FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage

There are tons of racers on the Xbox 360 and while some (Forza Motorsport 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 etc) provide players with an authentic racing experience, there are some like Burnout Revenge that provide pure unadulterated arcade-ish fun. Now Burnout Revenge for the Xbox 360 isn’t a new game at all; in fact it’s the same Burnout Revenge all of us played on our PS2/Xbox lubed up with a special coat of graphical polish and a couple of new gameplay features.

And now following the exact same trend, we have developer Bugbear’s FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage (UC), which is basically a rehash of Flatout 2 that hit the PC, PS2 and Xbox last year. People who’ve already played this game on the PC or any of the above mentioned consoles should move right along since there’s hardly any new content over here to warranty a purchase, but if you’ve missed out on this game before, this is one racer that definitely belongs in your collection.
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Now I’m going to breeze through the basics of the game for all those who’ve joined us late since we’ve already spoken about that previously in our Flatout 2 review. Event progression in UC remains more or less the same as in FlatOut 2, only developer Bugbear has tweaked it a bit for the 360 version with the game being primarily divided into the following modes: FlatOut Mode, Carnage Mode, Xbox Live and Single events. The FlatOut mode is the game’s single player campaign where you’ll move from event to event earning money, unlocking new rides, unlocking newer races, modifying your existing ride and so on. While this works well for most of the game the tracks in this game are repeated way too often and after a while you will be put off with all this repetition (a problem that plagued FlatOut 2 as well).

The Carnage mode, which is where the real fun’s at, comprises of all the Derbies and Stunt modes that are nothing but the killer mini games this game is most famous for. Your aim in these mini games is to launch your driver out of the wind screen while competing in a bunch of sporting events like Bowling (that’s where you use your driver as the bowling ball), High Jump, Low Jump, Darts, Skipping Stones and much much more. These mini games are sadistically entertaining and provide some well needed respite (and not to forget wholesome family entertainment) from all the racing.

A game mode designed exclusively for the Xbox 360 is the Carnage Race and like the name suggests it’s all about causing the most amount of carnage (and racking up points) by destroying the track, (and everything in the environment) as well as annihilating your opponents. Once you’re done with this mode you could try out the Beat the Bomb event which is a timed mode, in which a ticking bomb is strapped to your car and every time you cross a checkpoint you earn yourself some more time. If for some reason you don’t make it to a checkpoint in time the bomb goes off and well, that’s about it. __PAGEBREAK__
As far as visuals go, UC is probably the prettiest racer on the console right now and even though there’s tons of stuff happening on screen during a race, the frame rates hold up remarkably well. Tracks look beautiful and everything from the cars to the tracks bears a testament to your aggressive driving. The game’s physics are mind blowing and watching your car smash through every object in the environment be it a gas pump, a sign board, tires and lots more, is a treat to the eyes. In fact besides Burnout, this is one of the only games that can actually make you wince during a crash… it’s that visceral.

The only flipside over here is that destroyed items scattering the track can come in your way making you lose control of the car and if this unfortunate incident happens towards the end of a 3 lap race, it’s not very pleasant. I have no complaints in the sound department as well; I only wish they had retained some of FlatOut 2’s songs in the game’s OST (which by the way is totally different now).

At the end of it all, Flatout: Ultimate Carnage is a highly polished and enjoyable racer that has a slight learning curve but once you get the hang of things, it’s hard to stop playing. The game does suffer from a certain amount of repetition but if you can look past that, this is one racer that could probably give Burnout Revenge a run for its money.