Burnout Revenge

"Revenge Has Never Been Sweeter"

First off, I have to say I had never been a fan of racing games. I always figured driving around in laps had to be THE single most boring excuse for a game out there. But then, last year (2004), EA sped in with Burnout 3: Takedown and gave me a cold, hard slap in the face. Ouch. And yet, pain never felt so good. From the moment I played it, the speed and overall feel of the game blew my mind away and I got that sudden feeling of ecstasy that few games have EVER given me. Anytime something bad happened, I would turn on Takedown and get swept away in my own peaceful destructive race. This would explain why, that when I heard about Revenge, I eagerly pre-ordered my copy and the moment I got it, I cried. In a good way.

TECHNICAL BOLOGNA
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The first thing that caught my attention, was the way EA has improved the speed of the game to really, REALLY, help everyone see (and feel) how much speed you actually get. The game keeps an extremely steady frame rate throughout the game, which is extremely surprising considering how much they have improved the graphics. I don't see how they could possibly improve them on Xbox 360, but EA has never yet ceased to amaze me. The speed this game runs at is mind-blowing! The one fault with this game is that for some odd reason, you fall through the floor randomly and just drop until it resets you. This usually doesn't hurt you that much and you can usually recover from it quite easily, so it doesn't lower my score for this game.

SINGLE PLAYER
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The few faults people have with single player is the fact that:
1.) No more Single Events. I hardly ever played Single Events, and I don't see why people can't just hit a few more buttons to go into World Tour mode and select something from there. It's not any different from Single Event. The other thing people have trouble with, is the Burning Laps/Preview Events. This is simply because EA has FORCED you to find the best path throughout many of the maps. What most people don't realize is, through all their fits of rage, that by doing this EA has helped you. Sure, you may have broken a controller or TV, but you now know the best path throughout each track which ups your online game. So get over it. The rest of single player is good, because there are hardly any faults with it. I miss the whole "flying around the globe thing" that was in Takedown, but its just an animation and I can get over it. The addition of rankings forces you to hone your skills because to play in new places you need to rank up. To rank up, you need to earn stars. To earn stars, you need to throw your all at the game until you perfect it (Or, if you're not a TRUE Burner, you can scrounge by with a Bronze medal). Another addition, is Crashbreaker in just about every event on here. And, you can now check pedestrian traffic by hitting it in the back. This adds for some extremely cool Traffic Check Takedowns which add a swelling feel of joy in your heart.

A.) RACE
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Racing is back, and better than ever. To win a race, you'll have to fight dirty, find the shortcuts, pump up the speed with boost, and, in later stages, put all your boost into a tremendous Crashbreaker. That's right, you heard me. Crashbreakers in races. Some people might think this is a cheap and easy way to win. Well, it's not. Surprisingly enough, you have to be able to position your car in just the right place to earn an Explosive Payback Takedown. The different paths throughout the different levels can either help you on your race, or it can hurt you.
Put your all into it, and you just may have enough to pull ahead for a win and a shiny gold medal.

B.) ROAD RAGE
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Road Rage is back, but with a spin. While you still have to earn a certain amount of Takedowns to win, you now have a time limit to get them (not to mention you still have a health meter). However, every time you earn a certain amount of Takedowns (usually 2 or 3), it adds on time to the countdown. Crashbreakers are also in this mode, and, while they damage your car a bit more than a normal crash, can give you at most 3 Takedowns for your crash. Not exactly an even trade, but take what you can get I suppose.

