Sunday 17 Sep 2006

“Revenge is a dish best served cold.” – Kill Bill (who took it from somewhere else, Wiki it if you’re interested to find out where it’s from).

Where do I start? Well in fourth place in most races! This game is serious, seriously fun and addictive and intense. It’s all you’ve ever looked for in a racing game and more.

The Burnout series is taking off in a big way! Always known for its intense racing and the ability to make you think you’re really going as fast as the speedometer’s reading, Revenge does an impressive job by adding a whole new dimension to the game.

The first thing I noticed about this game is that it doesn’t have an age restriction. Ok, somehow it managed to get past the raters with a mere “Moderate Violence” rating. Moderate? The game’s main plot is to take revenge on your opponents by running them off the road or smashing general traffic into them and “taking them down.” The tag line of the game is “Your wheels are a weapon and your aggression is a measure of success…” Moderate Violence? But with that out of the way, I’m sure if you are playing this game you do realize that it’s fantasy… In the real world if you total your car you don’t respawn and continue driving, although that would come in handy.

The single player game sees you progressing up a rating bar that is fueled by winning races and crashes by not only coming in first place, but doing it in style by destroying as many pedestrian cars and rival cars in the process. When you eliminate an opponent’s car you get what is known as a “takedown,” which means that you are the reason for him totaling his vehicle. Either you nudged him into the back of an 18 wheeler or you rammed him so hard it sent him flying off the track into a building somewhere. Like I said, the more you do this the higher your star rating will be, which will ultimately increase your score for the race. Also taking down opponents and doing tricks like driving into oncoming traffic and drifting will increase your boost bar, which (like in any racing game) is imperative to giving you that extra push at crucial times.

There are seven different race types that you will be presented with:

Race: A simple race – takedown your opponents and make sure you are in first place when it comes to crossing the finish line.

Traffic Attack: You’ve got a limited amount of time and you’ve got to cause massive damage to increase the time on your clock, the more damage you do the more money you make. You have to break certain thresholds on monetary targets to achieve medals.

Burning Lap: Time trial – beat the lap in a certain amount of time.

Rode Rage: Like Traffic Attack but this time you’ve got to takedown rival opponents to increase your time. Your goal is the number of takedowns you need to achieve before you run out of time.

Elimination: You do laps and at certain time intervals the last positioned car gets booted from the race.

Preview: Lets you sample some of the better, still to be unlocked, cars in the game in a burning lap.

Tournament: This is comprised of three races in which your position from each race is taken into consideration for the final scores.

What makes Burnout that much different from other racing games is the crashes. Crash events provide you with an intersection, a piece of road crawling with traffic, and your main objection is to cause a massive pile up and in doing so earn money. Yes, you literally take your selected vehicle (my favorite being the mobile diner) and ramp it into oncoming traffic, then sit back and watch as car after car rams into the massive build up of smashed cars. Each vehicle that gets caught up in your “accident” adds fuel to your “Crash Breaker” bar, and when this is filled you can explode your car causing a massive shockwave sending nearby cars flying into the air, hopefully headed into some other yet effected vehicles to improve your damage score further. Even though this is senseless, crazy and suicidal, it is extremely addictive and fun.

Ok, Pete is going to hate what I have to say next. The graphics in this game are by far one of the best examples I’ve come across on the PS2. The courses are really highly detailed, yet they are so big and expansive. In a game like this the graphics and sound really play an important part in the gameplay. The game has really captured a sense of speed that is seen in very few racing games. You actually feel like you are moving at a really fast pace because the buildings start to blur as they flash past you, and oncoming cars seem to go past you at an infinite speed, this so often ends up as seeing two little headlights way in the distance in front of you and the next thing you know they are right in front of you and it’s actually a bus! The camera pans to a more cinematic view of the crash and you watch as your car crumples around the bus, bursting into flames, shooting sparks out everywhere. Of course all of this takes place in slow motion so you have time to appreciate it, or shout and cuss because this will probably push you back two places in the race.

The sound too is really polished right down to the slight whip as you pass an oncoming car, or the sounds of the trees as you speed past them. As for the crashes, the sound really brings them to life; it could just about be a real crash you are hearing! It’s best to turn the sound up real loud so when you do make impact it sends a spine chilling tingle down your spine (right after bursting your eardrums). The explosions are also great, how do I explain it, it sort of drowns out all the other sounds and for a split second there is silence right before a massive blast that sends everything flying, even the controller!

Of course you can find all of this action in multiplayer gaming too! There is even a party mode that lets up to eight people play against one another, raking up points one by one. With all the intense action on the screen, spectators won’t get bored either.

Pros: Really polished; great sense of speed; who doesn’t love crashing for points?
Cons: Long load times; slowdown when playing split screen.

Final Thought: An excellent game, by far one of the best racing games I have played, just for the pure adrenalin rush that blindly speeds though your veins just as quick as the cars racing through the streets in the game.

Rating:
Contributor:	Justin

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