Retro|Spective 129R: Burnout

[Neon Ignition]

We're speeding toward the end of the year so why not speed through a burst of retro nostalgia in the run up?


Burnout
"I caught a whopper down by the trailer park at Silver Lake! A whopper! It's as big as my... *gasp* Car!"


Game 01 - Burnout
Hurtling toward the milestone of being 23 years old, the original Burnout saw Criterion rail against the push toward sim racers by making a game with a pure focus on moving as fast as was possible whilst not crashing, yet still riding the lines of danger at all times. The result was something of an instant cult classic proof of concept, a game that quickly did the rounds due to its edge of your seat frenetic pace.







Were you part of the original car club?

[Asura]

Honestly never played the first one Just didn't appeal to me.

[QualityChimp]

I can't seem to find it now, but in a "making of" interview, the developers admitted that one of the background buildings was Jabba's Palace!

Never played the first one, but this is definitely a series that needs revisiting.

[Neon Ignition]

I did play the original but it never really grabbed me. Nothing was really wrong with it but it felt like a somewhat bland looking game. The speed was impressive but it was like something was missing in the formula which I think the sequels bore out in the end

[Cassius_Smoke]

I bought the first one not really knowing anything about it. I probably liked the box or something. But damn it was a find.
It doesnt have the takedowns like later games, but its basically Ridge Racer on steroids.

[wakka]

I played a LOT of the first Burnout. When this came out I used to avidly read the magazine PSM2, and they really went all out on singing the praises of the game (they were really into this sort of thing - they also went bonkers for SSX at the PS2 launch).

I duly picked the game up and really liked it, although found it tremendously frustrating. The inclusion of crashes as an actual mechanic was really original. Up to this point, crashing a car in a racing game meant bouncing off whatever you'd collided with, slowing down a bit, and maybe, if you were lucky, seeing a bit of pre-baked damage appearing on your vehicle.

But in this game you could clip another car on the road and see an actual multiple pile up. And although this didn't yet feature the Takedown mechanic of later games, you could try and force the AI players (or your mate on player 2) into oncoming traffic.

The dramatic sense of speed worked in combination with the visceral crashes to lend a real sense of peril to proceedings, as you were barrelling down the wrong side of the road to build nitro.

It was a smart twist on the mechanics we'd already seen in Road Rash and Crazy Taxi, and as an early PS2 title it made good use of the new hardware's power.

What let the game down was how bloody frustrating it could be. I remember some really rage inducing races, getting unfairly jammed against a wall into a crash, and then having to restart a whole laborious cup all over again (there was no checkpointing between races in a cup). Not to mention that the tracks were extraordinarily long for the time, meaning there was plenty of time to screw up. A far cry from today's racers where rewind is always a button push away.

A good game and I think a slightly forgotten game, almost a prototype of what was to come. But it lives large in my memory. I played it a lot of it, and I liked it. It felt like a huge leap forward over stuff like Porsche Challenge that I'd played before that. Did make me want to chuck the PS2 out the window though at times.

[Neon Ignition]

Game 02 - Burnout 2: Point of Impact
A refinement of the original, this is where the series really started to hit the mainstream. With a stronger sense of its own identity and more visual sheen the game is technically more of the same - more so for the Xbox version that contained more content. Thanks to the success of this entry, EA began to sniff around the franchise.







Was this entry the Point of the franchises Impact on you?

[wakka]

Weirdly I never played this one. And yet I know for many people it's their favourite.

I should really give it a try. Might fire it up on an emulator.

[Neon Ignition]

My third favourite overall, I think much of its appeal is that its the concept refined. It's spot on at its high octane racing and already the last point where the franchise really pushed the focus on racing rather than crashing and ramming opponents. In some ways this was the better approach.

[dataDave]

Me and a mate picked up Burnout 1 when it was something like a tenner from Blockbuster. We were taking the piss out of the cover and the name and fully expected it to be total trash.

We were wrong.

There was one race where we were going through a busy underpass, constantly weaving between the big divider in the middle and other traffic. It was absolutely mental.

That moment alone was probably the most fun I've ever had with a split-screen racer.

[QualityChimp]

I've got to tell you, Burnout 2 is one of my favourite racers and my fave of the Burnout series.

I've played a few racing franchises over the years and this just hits the sweet spot.
Arcade thrills with a sense of progression.

