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jp's FlatOut (PS2)

[August 7, 2009 03:58:41 PM]

It's possible that I would have been excited about this game when it first came out. I played a few races the other night because I was looking to start playing a game that promised cheap thrills of the sort I could get into quickly and painlessly. In other words, I didn't want to have to spend 30 minutes going over a tutorial, watching cut-scenes, and trying to figure out how to play a game. I wanted instant gratification.

Given that FlatOut is, in essence, a racing game, I figured that it should serve my purposes nicely (I had about an hour play). It almost did. Well, the racing was ok and I'm surprised by how much progress I was able to make in terms of upgrading my car and whatnot. In that sense, the experience was engaging and interesting. FlatOut is kind of like Burnout's ugly sister. Race aggressively to gain boost, use it to go fast and have lots of cheap thrills. The ugly sister part comes in when you realize that although you can boost and crashing isn't necessarily a bad thing, it doesn't quite add up to the adrenaline rush you get from Burnout. It isn't actually easy to win a race and it's very easy to get stuck on the scenery... I guess the only upside, really, is that you get cash rewards for destroying scenery elements, so in a pinch (yes, I did this at least) once, you can decide to purposefully crash if you realize you no longer stand a chance of winning. At least that way you get something out of the race.

I was also surprised to notice how you (the driver) are often flung from your car. Why? I don't really know. It might have been really funny to watch at one time, but there doesn't really seem to be much point to it all. I fly through the air and crash into things, but don't get any points, benefits or so on. Which leaves me wondering if the whole thing isn't a gimmick that is no longer interesting to me since I'm playing the game quite a few years after its original release.