This is the best racing game ever made in my opinion.

Hump, you may know this already but there are some extra programs out there which let people play MP in the following site in the Tools section:

http://www.flatouthq.com/
FlatOutHQ - Your biggest FlatOut Source!

I really wish that they would build an online game browser into the regular version though.

Sony and MS would have to agree to license this before this bunch could make an X-Box or PS2 game. I seriously doubt that will happen. If not because of the content then just because it is so amateurish.

Believe me, Sony and X-Box don't just automatically license every third rate game that people try to pawn off on them. Sure, some of them suck but they turn down a whole lot worse.

People are jumping the gun a bit here. Not that I'm a fan of MS or Sony, but this game doesn't have a snowball's chance of getting licensed by either of them.

If you like motocross games you might give this a try just to judge for yourself. It just wasn't much fun for me.

Maybe the full version has another realism mode that the demo doesn't have.

DOes any one know if race game devs can have different physics for different platforms ? I've heard that Sony has forced devs to dumb down their racing game physics for PS2. Does that mean they can't still have the good physics version or an additional mode option for pc ?

It feels sort of arcade-like. Not a sim. It didn't do much for me. Somebody else might like it more.

After fighting with it for days, I got HL2 to stop crashing right after the intro. Neither the updates or the file verification helped.

I had to go into the BIOS and turn off AGP fast write, reduce AGP from 8x to 4x, set my desktop resolution from 1024*768 to 800*600,and use the Launch Option -heapsize 458752 (only use this heapsize if you have 1gb of memory).

I don't think that all of that is needed so I'll try and remove each step one by one but they seem to add up for other people.

The Steam forums are packed with people who have these problems. They also have a bug which won't let you submit a question or support request to tech support. It just acts like people's login name doesn't exist. They also have more trolls there than I've ever seen just to top it off.

Athlon64 3200
1gb RAM
ATI 9600xt w 128mb
SoundBlaster Live!
WinXP

After my 3 hour nighmare unlocking the files, getting timed out on steam, and other such fun activities, it froze up when the game finally started.

It shows the guy with the valve in his eye, then shows a blurry picture of a street corner and sits there for a while. Then the sound starts up but sounds like a broken record and just repeats a short segment over and over. Then my monitor goes black and everything freezes.

I'm a happy customer. Oh yeah.

Yes, all of my drivers are up to date. I even tried the new ATI beta drivers to see if that would fix it. No luck.

Three hours after starting the install process, I'm still waiting. It takes forever to unlock the steam files and then times out on my steam login. It then won't let me re-login. I've been through several rounds of this now.

I hope whoever came up with this dies in a fire. I don't normally approve of piracy but if someone manages to bypass this nightmarish b.s., I say go for it.

I'm wondering what in the world ATI is doing that would cause the Punkbuster crash in the first place.

I'm not touching this. The last ATI drivers trashed my whole system.

Image space says that this is a beta rather than a demo. It is mainly for them to test their net code in real world situations and that other aspects of the game are improving as they go along. bhmororsports has had a bunch of videos, screenshots and interviews up for a while. I haven't been following it much. I haven't tried the demo yet. It may have promise.


edit :beat me to it.

This comment was edited on Nov 10, 22:25.

With all of the options that they give you, I can't beieve they don't let you turn off those constant stupid, repetitive, and extemely annoying comments by the other drivers. Every few seconds you hear the same few comments over and over and over and over.

The damage is just silly. Very minor bumps tear your wheels right off. I also don't see any way to adjust or turn off their lousy damage system.

If you completely tear off all of both the front wheels (not just the tires) you can still steer just as well as you could before. It doesn't even slow you down too much having your front end digging into the ground as you race. What a joke.

They require a reboot after install with no mention of Starforce malware even after reboot. Maybe they just need it for the game but I seriously doubt it.

