After playing the ever-loving shit out of the demo for Flatout Ultimate Carnage, available on the Xbox Live network, I can determine two important things:

1) this game is a ton of fun
2) the graphics look pretty

I just wish they could have come up with a "K" word for the title to make the acronym complete....

When it comes to destruction derby games, they're pretty much a dime a dozen, these days. The thing is, I don't think there are too many other games of this type on the Xbox 360, which is a damn shame. Between the uber-sim FORZA 2 and the more "arcade" style racers, there just aren't that many racers for a gamer like me. In other words, I fail at racing, but I love driving courses backwards and causing head-on (apply directly to the forehead) collisions. This game, from what I've played of it, offers me that exact amount of joy.

The demo offers three main game modes: Carnage Race, Deathmatch Derby, and Race.
The carnage race consists of a looped course where the goal is to rack up as many points as possible by catching air, smashing scenery, and destroying your opponents. Coming in first means nothing but extra points, but the points are central to your success, overall.
Deathmatch Derby is a timed deathmatch. Kill or be killed. Again, you're trying accumulate as many points as possible, but you have a limited number of "lives", so you need to survive for as long as possible while dishing out a lot of pain.
Race is self-explanatory. You race. There's no penalty for wrecking your opponents but you need to come in first to win.

The cars handle pretty well -- depending on what you're driving. I don't know how much they'll be offering in terms of customizability, upgrades, or that sort of thing, but SUVs and larger vehicles handle about as well as you'd expect while smaller, faster vehicles offer better handling but are easy to destroy. Having said that, yeah... it's pretty much an arcade racer when you get right down to it. Don't worry about over steer, anti-lock brakes, or any of that crap -- just stand on the accellerator and make some cars explode.

Speaking of exploding cars, I don't think I've ever gotten so much satisfaction from a car explosion before. Each car, when it ignites, goes up like a tiny nuke. The sky flashes a blinding white for a moment and a blaze erupts around the doomed vehicle. In the Destruction Derby game type, you can tell a car just went to hot hell no matter where you are on the map. It's quite visceral.

The graphics are sweet, each bumpmapped crack in the pavement is a wonder to behold. Concrete walls are pock-marked and textured, wooden fences have age rings in the planks, metal pipes and beams look solid and heavy, it just all looks really nice. This game is a treat to show off in HD. FORZA 2 went for photorealism, even if it meant having environments that look plain and dull, whereas Flatout UC has a very stylish look. Every scene is gritty, painted with rust in a dirt-bath solution to give it that harsh, underground feel -- it really works well.

Also in the graphics department are the cars themselves, with slight details to make them stand out. Some of the cars look nice, almost show-worthy while other cars look like they're done before they've even started -- scrap heaps, sporting a half-hazardly tacked on quarter-panel and painted in a lovely shade of bondo. Everything about the way these cars look is a reminder that your goal is to smash them all to hell. Every crunched bumper, popped hood, ripped off side-panel is another score for you. Smashing into cars is a joy, in and of itself, far beyond merely winning the race.

Where the game starts losing points is in the music. The only I really like is the tite track, "Nothing Can Wait" by Opshop. I'm listening to it right now; it's not bad. The rest of the music, however, is fail... EPIC fail. The best thing I can say about the music in this game is that you can turn it off. It's really just God-awful and the less said about it, the better.

The next issue I'd like to raise is the damage your vehicle takes. I'm not saying this is a positive or a negative, but damage doesn't degrade performance. Your vehicle performs as well immediately prior to explosion as it does at the very begining of the race. Now, I'm of two minds about this; on one hand, I feel that if your car gets gimped, it should act like it. On the other hand, trying to limp towards the finish line which to broken axels and a missing wheel isn't a lot of fun. Of course, I've played games where you're left with a car that is inexorably broken after a hard run, and it is kinda fun to try driving a car that desperately needs to be put out of its misery. So, as I've said, I could really take this or leave it. Hopefully, in the full-version of the game there will be an option to degrade performance based on damage, but that's just speculation on my part. I'm just saying, it would be nice to have.

All in all, I'm definitely looking forward to picking up this game when it comes out this Fall. If you think this might be a game you're into and you have an Xbox 360, look for the free demo on Xbox Live; it's been available for about a week, now.