Bugbear posts

The Ridge Racer series of arcade racing games have been a console staple for many years, particularly on the Playstation machines. But none of the games have ever been released for the PC platform. That will change next year as publisher Namco Bandai Games announced today that the newly revealed Ridge Racer Unbounded will ported to the PC as well as the Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms.

Part of the reason for the PC port may be that the game is being developed by Bugbear who previously released the terrific FlatOut series of arcade racing games for the PC. Details about the new game are slim but Computer and Video Games reports that it will be more "dangerous" and "wilder" than previous entries in the series. We still have a long way to go before the game is released; Ridge Racer Unbounded is due out sometime in 2012.

The DRM-lacking folks at GoG.com have sent over word of three additional games that have been added to their catalogue of titles that have no need of copy protection. As previously promised, Epic Games has released two titles from their Unreal series for GoG.com to sell; Unreal Tournament 2004 and Unreal 2: The Awakening. Both games can be downloaded for $9.99 each with a few extra wallpapers and avatars to boot.

Also added to the list today is FlatOut, the first game in the long running arcade racing series from developer Bugbear. You can download the full version right now from GoG.com for just $5.99.

Next week will see the release in the US of the PC port of Flatout: Ultimate Carnage, the port of the 2007 Xbox 360 arcade racing game from developer Bugbear and publisher Empire Interactive. However if you like to download your games rather than head to the retail stores, Valve's Steam service has a deal for you.

If you pre-order Flatout: Ultimate Carnage via Steam for $19.99 before the end of the day on August 26, you will be able to download the first game in the series, Flatout, immediately for free. You will be able to check out the unique gameplay of the first title (complete with ragdoll driver mini-games) before the graphically enhanced Flatout: Ultimate Carnage is made available.

Microsoft hasn't gotten a lot of PC game titles to support their Games For Windows Live features but Empire Interactive has just confirmed that their PC port of their Xbox 360 arcade racing game FlatOut Ultimate Carnage will join the rather exclusive list of PC titles to support the Live platform.

While it doesn't appear like the PC port will have cross-platform multiplayer with its Xbox 360 counterpart (only three games, Shadowrun, Lost Planet Colonies and Universe at War: Earth Assault have supported that feature) the PC version of the game will include support for all the other Live features including achievements. Empire plans to release the Bugbear developed FlatOut Ultimate Carnage for the PC in August in Europe. So far there's no word on a US release for the game.

While Criterion Games may finally be bringing their Burnout series of arcade racing games to the PC with the upcoming release of the PC port of Burnout Paradise, developer Bugbear have already released their first two FlatOut racing games to the PC. Now they are preparing to release their latest game in the series, FlatOut: Ultimate Carnage, to the PC (it was first released in 2007 for the Xbox 360) and its publisher Empire Interactive has just released the first screenshots of the PC port.

The FlatOut games combine the high speed and highly destructible features of the Burnout series with great looking graphics and some weird mini-games involving throwing the rag doll driver out the windshield and into various situations including throwing the driver into large targets, into bowling pins and more. The developers are stating that the graphics will be improved for the PC port and that it will be released this June.