First Impression: FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction (PC/Steam)

This is the 56th instalment of our first impression video series. Today, we are playing FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction for the first time.

Welcome to the 56th instalment of our first impression video series. Today, we are playing the Steam game, FlatOut 3: Chaos & Destruction for the first time. You can check out the video directly on YouTube or in the embed below:

This video was an absolute nightmare to produce. Ever known step to fix this did not work. Adjusting the video quality did nothing. The flicker is not present in the game itself, only in the video recording after. All attempts to force this game into windowed mode failed. The following steps were tried:

Create desktop shortcut and add “-window” and “-w” (windowed mode didn’t initiate)

Use launch option code for Steam (did not work).

Use DXwnd.exe (game crashed on boot).

Use d3d9hook.dll (didn’t detect. Game went to full screen mode).

Record via OBS (quality was even worse).

So, literally, there was no possible way to make this video quality any better. As a result, I felt pretty defeated by this one particular game.

About a week after I recorded the video, I started to think about what I was trying to solve with the flickering problem in the past. In fact, the first video I uploaded had no video at all on my first attempt. Windowed mode ultimately fixed the problem. Unfortunately, that is not a solution for this game.

One of the solutions I ended up having was propping a web cam on top of some boxes and shooting the monitor. It was a last resort solution that I was grateful I didn’t have to employ at the time. So, I found some of my boxes, propped up the webcam on it, used a half full water bottle as a counterweight, moved the boxes partly over the edge of the desk and got a reasonable angle on the monitor. After that, I turned off the lights and it looked, well, not perfect, but at least half way watchable.

So, I fiddled with the settings on OBS and got the audio quality I get off of the console recordings. Hooray progress.

On my second attempt, the game didn’t recognize the speed key. So, I finished up what I thought was good recording and discovered that OBS didn’t record.

On my third attempt, I forgot an audio setting and my voice was, at times, unintelligible.

Now, what you see here is my fourth attempt to get a recording. You really are seeing what I’ve gotten to between a half an hour and 45 minutes into this game. I know, it’s not amazing quality on the video side of things, but it is significantly better then the terrible video flickering problem that made the first version unwatchable. Sorry if it’s not the highest quality, but this is literally the best possible solution I had.

For those of you who have played this game, was it a huge disappointment or was it under rated? Did you think it added something to the franchise or was it just as bad as people say it was?

For those of you who haven’t played it, does this new arcade style look interesting to you or was it not the greatest? Do you think you’d be willing to give it a try or would you be more inclined to skip this one? Let us know in the comments below!

This video is part of our first impression video series. Below is a list of previously made first impression video’s we’ve made in the past: