FlatOut
The name says it all; this game looks like it’ll be a blast. Hands-on impressions inside.
Published: April 11, 2005
There’s a pretty good chance you haven’t heard of Bugbear Entertainment yet. Their biggest claim to fame has been a pair of racing games for the PC, the first was a rally racer that did fairly well, and the second a quietly forgotten monster truck playground aimed at kids for Activision’s value line of bargain bin games (they also did some concepts and models for the abysmal Soldner, but we won’t hold that against them).
The third stand-alone effort for the Finnish developer (where the hell are all these awesome Finnish developers coming from these days?) will doubtlessly catapult them onto the scene thanks to a racing game that mixes shouldn’t-look-that-good-on-the-PS2 graphics with tight physics… oh, and you can slam so hard into stuff that it sends your driver rocketing through the windshield where he -- or she if you’re really sadistic -- ragdoll into anything in front of them; chain link fences, telephone poles, log piles, trees, the road, other cars, other cars’ tires as they drive over them… Apparently buckling up isn’t a common practice in Finland.
Missed crash test dummy PSAs aside (or did they just watch too many?), there’s a meaty racing experience to be had here in addition to all the physics-based toys Bugbear has included. We got the chance to play with build of the game that was pretty far along, and we’re happy to report that what was supposed to be a quick and dirty preview write-up turned into a weekend-long affair. Even in its unfinished state, this game is a blast.
FlatOut plays like a demolition derby transplanted into the logging trails and quarries of some Pacific Northwest town (it could be anywhere, we suppose, but our doofus Editor-in-Chief grew up in Seattle, so that’s where we’ll pretend things take place). Think of it as Test Drive: Eve of Destruction, but prettier, tougher and a lot more fun. You start by picking from a half-dozen or so different beater cars, raging from light and low-powered to a couple-ton muscle car.
Once chosen, your ride can then be pimped with all manner of the usual tuning and upgrade gear you’d see in a normal racing game; new transmissions, mufflers, tires, air filters, flywheels, gearboxes, and so on. The catch (and yes, there’s always a catch) is that this will understandably cost you a few bills. You can fatten your wallet with said greenbacks by competing in a handful of events. We only played through the Bronze class races (there were nine in total in three columns that eventually unlocked the tenth championship race), but each race can be run as many times as you want to earn the cash necessary to beef up your motor. Even here, there’s a catch, as it appeared that as our car was beefed up, so too were the other racers, which kept even the first race incredibly tight and challenging.
When you’ve tired of racing, you can take to the Challenge courses to do all kinds of fun little destructive mini-games. The two that were unlocked that resulted in the most giddy little squeals from the lot of us were the high jump, where you launch your car up a ramp and then send the driver hurtling into the air (by way of windshield, of course) in an attempt to get the most air, and the long jump, where virtually the same process sent the driver spilling out horizontally in an effort to get the most distance. More traditional figure-eight and demolition derby races kept things nicely mixed up, but it was the decision to milk the physics engine for some ragdoll thrills that offers the most potential for fun.
While racing, the controls are relatively simple. X pours in the gas, Square brakes and R1 will kick in any boost you’ve earned. Boost is gathered by slamming into just about everything, but taking out sideline objects that cause lots of destruction and send stuff raining down on your tail will give you the most nitro. Slamming into other cars with some force or tagging a few tire stacks or taking out fences will work just as well, but it’s the big, crumbly stuff that’ll really net you lots of turbo.
When taking on the Challenge events, R1 serves a slightly different purpose. The demolition derby events still use it normally, but for the physics-based mini-games, it’s used to determine the angle and severity of launch, so timing a filled meter just right is key. It’s far harder than it seems given the long ramp that serves as a speed lead-up to the actual hit that launches your driver, and it makes for a truly addictive diversions from the main race.
Those main races, from what we’ve seen so far, don’t tend to stray too far from heavily wooded dirt trails or refinery equipment-littered quarries, but the texture detail, sense of speed and most importantly, framerate when cars (and bodies) are flying around and debris is blanketing seemingly everything in sight are all incredibly smooth. Much like Burnout 3, this is a game that seemingly looks too good for the PS2 hardware, and whatever kind of digital voodoo Bugbear has been able to work with its engine has paid off big time – and we haven’t even had the chance to play the final build yet.
