The large pieces of debris that invariably end up littering each circuit after the first lap or two can also make the game more challenging, and would almost certainly bring your race to an abrupt end if this were a game that put realism before gameplay. If anything, FlatOut 2's controls veer even further away from realism and toward arcade-style handling than the first game's, which is no bad thing given the challenging nature of some of the circuits' shortcuts. We didn't get to take the controls of enough cars during our time with the game to comment on just how noticeable the differences between the vehicles are, but we can tell you that the street car we drove was a lot quicker than the derby class vehicles, and that none of the rides we tried out were difficult to handle. If you need any further convincing that driving like an idiot is the only way to go, you'll earn money that can be used to purchase and upgrade cars by smashing into opponents, and the dollars will really start to add up if you manage to total one of them or cause a rival driver to be ejected from their car.Įach of the cars in FlatOut 2 will perform according to its ratings for six different attributes: top speed, acceleration, handling, durability, weight, and nitrous. Nitrous boosts promise to be even more important in FlatOut 2 than they were in the original game because your opponents will be able to use them as well this time around. FlatOut 2 didn't disappoint on either count, although the fact that some of the destructible objects looked far more resilient than the indestructible ones made us less inclined to take a chance by attempting to drive through them.Īs in the first game, you'll accumulate nitrous by driving aggressively and causing damage to other racers and your surroundings. In the unfinished version of the game that we played, the other racers were uniformly aggressive, which made the game overly challenging at times but afforded us plenty of opportunities to check out the new vehicle damage models, as well as the extent to which the environments themselves can be destroyed. Every circuit in the game will feature around 5,000 destructible objects, as opposed to 3,000 in the first game.Īnother major improvement promised for FlatOut 2 is that the CPU opponents will race more realistically, and each will have his or her own driving style. FlatOut 2's 60 circuits will be far less linear in nature, and their multiple routes will weave through a number of rural and urban environments loosely based on Los Angeles, the Nevada desert, and other North American locales. Those of you who played FlatOut might also remember that almost all of the game's 36 tracks were set in rural environments and boasted very few alternate routes or shortcuts. FlatOut 2 will feature more than 35 different vehicles (including some great bonus rides to unlock), and although the game's "derby class" wheels will look every bit as trashed as those in the original game, your progression into the new "race class" and "street class" events will unlock a number of much shinier and more roadworthy cars. If you're familiar with FlatOut, you'll know that all 16 of the game's highly destructible vehicles looked pretty beaten up before you got anywhere near them. The locales have changed, the carnage hasn't. Developer Bugbear Entertainment is currently working on a sequel titled FlatOut 2, and, after spending a little time with a work-in-progress version of the game earlier this week, we're pleased to report that the words "bigger" and "better" are among the first that spring to mind. Released in July of last year, FlatOut was an enjoyable demolition derby-style racer best known for its destructible cars and environments, and for the fact that its accident-prone ragdoll drivers were averse to seatbelts.
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