Hoodlum did not crack SD4 on Flatout!! They used a loader to patch the EXE in mem same as Money did with The Sims 2 DVD, they just injected the loader into the EXE. It's not a 'proper' crack, the EXE is actually BIGGER than the original Flatout.exe by 4k and has an extra section 'stxt274' showing they added something to it, like a loader.
The loader works, but see Reloadeds NFO from Sonic Heroes for some fun reading