There’s still a whole lot more of FlatOut that we have left to play, and depending on how much free time we have (and certainly if we get a significantly improved build closer to the game’s release, which seems impossible), we’ll toss up a follow-up preview. For now, though, salivate over the sweet, sweet destruction in the screenshots and movies we’ve made available.
The third stand-alone effort for the Finnish developer (where the hell are all these awesome Finnish developers coming from these days?) will doubtlessly catapult them onto the scene thanks to a racing game that mixes shouldn’t-look-that-good-on-the-PS2 graphics with tight physics… oh, and you can slam so hard into stuff that it sends your driver rocketing through the windshield where he -- or she if you’re really sadistic -- ragdoll into anything in front of them; chain link fences, telephone poles, log piles, trees, the road, other cars, other cars’ tires as they drive over them… Apparently buckling up isn’t a common practice in Finland.
Missed crash test dummy PSAs aside (or did they just watch too many?), there’s a meaty racing experience to be had here in addition to all the physics-based toys Bugbear has included. We got the chance to play with build of the game that was pretty far along, and we’re happy to report that what was supposed to be a quick and dirty preview write-up turned into a weekend-long affair. Even in its unfinished state, this game is a blast.
FlatOut plays like a demolition derby transplanted into the logging trails and quarries of some Pacific Northwest town (it could be anywhere, we suppose, but our doofus Editor-in-Chief grew up in Seattle, so that’s where we’ll pretend things take place). Think of it as Test Drive: Eve of Destruction, but prettier, tougher and a lot more fun. You start by picking from a half-dozen or so different beater cars, raging from light and low-powered to a couple-ton muscle car.
Once chosen, your ride can then be pimped with all manner of the usual tuning and upgrade gear you’d see in a normal racing game; new transmissions, mufflers, tires, air filters, flywheels, gearboxes, and so on. The catch (and yes, there’s always a catch) is that this will understandably cost you a few bills. You can fatten your wallet with said greenbacks by competing in a handful of events. We only played through the Bronze class races (there were nine in total in three columns that eventually unlocked the tenth championship race), but each race can be run as many times as you want to earn the cash necessary to beef up your motor. Even here, there’s a catch, as it appeared that as our car was beefed up, so too were the other racers, which kept even the first race incredibly tight and challenging.
When you’ve tired of racing, you can take to the Challenge courses to do all kinds of fun little destructive mini-games. The two that were unlocked that resulted in the most giddy little squeals from the lot of us were the high jump, where you launch your car up a ramp and then send the driver hurtling into the air (by way of windshield, of course) in an attempt to get the most air, and the long jump, where virtually the same process sent the driver spilling out horizontally in an effort to get the most distance. More traditional figure-eight and demolition derby races kept things nicely mixed up, but it was the decision to milk the physics engine for some ragdoll thrills that offers the most potential for fun.
While racing, the controls are relatively simple. X pours in the gas, Square brakes and R1 will kick in any boost you’ve earned. Boost is gathered by slamming into just about everything, but taking out sideline objects that cause lots of destruction and send stuff raining down on your tail will give you the most nitro. Slamming into other cars with some force or tagging a few tire stacks or taking out fences will work just as well, but it’s the big, crumbly stuff that’ll really net you lots of turbo.
When taking on the Challenge events, R1 serves a slightly different purpose. The demolition derby events still use it normally, but for the physics-based mini-games, it’s used to determine the angle and severity of launch, so timing a filled meter just right is key. It’s far harder than it seems given the long ramp that serves as a speed lead-up to the actual hit that launches your driver, and it makes for a truly addictive diversions from the main race.
Those main races, from what we’ve seen so far, don’t tend to stray too far from heavily wooded dirt trails or refinery equipment-littered quarries, but the texture detail, sense of speed and most importantly, framerate when cars (and bodies) are flying around and debris is blanketing seemingly everything in sight are all incredibly smooth. Much like Burnout 3, this is a game that seemingly looks too good for the PS2 hardware, and whatever kind of digital voodoo Bugbear has been able to work with its engine has paid off big time – and we haven’t even had the chance to play the final build yet.
There’s still a whole lot more of FlatOut that we have left to play, and depending on how much free time we have (and certainly if we get a significantly improved build closer to the game’s release, which seems impossible), we’ll toss up a follow-up preview. For now, though, salivate over the sweet, sweet destruction in the screenshots and movies we’ve made available.
