Shunting the other cars around mid-race is also hugely satisfying, although sometimes you find yourself having nudged a rival, only to get them stuck sideways on your front bumper, killing your own speed and making it extremely hard to shake them off. However, as the quantity of destructible debris decreases, you have to rely more on physical contact to get those last essential bits of boost Here, you need to strike a balance between not sending your car to the scrapyard, gaining more nitro and staying as close to the front as possible in order to get that first place and the cash. In addition, the physics on show are impressive (although they verge more on humour than realism) - fences fly, bridges tumble, walls collapse and barrels and debris are thrown across the screen. Nitro is gained during races from jumping, shunting your opponents and smashing your way through any destructible scenery that litters the track. This time though, you're not just restricted to muscle cars, with trucks.Ĭompacts and sports cars also providing welcome additions to your garage. Set off round the track and you instantly notice that the skittish, rally-style handling of the original is still very much in effect, encouraging you to slide around comers and occasionally causing wild spin-offs and a frantic scrabble at the controls to get your car back under control. Featuring a selection of impossibly beautiful opposition drivers for you to test your skills against, the creators have tried their best to improve upon an already successful formula by upping the ante with more tracks, more cars and plenty more roadside decoration to demolish.

The last is normally only carried out by humanoid dummies packed full of highly advanced technology and bits of pigs' guts, but FlatOut 2 mixes things up a bit by putting you into the role instead. There Are A Few jobs in this world that really plumb the depths of humanity: being David Hasselhoff's stylist, overseeing the live coverage from the Big Brother house and being a crash test dummy.

Flatout 2