Watch your friends crash and burn (Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PS2))

Member Name: fluidfernando

Product:	Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PS2)
Date:	30/01/05 (51 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great gameplay, speed, and graphics

Disadvantages: Slow in multiplayer, and frustrating

Normally, I am not a great fan of driving/racing games, I find them all tedious, all the same, and generally I am not very good at them. I originally played this game on my friend's Xbox - and within a couple of weeks of playing it, I bought it myself for the PS2.

This game is really rather good - if you are a young kid or non-driver, you should know that this game is encouraging you to drive dangerously, but the only difference is getting away with it without crashing.

Burnout 2 is a sequel and also will be pretty soon a prequel once the much-anticipated Burnout 3 arrives on the scene. Burnout will appeal to all those racing drivers out there, and has received RAVE reviews all across the board, and I am not to disagree.

This game has several modes in it - Championship, Pursuit, Crash, and Single Race.

CHAMPIONSHIP:
You need to play the championship mode if you are to unlock specific cars and tracks in the game. Championships vary on their mission. The majority are mini-championships with 3-6 races in them. You drive against 3 other computer players, in the bid to get the Gold medal at the end. You succeed, and you unlock races and tracks. You lose, well, then you have to try and try again.

Coming first gives you a gold medal and 3 points, silver medal (2 pts) for second, etc. If you manage to complete the championship winning all golds, you receive other unlocked material.

PURSUIT:
In this mode, there is you and one computer player. You play the police car, and the computer plays the criminal. Your aim is to bang into him as many times as you can before he escapes. Bearing in mind there are other cars about you cannot afford to crash, and you also have a damage bar you can't afford to go down in.

CRASH:
My personal favourite. You can compete with up to three others. The aim of the mode is to crash spectacularly, creating the most damage you possibly can. The one who over 3 courses creates the most damage in a singular crash per course wins the game.

The graphics in the game are outstanding, everything seems to be really detailed and accurate, and the speed in which you travel is quite astonishing and you gasp when you just miss cars.

In order to win you need to boost. Throughout the race there is a bar at the bottom of the screen. This is your boost. When it fills up to the top you can then have a time where you have this boost and you may go even quicker. To get this boost up you can either: Drive on the wrong side of the road, do a jump, drift (skid), or do a near miss to a vehicle. You have to really get boosts in order to win that's why it encourages dangerous driving.

Contols are very easy - you only really use the d-pad, brake, accelerate and boost buttons.

Sound wise it's great - everything is in it's place and everything is as it should be.

A couple of things I do not like about the game is that single player it isn't the most exciting thing, you need to play this multiplayer if you are to get the most out of the game, and also when you do play multiplayer, if your screen is only 50Hz get prepared for the gameplay to be slower.

Also I just find it downright frustrating when you can't win or find yourself crashing all the time!!

4/5 overall a great great game, definitely worth looking out for Burnout 3 too, if you like your driving you will LOVE this!!!!!!!

Summary: