Burnout Revenge (Xbox & PS2).

[Bassman]

Apart from which, you don't get to only try all the crash locations. You have to unlock each area to be able to do them.

As has been said, the launch method in crash mode is a definite retrograde step. In my opinion it is a stupid idea. The crash mode just does not seem to be as much fun any more. I lost interest on about the fourth or fifth one as there seemed to be two alternatives (you could go off on a sliproad to the right to find a jump). With the straight on option there seemed no way of scoring enough points and with the cars I had, the jump seemed to be too far away to enable a decent score.

[merf]

nice to see another gamer suffering from arthritic hands, having to prise them off the s-pad aftera few games !

I'm enjoying this but it feels like a hollow experience somehow, a bit like watching a Michael Bay Hollywood blockbuster.

I can't pinpoint quite why it feels like this, I remember Burnout launching initially as a pure balls-out arcade racer, maybe the bells & whistles have deviated from this somewhat and its lost the purist approach

Enjoyable but the feel just not quite there for me, in Burnout 1 & 2 you felt in control of the car, 3 lost this a bit and in this one I feel the game is going on around me, rather than me always being in control of it.

[marcus]

Any tips on crash mode? I am finding now that Im continually falling just short of the gold score. I try to traffic check as much as I can, and land as closeby to larger vehicles as possible, for them to be crashbreakered. I also try and total the target car. Its difficult now, but still fun, and very addicitve.

[Friction]

Any tips on crash mode? I am finding now that Im continually falling just short of the gold score. I try to traffic check as much as I can, and land as closeby to larger vehicles as possible, for them to be crashbreakered. I also try and total the target car. Its difficult now, but still fun, and very addicitve.

The best advice I can give is that it's often best to have a couple of goes at the same junction if you miss the gold score. Further more the little show of the route at the start doesn't always give the full picture - Often once you begin crashing more traffic will appear. I remember one Crash I done where I couldn't get the score until I noticed the lane under the road I was on had lots of traffic come down it which wasn't shown on the initial flyby.

The other thing to consider is your car of choice - you really do need to consider the weight and speed aspects of the cars now - sometimes weight really helps, other time its speed - all about finding the balance

Lastly check the Crashbreaker power of the car you choose - sometimes for a small compromise in speed you can get a much more powerful breaker to blow more things up!

[marcus]

I have the mobile food van thing which has the best powerbreaker so far, but I cant tap fast enough to reach 100%. I pick the truck below that, as I can sacrifice top powerbreaker for one thats far easier to achieve.

[Friction]

I know the ones you mean.

I've used the van but it's just too slow, the truck is a good stop gap for now. It's all about variety really I think you just need to try a few things out and take a few risks.

It will get easier later, and regarding the breakers I usually use cars that have around 8, maybe sometimes even 6 and have still managed to get golds. I've found that some cars are easier to boost to 100% breaker - presumable the higher the breaker power the harder it is to boost it?!

[andrewfee]

I've been a big fan of the Burnout series since it began, and completed everything in Burnout 2 & 3 100%

To be honest, I wasn't all that happy with the way they took Burnout 3 - they removed the skill aspect of the racing (imo) and focused too much on crashing into Rivals. It was incredibly easy, and doing a full race in a single continuous boost wasn't too hard. (try doing that in Burnout 2; it's possible, but requires an insane amount of skill)

I hated that you could ram opponents as much as you liked with no real consequence, but you so much as tapped traffic you'd crash.

Well, Burnout 4 pulls the series further in this direction, and while I thought I'd hate it, I don't. It feels like they've actually done it properly now. Rather than just being able to take out opponents, you can hit all the traffic out the way, and while there's nowhere near the amount of skill needed as BO1/2, it's definitely not as easy as Burnout 3 - although I've still not felt challenged when going for perfects yet in 99% of the events.

One major annoyance is that you can't unlock everything the game has to offer unless you've got a Burnout 3 and a Madden '06 save on your hard drive when you create a new profile. I downloaded a save for each (as I'm not going to buy them) and it seems it only checks when the profile is made, not when it loads etc, so I either accept that I won't have everything, or I'll have to start over. (and I'm 40% in now)

I'm not keen on the "golf-swing" start for the crash mode, or the button mashing for a crashbreaker (tip: start mashing when you hit around 90-95% and you'll get it much easier) but the actual crash areas seem better designed, and require more skill. (in burnout 3 if you hit all the multipliers you were pretty much guaranteed to get the gold)

I don't like the way it feels it has to reward you for every little thing you do though. It feels like every three seconds or so I'm being awarded another silver star for something, taking up a huge amount of my view. (if I could at least turn it off...)

Overall though, it's a far better game than Burnout 3, and I'm definitely enjoying it as much as I enjoyed the first two games, even if it is totally different now. Burnout 3 felt like they were "testing the waters" for a game like this, and it feels like they actually had the guts to do it now.



It does have its fair share of bugs though; my car has gone through the ground in a race 5/6 times now, several times I've crashed and then been put facing oncoming traffic that I couldn't avoid seven or more times (eg 7 continuous crashes that I couldn't do anything about) and there's a weird bug online.

Basically, for whatever reason, I've either crashed or been taken out, the game thinks I'm in first place and that the other person (or people) in the game are a lap behind me. As the game limits the amount of boost you get based on how far ahead/behind you are, it basically means that I get no boost whatsoever and unless I'm right near the end of the race, have no chance of finishing. (and am guaranteed to come last) This has happened 10-20 times online now with several different people.

Here's a couple of pics:


(he's actually about 3,000 ft ahead of me here - this pic doesn't really show it off to well)

And a better, but slightly blurry one:


As you can see from the second one; we're on the first lap (you get a red barrier if you drive backwards) and DC-Arena is in front of me. Yet it tells me I'm in first, and he's 18,000ft behind me.

His screen reports the proper lap positions / distance, so he gets boost as usual.

[Concept]

Marcus - The Burning Laps and Crash modes are the two I'm most having problems with as well. With the speed the game runs at, it's often hard to do a clean lap in the former, and you're never sure how much time you've got left in the latter.

Sometimes it feels as if luck plays a large part.

[EvilBoris]

we had that glitch happen in a game the other day, its hardly fatal is it

[andrewfee]

we had that glitch happen in a game the other day, its hardly fatal is it

Well not really, if you play for fun like I do.

DC is a great racer though, and I have a hard enough time keeping up with him when it works properly. It basically means I don't get any boost for the rest of the race, so it pretty much kills the enjoyment from it. (I already had that boost as it glitched in the second pic)

[Bassman]

I have played the PS2 version for around an hour and not found any glitches (yet?).

I presume you are playing the Xbox version? If so I wonder if the PS2 version is better in that respect...

[Mardigan8]

Ploughed more of the World Tour mode last night and found it REALLY hard to pull myself away from it. So far I am going for perfects on all races before I move on and have perfected levels 1 and 2 and some of 3... got myself up to level 6 (Dangerous I think it is) and absolutely loving the way the progression works.

The track design in Revenge has got to be some of the best stuff we have seen not just in the Burnout series but in racers in general. Those mountain pass tracks and the Japan tracks are superb. My jaw is on the floor through nearly every race / event and thats even after 15 hours of play. Scary to think what they gonna do with a 360 version of this cause visually its astounding.

Gonna get right into the lvie play again this week after a wee weekend break and road rage and crash events are my bag. Playing some Americans on Friday in Road Rage and totally cleaned up, taking out 3 of them in 30 seconds on some tracks, they didnt know what was going on... and TBH neither did I for part of it

I am gonna plough hours and HOURS into unlocking and upgrading my profile both on and offline in this. Am totally hooked by the balls and TBH it feels quite good!!

[Paleface]

TBH, I don't think the 360 version is going to be that impressive, purely because you're comparing a game by an experienced team at the end of a console's lifecycle with a game on a newer console, at the beginning of the lifecycle, with pressure to get it out the door. It'll be good... but can't see it being "incredible".

Totally agree with you on the track design, Mardigan. I'm a big fan of Eternal City, and especially White Mountain; opening up the Japan tracks was a whole new thing. The bit on White Mountain when you come out of the tunnel and hit the sun, and the road's all reflective... I was saying last night, you can tell that someone on the Criterion team really likes Sega racing games. It's all so Daytona/Scud Race/Outrun2 at times

[Mardigan8]

Hehe, funny you should mention the likeness to Outrun, cause I was playing SP in the arcade at the weekend and during one of the races came down this huge hill into a right hand turn and though, "****, that is just like the end of one of the Mountain side tracks in Revenge" I think its a love of qualtiy racers that has spurred them into these track designs... they not what thye loved and it turns out, it is what we love aswell

Also, the jumping mechanic is the cherry on top of an already finely baked cake... flying across a broken bridge when you know you shouldn't and taking first place is one of the best feelings this game can give you... and there aint nothing better than being on a side track with other folk wondering where you are... then come flying off a jump over there heads and land in front of them boosting away the latter was one of my road rage experiences and the smile on my face when I pulled this off was ridiculous.

For the 360 version it aint about visuals as they have already nailed that in Revenge. Its about 16 player online road rage, new events that, for what ever reason, weren't possible on the XBox. Whatever happens it will be very interesting following the quality of Revenge.

[Bassman]

I was reminded of the camera tracking back from the point of impact to the start on Crash mode. Not hugely impressed with that as it can take a while.

My initial impression was that I was really enjoying the game. Crash mode soon affected that opinion.