Game developer Bugbear originally re-worked their PC (and original Xbox) title FlatOut 2, bringing it to the Xbox 360 last year in the form of FlatOut Ultimate Carnage. It’s therefore more than a little strange to see what is basically the same game pull a handbrake turn and slowly trundle its way back onto its original platform.

Now I’m not a big racing game fan. This isn’t because I don’t like the genre. It’s more due to my complete inability to drive electronically. Who am I kidding? I had enough problems getting to grips with driving in the real world. Understanding that I need to break for virtual corners is too difficult a concept for this gamer of little brain to understand.

As a result, I need my racing games to be sympathetic. They need to be forgiving. Okay… I basically need to be able to crash into loads of stuff as I barge around the circuit and not get penalised too much.

FlatOut Ultimate Carnage is therefore quite a good game for me. The experience is split into two different sections; ‘Flatout’ and ‘Carnage’. You can also venture online or enjoy the game with friends using the less-restrictive party mode.

The main Flatout mode requires a little more driving skill than I possess but it still veers towards a more arcadey racing experience than a deep driving simulation.

There are three levels of competition based around different sets of cars, from the cheap bangers of the derby level to the high performance roadsters suitable for fast oval circuits. To enter the higher races, though, you’ll need to be able to afford a suitable vehicle.

Each level of competition is split up into different tiers each with their own selection of events. There are one off races, multi-event cups, time trials and demolition derby matches. That’s plenty of races to keep any keen driving fan busy for quite some time.

Your winnings allow you to buy new cars and purchase simple upgrades. The handling between different models does vary, especially once you’ve bounced them off the walls a few times.

Although there are a limited number of different race environments each one encompasses a selection of interesting tracks. Unlike some other racers you have a real impact on the state of each circuit. Smashing objects, as well as other cars, is encouraged as this is the way your boost is filled. However, larger items can slow you down and the persistent piles of debris on the track could cause you (and other drivers) problems on future laps.

The most fun I’ve had with the game has come from the Carnage mode which provides bite size chunks of destructive fun in several different automotive flavours.

The carnage race is a timed, checkpoint dash where points are awarded for environmental destruction as well as slamming, smashing and flipping other drivers.

The deathmatch derby is a multi-car battle complete with survival bonuses and power-ups.

Beat the bomb is a solo timed run where your car explodes when the timer hits zero. You must race through checkpoints, refilling the clock, to try and go the furthest distance.

Stuntman is perhaps the most unrealistic and completely implausible event of them all. It’s also an awful lot of fun. You’re required to drive and launch your driver from the car, catapulting him into the air and acrobatically moving him through different obstacles depending on the theme of the particular level.

For example in the royal flush stunt you need to smash your driver through playing cards in order to build up the highest scoring hand. The stone skipping challenge sees you skimming him as far as you can along a watery channel. Ten pin bowling uses your avatar as the bowling ball. There are also activities based around sports such as basketball, baseball, gridiron and soccer. It is completely and utterly bonkers.

Carnage mode starts with a few events and more unlock when you hit specific numerical targets. Your scores are cumulative so you can pick up the points from any challenge. This means if you’re rubbish at a certain type of race you won’t get stuck. You can get the necessary score from something you’re very good at instead.

The online modes are pretty much what you’d expect, mirroring the Xbox 360 version. I haven’t seen a huge amount of people playing the game, and most hailed from continental Europe, but perhaps this will change when the game sees a wider release in the US. The title does not feature cross-platform play so you can only compete against other drivers on PC.

One of the nice features of the game are the online leaderboards for every single Flatout and Carnage event and track. I always think that it’s great to truly know how rubbish my lap times are.

The soundtrack in the game is really quite poor. The limited collection of music loops round rapidly and soon becomes boring. You’ll probably want to resort to providing your own musical accompaniment to your vehicular adventures.

A word of warning, the DVD copy protection almost killed this for me. The outdated detection software that came on my disk refused to allow my perfectly legitimate copy of the game to run. It took a support email to the security company to get an updated version of the file. This was made slightly more annoying when I found out that the version of the game that’s available to download from the official website (for £20) doesn’t have the DVD requirement.

To start to sum things up, FlatOut Ultimate Carnage on the PC is virtually identical to the version on the 360. You can even play with the Xbox 360 controller for Windows for the perfect console-like experience.

I have to say that, as a complete newcomer to the series, I really enjoyed the game. The carnage mode is loads of fun and I would have been happy to spend a lot of time playing this title even without the added incentive of Gamerscore.

Owners of the 360 version of FlatOut will probably want to give this one a miss unless you fancy the duplicate set of achievements on offer. At the sort of prices I’ve seen this one going for (£15 on Amazon) it’s worth a look for followers of the series on PC or anyone who wants something to play when the TV connected to their Xbox is otherwise engaged. The new free status of Windows Live is a bonus but Microsoft really needs more than ports of old Xbox 360 games to revitalise their service.