E-Mail This Article to a Friend Car trouble FlatOut flatlines BY MITCH KRPATA
	FlatOut For PlayStation 2 and Xbox Rated T for Teen Published by Empire Interactive Developed by Bugbear Entertainment

Score: 3.0 (out of 10)

High concept is one thing, but this is ridiculous. FlatOut is a single bad idea masquerading as a game. It’s also a pathetic clone of other, better racing games, but mostly it’s the product of game developers who think the privilege of ejecting a guy through a windshield over and over is worth 50 bucks.

The premise is that FlatOut melds Gran Turismo–style physics with Burnout-style mayhem. Anyone who’s driven an actual car knows that this is a bad combination. Although FlatOut’s physics engine gives the cars a sense of genuine weight and inertia, that also means that collisions, even at oblique angles, bring the action to a crashing halt. The fully destructible environments provide no shortage of walls to bust through, scaffolding supports to pulverize, and ramps to jump off — which would be great if doing any of those things didn’t cause your car to lose almost all its speed and, usually, several positions. Even scraping a wall is enough to ruin your lap time.

Much is made in the instruction manual, on the cover art, and on the TV commercials about the "rag-doll" physics in FlatOut, and it’s true that your driver’s arms and legs do flail realistically when he’s launched out of the car during gnarly wrecks. This is cool the first time you see it and neat the second; it gets progressively more annoying after that. Instead of enhancing gameplay like Burnout 3’s innovative after-touch control, the flying driver takes you right out of the game.

The "bonus" games — which seem to be FlatOut’s main draw — center on launching your driver from the vehicle in creative ways. There’s a high jump, a long jump, man-sized bowling pins, even a human dartboard. Apart from having no concept, these also suffer from the realistic physics. Watching your driver’s limbs and neck bend in ways God never intended as he scrapes his face along the asphalt is like watching highway-safety videos on loop. The bonus games should be a punishment for kids who act up in Driver’s Ed.

FlatOut does have some impressive graphics. There’s almost no draw-in to contend with here, and frame rate is smooth even during the most horrific collisions. Developer Bugbear has done as good a job with damage modeling as anyone ever has, but the visual treats are few and far between thanks to bland art direction. When you’re racing down one nondescript rural or industrial track after another, the fact that you can see your driver turning the steering wheel inside the car loses its luster. And though triggering a nitrous boost rarely does anything besides propel your car directly off the track, at least it comes with a neat fisheye effect — just like Burnout, dude!

FlatOut’s attempts to ape Burnout extend even to its "hip" soundtrack. Perhaps lacking the financial muscle of Electronic Arts, publisher Empire Interactive has ponied up for bands who are sure to make a big splash in a basement near you — if they don’t break up first to go to college. The English language can’t fathom the student alt-rock depths to which this music sinks; the French would probably say it possesses a certain je ne sais crap.

If in the past year you’ve somehow missed Burnout 3, Need for Speed Underground 2, Gran Turismo 4, Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition, and Forza Motorsport, do yourself a favor and check out any one of those instead of FlatOut. Don’t even rent this wreck.