OK, so a little more on Flatout: Ultimate Carnage, just because I got an achievement that was both insulting and strangely satisfying.

There’s a computer-controlled driver in Flatout UC named “Frank Malcov”.

Frank drives a big SUV, and he’s not a very good racer.  He never wins a race, as far as I can tell, and that’s not his purpose on the track.

Frank exists to be the bastard who, when he’s in third place and you’re in fourth, deliberately wreck himself AND you in order to stop you from catching up.  When I was just getting started with the game, I had a heck of a lot of 8th-and-lower place finishes as a result of old Frankie boy doing something mindbogglingly suicidal and aggrivating.

It is rare that I have actual hatred for an NPC, and I think that some credit is due the folks at Bugbear Entertainment for managing it.

Today I got the achievement “Frank Malcov Award”, which has the description of “Your driving makes Frank Malcov proud!”

There’s no other information, and there’s a fair amount of debate online as to what exactly counts for this achievement, but here’s my thought:

I got this directly after a race which I won by forcing the lead car into a wall just before the finish line, then driving head-on into another wall, which – while not on the track – was past the finish line.

So basically I think “Making Frank Malcov Proud” consists of being an absolute bastard to someone who’s about to win.