When I think Arcade Racers, I can't help but think of Burnout Revenge (I blatantly proclaim my love for this game all right?). After that it would probably be the Need for Speed series, followed by Midnight Club 3, but after that, would surely be Flatout. Released last year, Flatout was an interesting game packed with some unique gameplay elements, but sadly I could not enjoy the game thoroughly, thanks to extremely anal car controlling, so when I heard about Flatout 2, I wasn't as enthusiastic as one may expect, but after playing the game for a while, I think I have some new found respect for this series.

Flatout 2 is structured a bit differently from its predecessor in a way that developer Bugbear has decided to take the mayhem to the streets this time round, but don't get too excited yet, you'll have to progress through the other two classes, Derby and Race to access Street races.

In true Flatout tradition you'll start off with a run down vehicle you wouldn't touch with a bargepole, but the more you race, the more money you'll make and the faster you can make that crap on wheels. Win some serious cash (and a lot of races) and soon, you’ll have access to some sweet cars that would feel right at home with the beauties from Need for Speed. Now all this sounds fine and dandy in theory, but in practice, racing gets extremely monotonous after a while as you’ll be racing in the same tracks over and over and over and over again and it's this lack of track variety that really hampers gameplay half way through the game.

However, there are a couple of saving graces to save you from monotony in the form of Destruction Derbies (last man standing... or rather last man driving) and the highly sadistic ragdoll mini games. For those who haven’t played Flatout, ragdoll mini games are all about ejecting your driver from the car to see how high he can go (high jump)or how far he can go (long jump) or see how many bowling pins he can knock down (bowling) and so on. If you thought those were cruel, you’ll probably faint if you see what Flatout 2's mini games bring to the table, which by the way are a lot more varied than Flatout. Stone Skipping, Ring of Fire, Basketball, Baseball, Football and Poker are some of the mini games guaranteed to keep you entertained for a while.

On the visual front, Flatout 2 is drop dead gorgeous and is one of the prettiest racers I’ve seen in a long time on the PC. Everything’s very bright, sharp, crisp and a lot of the tracks are bathed in the same type of over-bright (similar to HDR, only less demanding on the system) that engulfed most of Most Wanted, giving the game its gorgeous dreamy look.