FlatOut 2

Introduction
You know, there are many ways to provoke someone into getting a video game. What I find interesting is the fact that someone, somewhere is willing to fork over $50 to buy a game that 90% of the world's population absolutely hate. That's what so fun about video games today. Everyone has a different opinion. For Flatout 2, you can hate it, and you can love it. What you CAN NOT do though, is make up your decision until you've actually played it.

Story
It's a racing game, come on! What do you expect?

Graphics
I was amazed by the graphics for Flatout 2. This game looks almost as good as Motorstorm for the Playstation 3! The details on the cars and the environments look awesome and very realistic. Also, the damage caused by crashing is spectacular. That's pretty much all I can say for this aspect. It was very well done.

Gameplay
Flatout is one of the most unique racing games ever. Causing big crashes can send your driver flying through the windshield and slamming into trees, rocks, and buildings. In Flatout 1, crashing into a small rock at 15 MPH could send the driver hurling 300 miles through the windshield and flip-flopping across the terrain without mercy. This time, you'll need to hit something EXTREMELY HARD to send the driver through the screen, and even if you do, he only manages to go about 5 feet through the air, and then lands without much emphasis. This is some-what disappointing, but it can help keep you in the lead during races and such.

Flatout 1 had six different rag-doll mini-games. Number 2 has twelve. Some are incredibly unique, like stone-skipping (where you launch the driver down a pool and you must press R1 to get him to skip across the water), and the Ring Of Fire (where you launch the driver through as many flaming rings as you can). There are specially designed cars for the stunts, all of which have a red, white, and blue color scheme except one. They also each have one or two rocket engines in the back, which are extremely cool. During the mini-games, you can also steer your driver through the air using the analog stick to help hit certain targets. Doing this, however, increases the drag on the driver and slows you down some. To help overcome this problem, you can use the nudge feature, which gives your driver a small push in the air to make him rise a little more. As you can see, the rag-doll mini-games have improved a lot.

The career mode is a lot different then in number 1. There are three different classes, derby, race, and street. You must start out in the derby series, in which you must drive crappy, slow, dented up cars. As you race, you'll eventually make it to the higher career classes, giving you the chance to drive jacked-up street cars that you would find in The Fast and the Furious. During the career, the races are divided up into cups, each having a set number of races, from 2-6. You must come in the top 3 to move on. This is where the game gets repetitive. In career mode, you'll be racing on the same tracks over and over again, which tends to get really boring.

Another thing I should mention is that each driver has a name and drives a certain type of car. This is pretty neat and helps you to determine who passed you and who is behind you. You'll no longer be referring to the drivers as “the red car” or “the blue car”. What is pretty disappointing is that there are two racers who are always in first. They are extremely hard to pass and beat, which gets really annoying fast. There is another driver who always wins the “Bulldozer Award” which is awarded to the driver who causes the most destruction. The reason he always gets this award is because he always drives huge trucks and 4x4's, which he uses to plow through everyone. He also likes to take people out.

In addition to all of this, you still get to use boost. You gain boost by crashing into people and basically destroying the race track! In Flatout 1, when you launched off of a high jump, the game rewarded you for that by sending you driver flying the windshield on yet another adventure. In this game, going off big jumps gives you a ton of boost, and the driver stays in his seat.

Last but not least, all the cars in the game can blow up. When I say this, I mean that every driver has a damage meter, and if it empties, the car gets “wrecked” and it explodes in a fiery ball of metal. This feature is really cool………unless it happens to you, of course!

Sound/Music
All the cars and crashes sound really good, but what's really impressive is the music. Flatout 1 had songs from bands that you probably haven't even heard of before (The Killer Barbies????) This time, the music comes from very popular bands, including Motley Crue, Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy (ugh), and Alkaline Trio. This really helps the game move along, and fortunately, the songs don't repeat over and over again during races like they did in the first game.

Conclusion
I highly recommend that you buy this game. It is a ton of fun to play, and you most likely will be popping it into the PS2 years from now to enjoy some hard-core racing action!