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.

Works properly on my "Not the way it's meant to be played" Radeon.

But the AI is way, way, waaaaay too hard. If I'm not crashing my car into stuff, the last place person should NOT be trying to pass me. If this was a formula 1 game then I could see it, that's the type of game where it's important to take the corners properly. This on the other hand should be a fun destruction derby game. It makes me feel like I'm playing destruction derby 2 all over again..

If the AI wasn't superhuman, the game would be a blast, one my favourite driving games of all time. As it stands, it's worse than the average racer - at least average racers it's obvious that they can never amount to anything more than they are. I had one race out of 30 or so where I was still in 2nd after the first lap. Most times I end up restarting the race after the first few turns because I'm in last. It's no fun driving alone, and even though I can catch up to around 5th place or so if I drive really well, I still don't enjoy it because I have to focus so hard on not hitting anything (including the AI players).

The other half of the problem is crashing. In this type of game a crash should set you back a little, but in this game you get hung up or your guy goes flying and you can't do anything but watch everyone pass you. And half the time when you do reset (if you can), it places you back 50 meters! Let people reset immediately if they're pointing more than 90 degrees off center, and start them with a bit of a roll. This would make the game SO much closer - and people would still be penalized for crashing!

Yup, same here, demo reboots my PC after a few minutes of play on the Jump track, and after a few seconds of the 1st and 2nd tracks (racing with AI).
I'm using the 66.77 WHQ drivers with a TI4600, so I can confirm it doesn't work with these drivers either, at least not for me. Hopefully they'll fix it because like a lot of people, I've been anxiously awaiting this game, but this isn't a good way of selling me on it.

Demo reboots the computer after about 10 seconds into any race on any lap.

The Forum says it's an issue with drivers .
"So far it looks like NVidia card owners with driver version 66.72 drivers are experiencing difficulties (BSOD/reboots). 61.77 seems to work, so you might want to consider switching to that version if you're having trouble.

However, this is just an initial impression, your mileage may vary. We'll start collecting information about the affected systems to nail down the problem."

But using the 66.88 so no idea what to do..... and I've wanted to try this game for sooo long.

This comment was edited on Nov 4, 11:45.

"I'm an engineer, I should know good build quality when I ..."

I'm impressed...

Anywho, enjoyed the demo quite a bit.
Reminds me of what racing games should be like.
The controls feel great- awesome graphics-love the physics.
I just have question.

Can you turn the "driver flying out of the windshield" option off?
It's a bit gimmicky (already done at least 15 years ago w/ Roadrash) and it's distracting because I'd truly rather see the car crashes.
I thought most race car drivers wore seatbelts these days?

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.

We (Vivendi Universal Games) are distributing FlatOut in the US. It'll be released early next year. Glad you're liking it!

I too am an alumni of Interstate '76, Carmageddon, and 1nsane, and I look forward to FlatOut being next on the surprisingly short list of good PC racing games.

This demo has plenty of obvious annoyances and bugs (autopilot, lack of seatbelts, and sounds copied from other games to name a few), but I'm confident that most of them will be fixed by the time its released.

Its obvious that FlatOut could easily be the HL2 of car games. There are just two main things that will decide it's success: network code and support for custom tracks/cars. I'76 and 1nsane (and Half-Life) were great games right out of the gates, but the reason that they stayed popular for so long (to this day, I still play them all, BTW) is that they had impeccable network code and they supported custom addons.

1nsane, unfortunately, wasn't too friendly to customization, and after numerous crippling bugs went unfixed for years, most of the community moved on to greener pastures. Its still possible to play it on GameSpy, but one must jump through many hoops just to get it to work reliably. 1nsane is a perfect example of a great game that had lots of potential but lived a very short life thanks to an appalling lack of developer and publisher support (I blame Codemasters much more than I do Invictus).

This comment was edited on Nov 4, 02:06.

I haven't had this much fun with so many laughs since we played 1NSANE (4X4 truck racing) at LAN parties a few years ago.