C.) CRASH
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Crash mode is back, and this seems to be the one thing EA has put most of its effort in to. The first thing you'll notice is that you now have a meter to get a boost start on. Hit A to initiate the meter and then try and stop both lines in the green for a perfect start. Mess up, and there goes your engine. Next, you'll probably notice the addition of wind and ramps. These can either save or burn your crash. While lighter cars go farther, wind batters them around like crazy, and vice versa for the heavy cars. In a few situations, EA has the courtesy to give you the best car for the job, which you can then win for getting a medal on the crash. Another change is the Crashbreaker. It was in Takedowns crash mode, but now it is represented by a boost bar that, when it gets to 100% full, begins to drain and you must repeatedly hit 'B' to raise it back up. The different cars have different Crashbreaker forces; the stronger they are, they harder they are to pump back up. The last addition to Crash mode is the Target Car. If you miss this car, you may as well go ahead and reset the crash. Without it, (in most cases) you're doomed. While most of the courses involve the Target Car crashing right in your wreck, you will occasionally have to position yourself, or a few other cars, in its way to stop it. This adds a bit more to strategy on the Crash section.

D.) GRAND PRIX
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Grand Prix is a set of races that, each time you complete one, adds on a certain amount of points to your score. Whoever has the most points at the end is the winner. Simple enough. The newest addition to this is that you can no longer reset the race you are on; if you want to reset, you have to reset the whole Grand Prix. This puts a strong influence on perfection, and, if you mess up, can cause a bit of frustration.

E.) ELIMINATOR
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Eliminator is back, and now, instead of every lap the person in last gets Eliminated, it is now the person in last EVERY 30 SECONDS that gets Eliminated. This means shorter rounds, for those long tracks (can anyone say White Mountain?). However, this means that now if you screw up, you have precious little time to correct your mistake.

F.) BURNING LAPS
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Usually the one grief of every Burnout game, Burning Laps are back and better than ever. While they are slightly easier this time around, they now force you to find the best and fastest path throughout the track. Mess up even just once, and you may as well reset. The difficulty of these differs from everyone. I find them quite easy, others find them to be the most difficult thing in the world. Same goes with Crash mode. I find it somewhat difficult, others take to it like birds to the sky. It's all about what you're most comfortable at.

G.) PREVIEW EVENTS
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These rare events are given to you after you complete a certain objective. They are the same as Burning Laps, only EA has decided to let you drive a Special Car. These cars can only be unlocked by the best racers, and they give you a chance to FEEL the power that these cars have and give you the incentive to WANT to earn them.

H.) TRAFFIC ATTACK
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The newest event to grace the Burnout series, this event consists of you checking traffic. Traffic Attack has a certain amount of damage you must earn and it gives you the same damage values as Crash mode. You have a time limit, and when it gets down to 20 seconds left, you start earning time for every car you check. While I have still failed to figure out how this works, it basically goes with the bigger the car, the bigger the amount of time added on. The first few levels of Traffic Attack are easy and let you get a feel for the new event. However, in the later levels, this can be extremely difficult, and forces you to get strategic by hitting smaller cars into oncoming traffic and bigger, uncheckable vehicles.

ONLINE PLAY
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Online play is the same thing as offline, but you only have the basic events of Burnout: Race, Road Rage, and Crash. You can now choose how many rounds you want to play before it sends you back to the lobby. For example: 3 Rounds=3 Races. Also, Road Rage has been patched up a bit and you now have to play as a Blue and a Red per round. Goodbye lobby arguments! Takedowns are a bit easier online, and the occasional lag out causes you to go at TREMENDOUS speeds. This is fun, and spices up the gameplay every now and then, even though EA never intended ofr it to happen. The community online consists of mostly older, more mature people to play with, which offers a nice change from the usual 12-year-old trash talking found most commonly on Halo 2. However, you can't escape all of them, and whenever you win while in a game with them, you are usually besieged with the common "OMG! CHEATER!" crap. The same goes for when you pull out a Revenge Race. "OMG! YOU ACTION REPLAY USER!!!1!" Thanks EA, for making this game data portable. However, they have a nice MUTE button for players like this.

OVERALL
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All in all, this game is definitely worth buying. Even if you aren't a racing fan, this WILL convert you. While the difficulty is upped a little bit and it has the occasional glitch, none of this is enough to truly affect your gaming experience, which is why it earns a nice 10/10. Now stop reading this and go buy the game and allow some people online to meet the front of a semi.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/26/05