I can't remember how I came to the game, maybe an Arcade magazine review, but I remember hearing it was really good and worth playing.

The cars feel really sturdy, whereas other games before it could feel like the polygons were like papercraft cars.
The handling is sublime, though. you can drift really easily and do massive slides, but like you're fighting physics where other games have "press X to drift" and the whole car pivots.

Then there's the whole risk/reward mechanic where you're trying to fill your Burnout turbo boost meter, doing risky manoeuvres like driving on the wrong side of the road and doing a near-miss as you overtake the traffic.

If you fill the meter, it moves up a notch. Firstly, the music is really clever in that the levels are boosted and the guitars get louder, indicating it's kicking off. The whole game suddenly gets quicker, with a stretched perspective effect on top of moving faster. Trying to survive the whole meter gains you another boost, but you're constantly on the edge, handling traffic at a faster pace, that it's sometimes a relief to crash and catch your breath.

It's arcadey in nature, but there's a lovely sense of progress where you win cars for completing tournaments and even more for winning, giving the player a desire to go back and ace a competition, making later ones more winnable in the better cars.
There are some fun cars like the hot rod and police car, feeling close enough to real cars without infringing copyrights.
I'd say the Ridge Racer cars are more interesting to look at, as are the later B/O games, but they do the job here.

As a competition, you feel a real sense of rivalry with the CPU cars as they beat you in the league and when you manage to force them into oncoming traffic, you'd punch the air, but a moment's lapse of concentration resulted in your own crash!

The tracks are really nice and varied with some open-road freeways, bottle-necking cities and the tensely compact airport.
No giant slot machines like Ridge or Daytona, but they feel more real.

Then there's the "Crash Mode" where you have to cause as much damage as possible and it's really counter-intuitive to try creating as much carnage as you can within the time limit. Feels really weird to completely cheat death and avoid 20 cars on a busy crossroads and feel disappointed. Videogames can be really off-putting to non-gamers, but "press this to go, then crash into cars" is something anyone can pick up. I've had a room full of people playing this game, really getting into it, even if they weren't gamers and that's something rare and magical, being able to relate your hobby to others.

Personally, I feel that as the series went on, they lost focus on the balance B/O 2 provided.
3/Takedown focussed on the aggressive driving at the expense of the streamlined race thrills. Didn't you have an always-active burnout meter?
After that, the open world and DLC nature of the series made me lose interest, but for a brief moment, Burnout 2 stood apart from the competition by being a LOT of fun.

I was playing this on my B/C PS3 recently and it runs fine. apart from your wheels doing a weird glow!
I played it as part of "The 12 Games of Kryss-mas 4K GOTY" in 2019. Cheers, @kryss!

[kryss]

I found 2 was too easy compared with 1, but enjoyed them both on the GameCube.

[charlesr]

Burnout 1 was amazing. Played it to death on the game cube. Burnout 2 was good and supported the Logitech Force Wheel on the Game cube which a major plus. I would play either again, any time.

[Hirst]

There's a very large elephant in the room that I'm surprised hasn't been mentioned yet...



I do like Burnout, especially the first two games - but the first one especially is a clone of the 1998 arcade game Thrill Drive to the point where I'm genuinely surprised Konami didn't sue them.

There's a few "could be a coincidence" broad surface similarities like the fact they're illegal races with four cars through civilian traffic, then you get to loads of visual similarities like the floating neon arrows to block off incorrect roads and the road signs flashing up on the screen to tell you which way to go, but by the time you get to the instant replay of a realistic-looking crash with the calculator of the damage costs at the bottom of the screen it's pretty clear what they were up to. I think this isn't picked up on that much because Thrill Drive wasn't that well-known in America (by the sounds of it), but Criterion were based here and there were quite a lot of Thrill Drive cabinets in the UK - I played it quite a lot at various places around the late 90s/early 00s.

Personally I don't mind as I think it's Konami's fault for not porting the game, Burnout was really good in its own right and ultimately went more down its own path as it went on (I think it got a bit too silly after 3).

See what you think anyway:

[Cassius_Smoke]

I agree with everything QC said.
Burnout 2 was my favourite. It went from a cool little Racer to a full blown AAA Racer. The graphics much improved and the racing was tightened up. It was better in every respect.