izigame.me

Masterpiece of art.
In all races of FlatOut 2, you drive along 7 named AIs. The difference between them could be as simple as the differences between their car attributes and a single (e.g. aggression) variable. And yet, they never failed to form distinct characters in my head; my hatred for Sofia Martinez and Jack Benton persisted throughout the years since I played it for the first time. My smile conjures itself seeing Malcov goofing around with (soon to be) wreckage.
The game has all (most?) racing game aspects you would expect, but it also adds an interesting design dichotomy; it is 'risky' play that awards you the most. Not rarely you're presented with a choice; to T-bone an opponent and send them flying, potentially knocking them out of the race permanently. This, of course, would put you out of course of the track for longer time than if you didn't, but the wrecking would provide a fat stick of nitro boost. Likewise, most, if not all, races provide optional ramps for air time, which also provides nitro at risk of poor landing and crashing. Likewise crashing objects in the race slow you down and may lift you off the ground for a moment, making you lose both speed and time for the same award. So, you can drive the 'boring' way – perfecting each turn, avoiding obstructions and finishing as fast as possible, or the 'fun' way, smashing your obstacles and opponents into pieces. Winning at this game is about balancing the two.
The game has only circuit type races and only tournament points style events (in "story" mode, that is). Circuits allow overtaking underdog opponents by the whole lap(s) and still interacting with them, also you can drive backwards to get big crash bonuses. Tournament style allows point management game, where, instead of fixating on winning every single race, you just need to have more points than your opponents, which alligns perfectly with previously mentioned 'risky' play dichotomy. You can, technically, win the game with all golds without finishing a single race first. In more volative tournaments (3-4 races), you have to pay close attention who are (besides you) leading in points and try to come before them. For longer ones (5-6 races), at track 4-5 I usually have 10+ point lead from the second place, so I tend to stop caring about getting there first and unleash my inner Malcov. It is weird (not really, in hindsight of second paragraph), that once I do that, I still tend to finish in top 5, if not first. The game rewards you heavily for going reckless; during my replay this time, I got so much funds just from crashing that I 'skipped' racing class once I was done with derby AND I could fully upgrade both cars I used. Sometimes, I could get as much money from crashing in one race than I did from winning the whole tournament!
Seriously, if you played this game and only drove without shoving anyone into trees and walls, you haven't actually played it.