighing almost nothing, and cinematic, over the top destruction being favoured over realism, but that's exactly what we want to see in this sort of game. However, in a significant number of cases, the physics is just broken - and in some of those cases, it's broken enough to ruin an entire race.

The physics in Motorstorm aren't perfect either.

Well the physics of the tire than knocked me into last place with one corner left by wedging itself in my windscreen in a cup race last night would disagree.

I played this for ages last night its bloody great.

@ SeesThroughAll

Broken enough to ruin the game?

The driver launching minigames have been a staple of the series since the very beginning. They didn't just debut in the previous game.

Looks like fun, but the bug thing bugs me, maybe the'll patch it? Then I'll consider. . I'll wait for it or Burnout 5 instead.

I can't say for the hours I've been playing that the majority of the time any cars sticking to the bumper is anything less than my own fault for nudging them at the rear with the boost.

On purpose.

Into a corner.

"Also, that "physics glitch", where a car flips around and sticks to the front of your car, is what REAL CARS DO SOMETIMES WHEN YOU SPIN THEM OUT."

makes sense.

Hey, is there a demo of this game available in XBL?

im gona go buy this asap
Im so desperate to drive up the backside of an ai car n smash it to pieces././

@Rob Fahey

Loved the superman caption on the first image - awesome.

"Too many racing games being released for the 360 at the moment.. this, Forza, Dirt, etc..."

What!! ...so 3 is too many!!! lol...3 on top of the...ooooh 2 we already have (FAuto1 & PGR3), i beg to differ.

I've had no problems with the physics after several hours of playing so, whilst it may happen, it certainly hasn't caused me a problem.

The difficulty isn't a huge issue for me either - would prefer it to be too difficult than too easy. It's refreshing having to have more than one attempt at some races in order to win them.

The car "glitch" described, whilst it may be annoying, is physically likely to happen given the right conditions (as others have mentioned).

...and the online is amongst the best I've played so far on Live.

"Know write something intelligent about the review instead."

heehee, the EG readers make me laugh..

@ SeesThroughAll

Hallelujah!! My sentiments exactly, I find myslef picking up Motrostorm once a week telling myself I must be missing something, maybe I'm just rubbish?, maybe I need to put more time in? maybe.... but no its the dodgy physics that are ruining the experience aand leaving me more frustrated than a chinese school boy...

How many times must I of completed a good lap only to have the 2nd or third ruined by and unexplained implosion or catapluted jump leaving me hanging in the air whilst the field races on below. Colour me dissapointed.

Make Carmageddon 4 with this engine now! (please)

Could a flatout game get reviewed one day by a reviewer who's actually any good at games..

I'll be the first to admit that I'm not going to be winning any hardcore gaming tournaments any time soon - but that's got absolutely nothing to do with my assessment of Flatout. I'm not criticising it for being hard (in fact I say that pretty explicitly in the review), I'm criticising it for being inconsistent, and having an off-putting difficulty curve. Hard games are good, but there's a line between challenging and frustrating which Flatout crosses a bit too often.

Also, that "physics glitch", where a car flips around and sticks to the front of your car, is what REAL CARS DO SOMETIMES WHEN YOU SPIN THEM OUT.

I maintain that this is a glitch - that's really what it feels like. The other car is wedged on tightly and can't be shoved off by ramming into other objects, and in some views you can see that the geometry of the two cars overlaps in a way it definitely shouldn't. Other objects also have a habit of getting stuck to the bonnet in peculiar positions, too.

If it's not a glitch, then it's even worse - an absolutely terrible bit of game design. I don't care whether it's realistic; this game happily throws away realism at the drop of a hat, and it's ludicrous to argue that a frustrating, game-wrecking "feature" like this should be present just because it's "realistic".

Anyway, you did promise me a fanboy explosion of Halo proportions if it didn't get a ten - so, thread delivers, I guess ;)

Ow... Ouch... my poor wallet, this fall will a fun but expensive season for me... WOOO HOOO

/Bars door to keep bill collectors at bay

think a trade in with forza2 is looking imminent

Good stuff. Deserved an 8, and (imho) a lot of bigger and richer development teams need to go and talk to Bugbear and find out how they made something this slick, beautiful and smooth and somehow managed not to turn it into a frame-dropping teary-arsed pile of shite. Are you listening EA / Codies?

Peej

Let's not lose track of the fact that 8/10 is still a pretty splendid score. Gears (criminally) only got 8/10 but I'm still playing it many many months later.

The content of this review, caveats included, hasn't put me off the game at all.

