From graphical point of view, the cars are much more detailed and shiny, and as a bonus you will get some new models. This brings us to the visual aspect of the game. There is of course a big step forward in terms of lighting, smoke and water effects, while the damage system has been revamped. Based on an elaborate physics system, there is an increased number of destroyable objects compared to FlatOut 2, made of tires, logs, lamp posts, bricks, broken glasses, etc. For a complete mayhem on the tracks, the opponents number has been increased up to 12 instead of 8. But the feeling while you are playing it is so familiar, because all the tracks are taken from FlatOut 2. Even the characters and most of the vehicles.

Carnage Mode

Besides the classical career mode where you buy your car, upgrade it and enter in racing events, there is also a second career mode called Carnage Mode. This is to be considered an additional content as it features a series of challenges taken from all the various races and stunt modes. Here you can find the new race types: beat the bomb (you score points by going as far as you can before a bomb in your trunk explodes), carnage race (a standard race, based on scoring points by wrecking the scenery and other cars), and deathmatch derby (a type of demolition derby, where the goal is to get as many frags as possible by destroying the opponents with the help of powerups). Every good result by the end of each race will earn points which are added to the total score and used to unlock further racing events.

Stunt Events

But FlatOut series has been very popular because of the stunt events. These events haven't been upgraded much from previous installments, but there presence makes the FlatOut experience funnier than ever. All the stunts resume to launching the driver (marked by rag-doll effect) in the right angle towards various targets. Inspired from real sports and games, you can play high jump, long jump, bowling, royal flush, football, etc. The fun part has been amplified by the party mode in which up to 8 people can play these stunt events with the goal of achieving the highest score.

All this carnage and mayhem can be brought also in online mode. And if you have an XBL account, you can challenge the XBOX 360 owners in different racing events. The online mode is a true experience and most of the time it gets much more aggressive than the offline mode. There is a big community to play along because of the XBOX 360 version being released last year. The online performance is decent with some framerate problems now and then. The only problem might be your hardware system which might not achieve the expected requirements:

"2.0 GHz Pentium 4 or AMD 2000+ CPU, 2 GB RAM, 1x DVD-ROM (CD-ROM for the US and Xplosiv releases) drive, 256MiB Graphics Card supporting DirectX shader model 3 (GeForce 6600,ATI Radeon X1300 or higher).5 GB free hard drive space, DirectX 9.0c, Windows XP SP2 or Windows Vista, 512kbs connection minimum for Internet play."

Conclusion

If you like games like Burnout or Carmageddon, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage will deliver to you a big doze of adrenaline which might make you love the whole series. But if you already played both of previous games, Ultimate Carnage will bring nothing new to you, acquiring it becoming questionable. I would rather wait for a true sequel than playing the same game dressed in different graphics.