Burnout: Revenge

The Good
When I first saw Burnout, the game objective was described as "try to make a highway pile-up as spectacular as you can". I was instantly sold.

Burnout doesn't compromise; the whole game is a hundred percent aggression with lightning speed. Flashes, sparks, flares, blurred objects in the distance suddenly becoming an obstacle, sunday drivers trying to desperately pull away the wheel when you're ramming them head first... and the tanker trucks, oh God, the beautiful tanker trucks falling into pieces when you shunt a foe into their sides.

It's the Destruction Derby 2 of the new millennium - more degrees of freedom, slicker graphics, and of course a lot more tricks to do.

The Bad
The local multiplayer mode of the game was a HUGE disappointment: there's literally NOTHING to configure. No number of laps or maximum takedowns, no splitscreen orientation... you can't even play with more than two players! Very very disappointing, especially when you consider the party-game potential in it.

Oh yeah, and the music was just a horrible selection of weak, non-violent soft-metal tunes. And Doors - which is just an insult towards both Doors and Burnout. (The sound effects weren't too fresh either.)

The Bottom Line
The best description of Burnout I ever heard was "It's actually a spaceship game, only with cars." It really is the ultimate 150% adrenaline rush game for hyperactive people.

We've been playing with the game for a few months now, and I haven't really seen anyone who DIDN'T get addicted to it.

The Good
The graphics are easily the best the XBOX has ever seen. There is no major slowdown. This game looks very nice in the details. The sparks, the mangled cars, the explosions all look beautiful. However, the enviroments look very drab and dull, especially in the city industrial section, but at least it looks realistic. Ability to use customizable soundtracks and trust me, if you have Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" in your XBOX, play it while racing, youwon't regret it.

The Bad
The sound is great, but standard for a racing game. The soundtrack is quite frankly a God-awful mix of punk and metal that isn't metal. If you like punk and emo , then you won't mind this soundtrack, but I do not like those two genres of music.

The Bottom Line
This game is a racing game that allows you to crash into other cars. You can crash into the back of other cars to get them into a "Takedown". A takedown is where a car crashes and momentarily does not race. You can also run other cars into a wall or other obstacles for a Takedown. As mentioned above, in the later stages, if you crash, you can blow up your car and takedown a lot of the other cars.

The Good
I played Burnout Revenge since its release back in '05. I think Burnout Revenge is definitely the best destructive car smashing games since Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit or Underground. Before Split Second deserves a classic retrospect to the Burnout franchise, my favorite racing feature in the game was the eliminator (where you must get past all 5 cars in 30 seconds or more before time runs out) and the Crashbreaker (a level where every car or truck you've destroyed gets you big points and awarding a gold medal). Whenever you race on a next course, there are some rival cars that can take you out, but also use your drifting skills to burn rubber, get close to the driver, and WHAM! Your rival is history. I also loved the soundtrack because it has a lot of hits blended into a mixture of pop, alternative rock, indie, dance, and electronica. I thought the game wasn't gonna be a bigger success than Takedown, but I was wrong. My biggest dream is: I wonder if EA could re-release the game along with Takedown and Paradise to make it into solid HD gold.

The Bad
The multiplayer battle features (online or offline) was pretty much the same, but a little confusing. But the loading times was pretty annoying. I was trying to prepare for the next race, but remember when Tony Hawk's American Wasteland was the only game that has no loading interruptions, it was cool. However, in Burnout Revenge, all I see was a information screen like watch out for incoming traffic and how to find unlocked cars on a grand prix event.

The Bottom Line
I've started playing Burnout Revenge for 3 hours and I kinda enjoyed every moment in the series whether its tapping a one-touch button to another or having a wonderful time demolishing auto parts. If you haven't played Burnout or any of its series, you've just missed out on all the action, the stunts, and the features that you must check it out. Maybe Burnout could make another game besides Paradise and make a sixth entry. But Burnout Revenge is pure 100% mayhem.