My sons and I played it this afternoon and my son scored 95m on his highest jump and 205m on total of 3 jumps.

I had a tire stick in my passenger window as I went around the track. I cursed a driver that drove me off the track but then stopped cursing when I noticed it was a lucious blonde babe. I had a oil drum careen past my windshield as I drove around a corner. I enjoyed driving other drivers into log piles, etc.

Hit items to build up your nitro points. Make sure you let go of nitro well before corners.

All three tracks were entertaining. I prefer the paved track, personally, probably because I like F1.

I play it on a Logitech Formula Force GP which has force feedback and this game feels great. Not sure why others suffer with gamepads and keyboards. If you want to feel immersed in a virtual reality, drop a few bucks.

This game will be under the tree for my son on Christmas morning. I'm sure glad HE is getting this game.


[RR]Rummy
Clan Leader of Rummys Rampage at www.rummysrampage.com
Recruiting for America's Army, Battlefield Vietnam, Raven Shield, and Pacific Fighters
This comment was edited on Nov 4, 01:11.

racing is nearly impossible to win with the AI not being as crazy as you are driving. On Occasion I can get the AI to start messing up with my mess on the pavement track.

I got a tire stuck in my back seat somehow. i thought htat was pretty cool, I wonder what else I can get stuck back there...

p.s I want to make it clear that I consider you a faggort.

Do not buy Belkin.
It's cheap JUNK.

Why don't you try the gamepad I mentioned first. I'm an engineer, I should know good build quality when I feel it in my own two hands, then again feel free to rip on that comment all you want.

Their other stuff may be crap for all I know. I suspect that you either purchased one of their products and had a bad experience with it, and simply now apply one of those lovely blanket statements us internet readers adore.

And, to re-iterate, if you HAVE and you still consider it junk, then I question your sanity.

It was a 20 dollar gamepad, N45 I believe. It was certainly better than any of the other gamepads I've seen at Fry's or anywhere else. Construction/durability of buttons, ergonomics, the basics. I use it in racing games all the time with quite a lot of success.

Let me give you a comparison "high end" product that IMHO sucked. The Razer "Boomslang" mouse. The build quality on the unit I recieved was below that of this belkin gamepad. The buttons did not "stick" properly. Granted this was a mouse, but a $100+ mouse at the time.

Simply saying "spend 30 to 40 bucks" on something decent doesn't help. Recommend a product like I did, you might find it constructive.

I read that they just got a distribution deal for the US. It won’t be out until Q1 2005 in the States.

I am using the Logitech WingMan Rumble Pad

"Oh, and to those who arent sure about controls, its called Belkin Nostromo Gamepad. Nice build quality, and 20 dollars last i checked"

Do not buy Belkin.
It's cheap JUNK.
If you wanna invest in a gamepad, spend 30-40 bucks and get something decent- same as a mouse.

i did a search in all the usual sites and dont see a US release date ( Europe 11/5/04 )

I've never noticed any huge slowdowns in the game as some are saying. Keep in mind the up arrow key during a crash starts slow motion.

Very fun until you try and win a race. Ok I suck but this is one unforgiving game. Hit one object the wrong way and forget about finishing a race in a position higher than last. Reminds me a little of stunt car racer in areas.

You have nitro, and I think crashing into things or cars gives you more. So that kind of makes up for the the slow down.

and on the dirt track i became impaled on my own hood !!!....this thing is sick & twisted ....LOVE IT

I wish there was a way to save your replays. I had an awesome accident on the high jump, I released my guy halfway down the stretch on accident, and he was propelled straight into the ramp face first, whereupon the car smashed directly into his body, bending him over backwards on his neck and stuffing him under the car until the whole shebang went up and off the ramp. The velocity launched the body seperate from the car, doing cartwheels for a bit until it hit the ground 50 meters later. The unoccupied car then landed on its wheels and ran over my guy's body again. It was totally sweet.