Published By: Strategy First
"Developed" By: Team 6 Studios
Date of Release: December 13, 2011
Price: $30
Ever since the first title I have been a major fan of Bugbear Entertainment's FlatOut series. An amazing blend of white-knuckle racing combined with explosive destruction derby action, FlatOut 1, 2 and Ultimate Carnage were awesome experiences. FlatOut 3 Chaos & Destruction however... No. Just no.
Flatout 3 runs on what is supposed to be an amazing and revolutionary engine capable of rendering "over 20,000 full destructible physics items on every track", however it apparently does so by delivering a PS2-launch era graphical quality, as you can see in the screenshots. Mind you these were taken at "Ultra" graphics quality.
I tried driving through a few races, and quickly discovered that wither the physics engine is totally glitched, or FlatOut 3 is set in a world without friction. in the above screenshot you can see the result of my car's front right tire touching the strip of grass alongside the road. My car went careening out of control and caused the explosive pileup seen above, and then continued along bouncing off buildings like a pinball until it finally exploded into pieces. In all honesty, FlatOut 3 is NOT a FlatOut game. It is not deserving of the title. However apparently Team 6 Studios at least have a high level of self confidence as a developer, as they have set their own company logo as the desktop icon for the game. They were kind enough to provide me with a review copy free of charge, however the experience has been so lacking that I feel like I should be asking for a refund.
