Review: Burnout Revenge (360)

Project Gotham Racing 3 may be the Xbox 360’s premier racing title, but sometimes Gamestyle doesn’t want to learn the perfect way to take that hairpin turn without losing momentum. Sometimes it’s fun to power-slide round that corner at over 100 miles per hour and drive in the wrong lane into oncoming traffic. The Burnout franchise has always provided a high speed counter to the more realistic Gran Turismos and Project Gothams of the world, but also managed to separate itself from other arcade titles like Ridge Racer and Outrun by implementing a risk and reward system that rewarded players for driving like an absolute lunatic.

Burnout: Revenge on the Xbox 360 is the latest in the franchise, and is in essence a remake of the game of the same name on PS2 and Xbox. However, the 360 version of Burnout features a few tweaks here and there in order to improve on the already brilliant formula, making the 360 version a “directors cut” of sorts. However, do these tweaks necessitate a shelling out £40-£50 for a game you played last year? In all honesty, probably not, but it’s still a fun and destructive blast of arcade racing action.

The first thing that strikes you about Burnout: Revenge is how absolutely fantastic it looks. Running full pelt at 60 frames per second without even the slightest hint of slowdown, the game is a sight to behold. Though not as detailed as some other high profile releases, the extra sheen and detail added to the game makes for impressive eye candy. Motion blur has been turned up a notch as well giving an even greater sense of speed as you blast through the traffic, shunting vehicles aside. The graphical overhaul also allows for greater amounts of damage from the inevitable crashes and takedowns (when you cause a rival to crash or vice versa) that occur, including some lasting superficial damage to the cars. As you grind against your rivals, sending sparks flying over your screen, your vehicles paintwork becomes more and more scratched; an effect that lasts even after your cars resets from a wreck. While a nice touch, it does sort of make selecting the colour car a moot point, as by the end of any event it’ll be “scratched-to-all-hell grey.”

Gameplay remains largely unchanged from the original version of the game. You still compete in competitions of destruction and speed against other cars in standard races, elimination races (where the car in last place is destroyed after each lap), and Gamestyle’s personal favourite competitive motor sport, “Road Rage”, where you’re tasked with causing the other three cars in the event to crash as many times as possible within the time limit. The game also features challenging time trials, and Burnout’s most famous game mode, the Crash mode, where you have to cause as much damage as possible by setting up a chain reaction of collisions, aided by the game’s “Aftertouch” feature that allows limited control of your vehicles direction after a wreck.

Unfortunately, all the tracks and Crash Junctions are copied directly from the Xbox and PS2 version of the game, meaning there is nothing new here for fans of the series hoping for something new to play. Indeed, this is probably Burnout’s only real flaw, since everything in the game is a carbon copy of the previous version. Perhaps if Criterion had created a few more tracks or Crash Junctions for the series next-gen debut, it’d make the decision of purchasing the game easier. However, it seems the only thing they did add is a couple of extra cars that handle exactly the same as others in the game.

One new addition to the game will make fans happy; namely the ability to save clips of your favourite crashes or moments from a race and upload them to Xbox Live, allowing other players to download and view your most spectacular moments. This feature has been much sought by followers of the franchise ever since Xbox Live’s first appearance on the original Xbox. Unfortunately you can only record a maximum of 30 seconds of footage for each clip, which does somewhat limit what you can show to your fellow Burnout brethren. Still it’s nice to see such a feature finally being added after being requested by the fanbase for so long. Additional improvements to the online mode include the ability to keep track of opponents who you have performed the series now signature “takedowns” on, as well as which opponents have scored a take down on you. If you come across these opponents again in your online travels, the game automatically marks them as a Revenge Rival, pointing them out for you to hunt down and taste sweet vengeance on the damage they inflicted on your ego.

Burnout Revenge on the 360 retains all the fuel-injected fun from the original games, making a successful leap to the next-gen platforms. However, in all honesty it is hard to recommend the game to anyone who has played the game on Xbox or PS2, as aside from the admittedly minor tweaks and additions, it is the same game with shinier graphics. If you are a Burnout aficionado or newcomer to the series, the game surpasses Namco’s Ridge Racer 6 for arcade thrills and power-sliding action, with wholesale destruction throw in as well. However, if you’ve played the game’s previous incarnations, perhaps a rental would be advisable before paying the premium price for a game you played last year.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Garry Webber