Flat Out Ultimate Carnage is the third installment in the FlatOut demolition racing series and is actually a remake of the 2006 FlatOut 2. First it came out for the XBOX 360 console in July 2007 and it was an obvious release from the financial point of view. But why in the name of God would have BugBear released it for the PC? Ultimate Carnage is nothing else but an upgraded FlatOut 2 with some new gameplay modes, vehicles and next-gen graphics. Definitely a proper FlatOut sequel would have been the best solution for continuing the series, but as long as they don't intend to do this, let's see what minor changes brings this new version.

Cars

Like its predecessor, Ultimate Carnage is based more on the racing/import tuner vehicles and its arcade touch is much more obvious than on the first FlatOut. By changing the tire grip coefficient, the developers gave the players much more control of their car. Now you don't have to worry about skidding in tight turns, the simulation touch being extremely reduced. From this point of view, there is an obvious similarity with Burnout series, where the physics system is stripped to the bone and concentrated more on the visual aspect on crashing and burning the opposition. There are three car classes present in the game: derby, race and street. Every car features ratings in categories such as speed, acceleration, strength, weight, nitro.

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But besides its statistically aspect, there is no big differences in terms of handling. You can easy split the cars in fast and slow cars, most of the ratings having a small impact on the handling. If you are not satisfied with the car you can upgrade it buying new parts from the shop, but still you won't get amazingly results. There will be a slightly increased speed and acceleration, the other ratings being almost ignored. Again the cars have that heavy feeling, their handling being similar to American Stock Cars, with every jump being a slow-motion flight.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Gameplay: 79

For somebody that has never tried any of FlatOut games, Ultimate Carnage is a game to remember, where derby destruction mayhem can achieve high ratings. Stunt events are always funny especially in party mode, and the innumerability of dynamic objects increasing the exciting in racing events. But it's not a true sequel, the game being just a "re-revised" version of FlatOut 2 in next-gen graphics. So this should be a big minus considering the money we have to give for such a product.

Graphics: 80

Much more detailed cars, high resolution textures, improved lighting, water and smoke effects, upgrade the entire visuals of the game. The physics engine is based on the same fundamentals from previous installments, with some improvements in the damage system and dynamic objects (up to 40 deformable parts for every car and almost 8000 destructible objects per track). Everything seems much more vulnerable and breakable with cars exploding in every corner.

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Multiplayer: 89

For all of you who already played the first two installments of the series, and decided to buy it, I suggest you jump directly to the multiplayer. The Online mode will offer you a lot of fun and many hours spent. Besides some framerate issues, there are no real problems in getting an online mayhem.

Sound: 77

Classical V8 engine roaring with a soundtrack based on rock songs. Here is the playlist:

Hardware: 73

I'm a bit disappointed because of the hardware requirements. The game runs at the 30 framerate limit even on a rig with all the hardware configuration mentioned in the requirements list stated above.