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And then, of course, there are the minigames, a.k.a the Rag Doll Olympics. There is something sickly satisfying about lining up your car to ultimately spring the hapless driver through the windshield, high into the air, arms flailing, towards the goal. These can be knocking down bowling pins, hitting a high jump, or any of the other dozen different game types. That's right, we said a dozen, double the amount from the original. These are extremely fun and also more than a bit complicated. All of these take place inside a single arena seemingly ripped out of some crazy Stephen King-style novel.
The mechanics take awhile to get used to and even longer to master, but once you've got them down it's horribly amusing to plot out the courses and watch your soon-to-be-corpse racers burst out of the safety of the car and fly through rings of fire, curling targets, gridiron goalposts, and all sorts of other maniacal contraptions. Our personal favorite is baseball, which combines throwing the poor slob out of the car, then getting him struck by a gigantic baseball bat. Ah, there's nothing like good clean fun. Having some friends over, pouring a few drinks, and going at it in the Rag Doll Olympics is something that every person of legal drinking age should be able to experience at least once in their lives.
All of these things - races, demolition derbies, minigames, and so on - are available as multiplayer either on one machine or online, proving that you may not be the only one out there with a penchant for causing human beings to sacrifice their limbs for your viewing pleasure.
The overall presentation of FlatOut 2 - the gorgeous environments, array of vehicles, even the killer soundtrack (Audioslave? Fall Out Boy? Papa Roach? Sweet!) - is top notch. Super-serious gearheads may lament that the cars don't all feel or drive that differently or that there aren't real, licenses vehicles. While that all may be true, that's simply not what FlatOut 2 is about - a rollicking good time with a complete disregard for seriousness and sanity.
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