Oh and Vernaldlung (or whatever your name is) Get the HELL out of my head! that is precisely what I was thinking while playing this last night. Carmageddon 4 - in this game engine - by this development team = tears of joy rolling down my cheeks like snowdrop petals

Peej

You can't beat Shinji at his own game, which is writing pretty darn good game journalism.

" "Too many racing games being released for the 360 at the moment.. this, Forza, Dirt, etc..."

What!! ...so 3 is too many!!! lol...3 on top of the...ooooh 2 we already have (FAuto1 & PGR3), i beg to differ.
"

In 2 weeks time, and you forgot NFS and the Bikeracing games.

What a great review... totally agree with the points about the difficulty and the cars-sticking-to-the-bonnet glitch as they're both the reasons why I had to keep restarting the game and how I earned my Perserverance Achievement!!! LOL

That said, I think the game is addictive and fun so I'm willing to forgive those quirks as it only cost me £30, which effectively makes a budget release. I was bit surprised that the reviewer didn't mention the game's similarity to FlatOut 2 on the Xbox though, I thought that would result in a lower score.

@ Les: Not quite, but in those rare occasions that my buggy explodes for no apparent reason as it touches a ramp, it can pretty much cost a race too.

@Menage - Have you forgotten MotoGP '06, Burnout Revenge, Test Drive Unlimited, NFS Most Wanted and NFS Carbon all ready? ;)

Great review. You have actually sold that game to me which I was hoping to be able to avoid for at least a couple of weeks in favour of finally finishing way too many games that I haven't finished yet. Doesn't seem like it though, I'll definetly pick it up after work.

Gamestation have this for 29.99, same everywhere else I think.

"@ Les: Not quite, but in those rare occasions that my buggy explodes for no apparent reason as it touches a ramp, it can pretty much cost a race too."

Thanks, thinking of picking it up together with Singstar PS3.

Hope to find you online later on then, Les :)

The "glitch/caveat" is not what I'd call a bug... but I'll gladly pipe up if it annoys me any time in future. I just brake when a car starts to tip on the front of my vehicle and that sorts it... either that or go on a full on ramming spree...

Shop to price is £27.99

http://www.shopto.net/page.php?page=dett...

"Hope to find you online later on then, Les :)"

Need to find a decent wireless router first. Current one (which was supplied by my ADSL subscription) barely gets the signal to the other side of the apartment, thanks to all the concrete walls.

Hearing about the Burntout 3 style rubberband AI just turned me off buying this game. I can't stand it in racing games where their solution to offering competition is rubber banding so severe that 1 crash = lose.

/Prays my sister is going to buy my PSP off me.

might give it a go. undecided at present. rubber banding and weird glitches makes afghan jones a sad panda.

Will this one see a PC release?

Les, you might want to take a look at these....

http://www.homeplugs.co.uk/

After two frustrating sessions with two different wireless routers I went down this path. I can now have a reliable hardwire connection in any room in the house with out any ugly wires or security concerns associated with wireless....

Best purchase I made this year. (Devolo: High Speed)

"To add insult to injury, the game even unlocks a 5 Gamerpoint Achievement ("Perseverance") when you reset a race for the umpteenth time"

COD 3 has a similar achivement called Purple Heart.

It's like saying Quake is "bugged" because the rockets kill you.

People did abuse "rocket jumps" though.

Hearing about the Burntout 3 style rubberband AI just turned me off buying this game. I can't stand it in racing games where their solution to offering competition is rubber banding so severe that 1 crash = lose.

You're a fool, then. You're missing out on a great game. The rubberbanding is nothing like the joke that is Burnout, I never notice it.

If that vehicle sticking to the front of your car malarky is actually a bug,then maybe it can be quite easily fixed with a patch.(Never stops feeling weird saying that when talking about console games) I'm just glad this had a decent write up, as I just went town and bought it anyway,without reading any reviews first.
I needed something other than Burnout (It's getting a tad boring now) for fun, arcadey driving times on Live.

I just had some stunning games on live. Bowling is actually pretty fun and skillful! Demolition illicits stupid guffaws for all involved... and deathmatch is superb. Funny thing is, everyone playing it is usually LAUGHING out like crazy, no rubbish trash talk, just fun.

so many games, so little time.
Damn you 360!

sod it, i think i will get it.

work was shit today, this had better cheer me up.

Damn store failed to stock it on time. Did have everything else that was released today but not this :/

Are the driver catapult mini games too graphic? I've held off the previous FlatOut games because of the impact this feature could have on my 7-year old son.