A rip-roaring mix of circuitous rally racing and smash-up derby carnage, FlatOut steers just clear of typical by removing the seatbelts from each car and adding a "ragdoll physics" element more commonly seen in fighting and shooting games. Hence, as you race around the various courses full of lush scenery and a generous abundance of obstacles--barrels, log piles, scaffolding--you're bound to crash upon occasion (or, better, cause others to do so), at which point you're treated to full frontal ejections of your presumably unconscious driver-self, launching out the window like a ragdoll, as the aforementioned physics model sees fit. Never the side door, mind you, always the front windshield--which was most likely (and conveniently) shattered some time ago, shortly before your hood flew off and your bumper started dragging but not before your engine caught fire. It's a gimmick, sure, but a pretty funny one. There are even a few game gameplay modes where driver ejection is the whole point; games of bowling and darts with a ragdoll.

As yet, there's nothing going on online in the Xbox version (and the PC version doesn't even offer online racing, just LAN), which is inexplicable and flatly annoying, since FlatOut screams for multiplayer mayhem, but there you go.

Still, for maniacal motorized mayhem and bowling, alone or with a buddy, FlatOut delivers.

[TIP: You can start FlatOut with oodles of cash (to buy upgrades and stuff) by naming yourself GIVECASH. Use GIVEALL as a profile name and you'll unlock everything in the game.]