FlatOut Preview

Flat Out is a racing game that tries to offer a little bit more than the average racing game.  The race car market has become flooded with games, especially for the Xbox.  Some games are great while others are rock bottom bargain basement pricing games.  Flat Out tries to offer players a different take on racing games by including a unique physics engine.

Physics have become a big part of gaming over the past 6 months to a year.  It seems almost every publisher is trying out do each other with their physics engines.  One publisher uses XYZ engine, while another publisher develops their own proprietary engine.  Flat Out includes a physics engine that will give players more interaction with the race track. 

The type of racing, from the demo, appears to be old style stock car racing.  But the racing included a wide variety of cars.  There will be a total of 16 cars that can be upgraded in the game.  The demo presented at E3 didn’t show the upgrades that will be available in the final version. 

The physics engine was really the star of the show (or the game for this preview).  The developers drove a car around the track and would randomly run into several different options placed around the track.  Once hit, the items would react realistically depending on how they were hit.  Cones and barrels would scatter across the track, with each cone and barrel acting independent of each other.  The developers mentioned that over 90% of the track would be destructible. 

Another example of the physics engine on display showed off the drivers of the cars being ejected from the cars.  Depending on how you wreck your car could determine if your driver will be ejected.  One example had a driver being ejected from the car after the car ran into a section of the track.  After being ejected from the car, the driver was then run over by the car since it was still rolling from the momentum of the crash.  This might sound gruesome but it was actually very comedic.  So comedic that the developers decided to include some mini games based on the drivers being ejected.  One mini game on display was a long jump/bowling competition where the objective was to eject the driver the farthest while still hitting some bowling pins.   

Flat Out was a very nice surprise at E3.  The graphics were excellent with all of the car models being very detailed and the game running at a rock steady frame rate.  The physics engine added to the realism of the game while also adding to the fun aspect of the game.  The game will support online racing via Xbox Live while the PS2 version will support split screen racing.  Look for Flat Out later this year.

For All E3 2004 Previews