I had high hopes for this game. I won't be getting it now. There are too many other good racing games coming out now without all of these problems.

edit: I ordered Flat Out from overseas already. I didn't do that sort of thing before but it looks like it is going to happen more and more. I don't know what the problem with U.S. publishers is. Especially with racing games.

This comment was edited on Nov 9, 00:23.

This looks like it could be pretty good if they fix a few things.

Anybody else getting a little bit of static in the sound ?

They also need to do something with the telephone lines between the poles. Something is very wrong there. They probably need to cut the view distance on them and fade the colors to match the sky a little. At first I couldn't figure out what the huge weird grid covering part of the sky was or what all of those dots up in the air were.

Forget about trying to use the keyboard with this. It just isn't going to happen. If you so much as tap the turn keys it instantly yanks the wheel to full sideways.

I also wish that they would explain what some of the control options mean. Presumably they will in the full version.

I do like being able to change everything. There are tons of options. I'll have to try it again tonight when I can use something other than keyboard.

This has been an amazing month for racing demos. Now if they would just start releasing any of these games in the U.S. ...

This comment was edited on Nov 8, 16:48.

You can already mod.

bfs unpack has been released. Pretty much everything can be modded.

Start at bhmotorsports Flat Out page and follow links.

http://www.bhmotorsports.com/board/viewforum.php?f=64&sid=af9ea7a50d4dd04ce1900d310fdc26be
Blackhole Motorsports :: View Forum - FlatOut

They also have bfs unpack in the downloads section.

A few Flat Out sites and forums with much more information have popped up already and are getting started on the mods. I'll put a few more links up when I get some time to dig them up.

"Shut down all of the release dates on the detention level! "

"Look at that release date ! What a piece of junk!"

" This release date may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid. I've made a lot of special modifications myself.

Use your nitrous oxide injector (ctrl key) for a speed boost. The indicator on the right near the speedometer shows how much you have left. I'd only use it when you are entering a straightaway and are lined up ok at first or you won't be able to control it.

The are a couple U-turns in the forest track where you have to slow down a lot or you will crash every time. They are the first 2 turns you come to after the long straightaways. I just let go of the gas pedal completely quite a ways before I get to them and don't hit it again until I'm more than halfway through the turn and I'm headed the other way.

I'm not the greatest driver but I can beat the street track almost every time and beat the forest track pretty often now.

If you still have a hard time, there is a shortcut on hte last turn before the end of the lap right before you go back on the street. There is a pile of logs that angle up to the side of a truck. Go straight at the logs and up them to jump over the truck and you won't have to make part of the last turn.

This comment was edited on Nov 5, 00:24.

They say in the notes that they "Improved" A.I. on Hard. Hard was already nearly impossible for some of the maps while Medium was far too easy. Do they mean that they fixed the ballancing isssue or is Hard level now going to be useless ? Do they at least improve the AI of your own players too ?

Republic Commando looks good. Is this primarily for pc ? Any multiplayer ? This could be sort of like Counterstrike for Star Wars. Some of the weapons need some serious beefing up though "Take that! And that! And thatand that and that and that and that ...! Now go away or I'll shoot you another 500 times !"

This game is great ! I've been waiting a long time for decent physics to be paired with fast, rough racing again.

Those of you mentioning slightly older games should also check out Powerslide by Ratbag games. You can get it dirt cheap now and I still think that it is one of the best racing games ever made. Like FlatOut, it also has lots of serious banging around with the other cars and the wildest tracks I've ever seen. Ratbag was one of the first companies to put decent physics in racing games. Their game Leadfoot was pretty good too. I still play them both.

I saw over at BHMotorsports that only the full version has the Pro driver mode with all of the driving assist garbage turned off. I'm still downloading. I've been waiting for this for a long time. It should be amazing. I love the other games that they made also.

edit: I played it after downloading and it is as good as I expected. Get this ! I'm off to play it some more.

Any new word on how to get this in the U.S. ?

This comment was edited on Nov 3, 21:00.