Company: Bugbear Entertainment
Platform: Playstation 2
Genre:
Rating: Teen
Buy on Amazon.com link

Flatout 2 is the sequel to the successful destruction racing game. I never played the first Flatout but I heard it was a lot of fun so I was interesting in checking this game out for Playstation 2. If you like racing games, and destroying your car & wrecking havoc, then this is the game for you!

I love racing games for Playstation 2. My favorite series has to be Need For Speed and this game seems like it, but on steroids (If that makes any sense at all). Flatout 2 is a very different game from the other realistic racing games. One of the first things I usually do with racing games is learn the controls. Read up on what to do, because I can’t just wig it like some other gamers out there. But honestly, they seemed pretty easy to learn and didn’t take long to get use to them. Before jumping into career mode, I usually like to play single games and get used to everything. You pick out your rider (guy or girl), then you pick out vehicle to play with. I try to play each vehicle before getting into the competitions because I don’t want to get stuck with some crappy car. It seems every car I picked that had a high acceleration or that was just fast sucked. I don’t know why that was, but when you crashed the car, you had no control of it and spun around like crazy. But then again it takes me awhile to get the hang of the controls and movement of the vehicles. I thought I did the best when I was racing on dirt because the sliding of the car benefited me. When I tried the races in the streets I was going all over the place, banging into walls and flinging my driver 50 feet in the air. One thing I loved during the racing portions of the game is getting extra points for crashing other cars. You get even more points if you make them crash into buildings or launch their driver. Sometimes it’s not all about winning the race, it’s about killing your opponent.

But what’s great about this game is it’s not just a racing game. There’s single events you can play and practice on before you enter the career mode. The idea for the single events is to launch your driver. For instance, the first game is the High Jump. You drive down a ramp and then you go through three obstacles, then you launch him as high and far as you can. Then after a few tries, your score is added up and you get placed in the order of your score. It took me a few times to actually get the hang of the launching because I just kept launching the driver too low and not far enough. Then I realized the longer you hold down the launch button, the higher up you go. Though sometimes you don’t always have to hold the button for long because you’re trying to fly your driver through things. Like the ring of fire game, you launch the driver through as many rings as possible. The longer you go, the more points you pick up. But if you just launch your driver high, you won’t get anything because he has to go through the rings. Savvy? There are several types of games to play like Bowling, Ski Jump, Darts, Baseball, Basketball, and more! I actually liked playing those games more than the racing game. It was just a lot of fun and I think I cracked up every time the driver went crashing down. Another game I liked playing was the crash derby. Nothing like attacking other cars til they blow up, or you are blown up. I held my own in that game and lasted quite awhile the times I played it. You can pick different locations and cars for that game as well. The single events should entertain a lot of college buddies playing against each other and having a good time. From what I read, there seems to be a lot more games to play this time and that’s always a good thing.

As far as the look of the game, I didn’t really have a problem with it. The locations & environments looked good and the driver’s mannerisms when he crashes to the ground were funny to watch. The car crashes were a bit over the top at times but that’s the point. The vehicles’ designs were a bit generic and didn’t think they were that spectacular. There’s a multi-player and online option but I haven’t played that yet. I don’t have online capabilities so I couldn’t play that, and I haven’t gotten any of my friends to play the game with me yet. But as a single player, I enjoyed all aspects of the game. The single events were really fun and I could play it for hours, and then when it came time to play the career mode, that was just as fun. This game definitely has re-play value to it, well, until the next Flatout game comes out that’s even better than this one. Fans of racing games like Burnout and Need for Speed will really like the sequel to Flatout.

Bottom Line:
Favorite Aspects: I like the single event games and I also like how you get points for crashing into other cars.
Cheats:
Overall Rating: