Burnout 2: Point of Impact

"Cause some mayhem!"

SUMMARY: First of all, dispel any notions you have about what the Burnout series is like... ideas you may have gotten from the original Burnout. This game, the sequel to Burnout, is much better! The premise is the same... arcade racing and (often) causing spectacular accidents. What's changed is that this time it is polished and FUN!

GRAPHICS: 10/10 - Amazing! The Renderware engine is incredible... deformable car models, particle effects, weather, bump-mapping, dozens of cars on the screen at teh same time, no pop-up... and all of this at a locked 60 frames per second. No slowdown here! It even supports progressive scan! I hope more games use this engine, as it really shows off what the PS2 is truly capable of.

SOUND: 7/10 - I don't really care for the engine sounds... they sound pretty generic. The music is actually quite good and you won't find it annoying. When you go into ''Burnout Mode'' (just like the nitrous ''warp drive'' effect from The Fast and The Furious) the music tempo picks up to match it. Crashes sound OK - nice and realistic. The police siren on the Pursuit missions is annoying though, and I would had liked to be able to turn it off. Oh, this game also supports Dolby Surround II.

GAMEPLAY: 10/10 - So much to do! Let's see... you get a general Championship mode, single race mode, time attack, Pursuit Mode (where you play as a cop and bash your opponent to their doom), and CRASH mode (which must be seen to be believed). And while you are busy doing all these things, you'll be unlocking hidden stuff all over the place! Cool! Oh, and of course there is multiplayer, and it is a blast.

PRODUCTION: 10/10 - The menus are well done, and everything is laid out nicely. The fact that there is progressive scan support (and they said it couldn't be done on PS2!) is nice... the fact that it can also take advantage of a widescreen TV is cool too. Savegames are small. The game is on DVD. Top marks here!

OVERALL: 9/10 - This is the FASTEST game on PS2. Faster than Gran Turismo, faster than Wipeout Fusion, and even faster than Tokyo Xtreme Racer. When you hit BURNOUT MODE for the first time, you'll have a big smile on your face - I promise. The single player and multiplayer angles are both well done and offer a lot. If you like arcade driving games AT ALL... buy this today! You won't be sorry.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 10/07/02, Updated 10/07/02