Flatout 2

[sabre0001]

Has anyone actually played this yet? Surprisingly I have heard very little of it...Was a fan of the first game for a while but there were some glaring flaws.

Reviews from Gamespot suggest these haven't been cleared up - Still NO online multiplayer?! WHAT?!!! That has always been one of biggest advantages for PCs (seems as we miss out on Split screen ALWAYS for some reason...And it is possible - Beetle Crazy Cup!)

Will be going to a LAN where a stunt tournament is being played in 1 week so will get a first test of it then...Am I going to be bitterly disappointed?

 

[Xune]

It's protected by Starforce, well I say protected but it's already been cracked and/or bypassed, and Starforce as we all know is the bubonic plague in digital form.

Might explain why there's not much interest in it.

 

[f0rked]

Actually, FO2 does have online multiplayer. No dedicated servers though, it's more of an xbox-livesque online experience. Still really fun though
Shame there's no ingame chat.
Plus, AFAIK the starforce 4 protection in flatout 2 hasn't been cracked, as of yet. The only ways to get it working illegally involve networked-drive shenanigans, running vista, or using a usb-dvd drive and some very specific brands of DVD+R media.
The professional version of SF4, as used in FO2, is integrated into the game engine and data files, iirc, making it very hard for crackers to remove. Unlike most copy protections where the code is all stored in one location in the .exe file, making it easy for crackers to simply strip out.

But I digress. Flatout 2 is really fun, lots more tracks and vehicles than the original. It's starting to feel more like a burnout clone for the PC, but with the really fun physics of the orginal flatout. All in all, I'd reccommend it, if you dont mind having the starforce 4 drivers installed.

 

[sabre0001]

Plus, AFAIK the starforce 4 protection in flatout 2 hasn't been cracked, as of yet. The only ways to get it working illegally involve networked-drive shenanigans, running vista, or using a usb-dvd drive and some very specific brands of DVD+R media.
The professional version of SF4, as used in FO2, is integrated into the game engine and data files, iirc, making it very hard for crackers to remove. Unlike most copy protections where the code is all stored in one location in the .exe file, making it easy for crackers to simply strip out.

I would just like to distance myself from these comments, I never asked for such info!

I did enjoy the first one...Certainly liked the speedier tracks where it didn't punish you for actually racing (unlike the dirt/construction tracks)...Also liked the ice tracks for some reason, though VERY difficult - any slip in concentration :s

 

[f0rked]

Yeah I was just clearing up that SF4 has not actually been cracked. At least not Flat out 2. It's making it very hard for people to get the game illegally, so it's doing its job pretty well.

But as for Flatout 2, the racing is, well feels at least, a whole lot faster. You have specific categories of cars now. One for Derby racing, one for Regular race racing, and one for street racing. I'm only on the regular race class now, but its really fun. Cars are easier to drive, it feels more arcadeish, without taking too much skill away from the driving. It's still very possible to skid out, or hit a physics object and get knocked off course, slamming into a wall. It's still really fun

I've not seen all the different courses yet, I don't think anyway, but the ones I have seen are really fun. Don't think they have ice anymore though. There are some fun canal tracks however. Also, you can have as many cars in your garage as you can afford, unlike the original. Also, they've gone the burnout revenge route with some of their tracks, with official shortcuts built in. Plus, if anyone remembers how annoying it was in the original game, if you cut a corner perfectly through some dangerous objects, and got back on track ahead of your enemys, only to be told that you'd gone off track and had to recover, you'll be pleased to note that if you do go off track, even though it says you have to recover, that warning usually goes away as soon as you end up back on track. This lets you take some pretty sweet unintended shortcuts.

If you were a fan of Flatout, get this. You'll really like it. If you have qualms with SF4, I hear the US version has securom or some other, less invasive copy protection solution.