Burnout Revenge

"I am now addicted to Burnout yet again."

Burnout Revenge is much of the same that you experienced in Burnout 3, but with some added features, a little less arcady controls, and a nice new graphical style.

Gameplay: 10/10
The first thing I noticed once I began my first race was that how the cars control seemed to be a little less arcady then in previous Burnout games. I found this a welcome change, it makes the game a little more challenging when you can't turn your car on a dime at any time. Then I slammed into the back of a car that was going the same way as me, I was expecting to crash, but instead I watched as the car I hit went sailing into oncoming traffic and caused quite the pile up. This is the greatest addition that Burnout has ever received, the ability to finally crash the traffic. Sure there are some limitations, you can only crash small traffic that is going your way, but it is still amazing and quite fun. Another change is that now every track has branching paths and shortcuts, these are normally quite fun paths, some sending you flying over the competition, and if you land on an opponent you can score a vertical takedown. But with all the shortcuts added, the environment seems to have become much more dangerous, it is much easier to crash from running into walls than in previous games, and there also seems to be a lot more obstacles than in previous games, so your reflexes better be better than ever.

Modes: 9/10
All of the previous modes are back, but with some new additions. The new mode 'Traffic Attack' is kind of like a 'Road Rage' meets 'Crash Mode'. You play it on a normal track, but try to cause as much damage as possible by crashing all the traffic that you can. This mode can go on for quite a while, as you gain time for cars that you crash, I quickly found myself addicted to this. Then there are some other minor additions to the Racing and Road Rage modes like being able to use a Crashbreaker (Make your car explode with the push of a button after you crash) during a normal race, I also had some fun with this. 'Crash Mode' has gotten a few changes, but has remained pretty much the same, the biggest change to this mode was that you can now perform more than one Crashbreaker.

Sound: 9/10
Like pretty much every EA game for the past few years, this game has a great soundtrack.

But this game also has some great sound effects, from the revving of engines to the screeching metal from a 10 car pile up, pretty much everything in this game sounds great.

Graphics: 10/10
The first thing that you will probably notice when you play Revenge is that it has received a complete makeover. The new style works well for the game. The graphics are also a little better than those of Burnout 3, and cars taking damage looks even better than before. The graphics are easily the best part of this game.


Replay Value: 10/10
This game has great replay value, you can always go back to previous races to try to get a 'Perfect' ranking, you can play online, you can try to top your fastest times, try to score the most damage, the list goes on. If you thought Burnout 3 had a lot of replay value, just wait until you get your hands on this. The thing that scares me, I was still playing Burnout 3 last week, I wonder how long this game will last me.

Other notes:
-You get the greatest takedown ever and want to watch it again or show your friends? Well too damn bad, this game lacks any sort of replay. That is what disappoints me most about this game. I was annoyed when Burnout 3 didn't have a good replay system, and was hoping for a better one in Revenge, but no, they just decided to get rid of it completely. This is the perfect game to have an advanced replay system, but you can't even watch your race over again. For this I am docking the final score half a point.
-Get ready for some pretty bad load times, before every race or event you can expect to wait around 30 seconds.

Overall: 9/10
Probably the best racing game out there if you aren't into simulation games.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/22/05