FlatOut 2

this is a perfect combination of a banger soundtrack and a banger game.
what you would do if the cult of your type of game is a cult as Need for Speed? simple, upset all. this game is based on destruction and crash everything, and is satisfied. the deathmatch is adviced

FlatOut is a Banger Racing series, using old scrap cars. This sequel greatly expands on the gameplay and content found in the original game. There's more cars, more tracks and more destruction.

Career mode is the usual affair. Select a basic car, then complete events to progress and earn cash. Finishing third place or above in each set of races awards you a trophy. The cash you earn can be used to purchase better cars or upgrade your current one. The upgrades modify your stats which can increase some aspects but can also decrease others. The upgrades can modify acceleration, speed, handling, weight, strength, nitro. However, outside of this, there are no other customisation options to modify colours/decals etc.

There's also optional 'bonus' races (effectively mini-games) that are unlocked as you progress through the career. There's many destruction derby events and many variants on challenges involving launching your driver out of the window; high-jump, long jump, dart board, bowling etc. These mini-games didn't take my interest, but others will find them entertaining to see their driver flail about using the games' rag-doll physics.

The amount of destruction within the game is quite impressive. The parts of the car deform and break apart as you experience collisions. Similarly, there's plenty on the track that is destructible such as large wooden signs, stacks of tyres, barriers and other constructs. On subsequent laps, the debris will remain which caused a lot of problems in the previous game. Now it doesn't pose as much of a problem.

FlatOut's racing model awards you boost for causing destruction. You get a much higher reward than you did in the previous game which meant I was happy to plough into objects and ram into the opposition. Another welcome feature is that in the end of the race, there are awards for who caused the most destruction to players, to the environment, who achieved the fastest lap and more. Major crashes can cause your driver to be launched out of the windscreen although this is less frequent than the previous game. The opponents will happily plough into each other, and it seems a frequent occurrence that at least 1 driver won't finish due to being completely wrecked.

I found the difficulty much more consistent in this game. This was a huge problem in the first game as you never really knew what you were up against and sometimes no matter how well you were driving, you would struggle to win. The drivers are quite recognisable due to driving distinctive cars and their name and avatar displayed on the screen when they are close by. This helps/encourages you to maintain rivalries with them.

With the FWD/RWD vehicles, the best approach is to take it slow. On the road tracks, you can often hit corners at speed, but the tracks are mainly off-road where your car tends to have low grip. You need to make good use of the brake, and ease the acceleration coming out of it. I'd recommend sticking with the 4WD cars since they grip the road perfectly and never spin out. You also have higher strength, so can use it to smash into your opponents.

When you find yourself in an unfavourable position, like facing the wrong way, it's a good idea to trigger the manual respawn to reset your car. This either keeps you roughly in the same position but it can also take you back a few seconds. On the plus side, it does make you invulnerable for a few seconds which stops other people ploughing straight into you.

For those interested in the soundtrack, the unknown artists that were included in the first game are gone, and now replaced by major bands. There's the likes of Wolfmother, Rob Zombie, Papa Roach, Audioslave Megadeth, Alkaline Trio, Yellowcard, Supergrass, Fall Out Boy and Nickelback.

I loved the theme of using old run-down cars and I always enjoy off-road style racing, so FlatOut really appealed to me. There's much more content compared to the first game, and the higher emphasis on destruction suits the games' style.

The stunt driving angle lends itself well to destruction derby racing, even if it makes the minigames and deathmatches more fun than the racing itself, which is a bit of a problem as that's where all the unlocks are. Soundtrack is surprisingly solid, and overall it gets the job done but it's nothing amazing.

Flatout 2 gets the distiction of one of the worst racing game i have ever played, even if i havent played that many.

The idea is good enough, basically aiming for a burnout clone. The execution though is so so flawed. First off the handling is terrible, the cars control as if they are skating more often than not, and there is no sense of weight at all. Next are the tracks, which are both very few, and second very dull. They dont really reward the player in learning them since the handling is so damn unpredictable. There are times that i lost control over the car and i dont even know why.

The biggest flaw of the game i find is the enemy AI. It obviously uses Rubber Band AI, but in a way that it actively punishes the player for actually playing well. Like there were times that i was ahead doing 250km/h, and then out of nowhere i recieved a bump from behind and crash the car. It feels incredibly fake since the enemy cars have no sort of restriction in terms of speed, overtaking you when they please, and crashing in front of you for no reason at all. This point here is close to a gamebreaker, since the game uses multiple personalities for Ai, and while some are more aggressive and try to take you down, others try to do perfect runs and get a huge leap ahead if you crash. Its a really frustrating game because of this.

Audiovisually its weak as well. Very poor texture work for the time it came out, with dull environments. Sound design is nothing special.

Overal a very poor arcade racer.