THIS GAME IS JEREMY CLARKSON'S WET DREAM!!! (Burnout Revenge (PS2))

Member Name: dlb74

Product:	Burnout Revenge (PS2)
Date:	15/09/07 (139 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: HIGH OCTANE, ADRENALINE PUMPING RACING ACTION...

Disadvantages: SOMETIMES A BIT TOO FAST (ISN'T THAT THE POINT?!?)

I’m back with another video game review… Probably due to the fact that as I’m due to be a daddy literally any day now* (* correct at the time of typing this!), I’m grabbing my joypad for as many gaming jollies now while I still have the chance to do so!

This is giving me chances to play games I’ve bought but not yet played or completed as well as to revisit games that I’ve not played in a while.

So… which game am I ranting on about this time?!?

BURNOUT: REVENGE!!!

This is the fourth game in the Burnout franchise and unbelievably manages to take what has featured in the previous games to the next level.

To those who haven’t played any of the Burnout games, the premise is quite simple. It takes standard racing games and adds an absolutely terrifying sense of speed, danger and out-and-out recklessness!

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GAMEPLAY

Players take control of many different types of vehicle. As I’m not a petrol-head, all I can say is that some of these cars are extremely flash and fast sports cars whilst some of them are not so snazzy! The cars all handle differently and are different weights. The weight of the car you control will come into play in several different ways:

The lighter your car, the easier it will be for a race rival to smash you off the road whereas naturally, the heavier grade of cars will be harder to push off the road and will allow the player to slam rivals off the road.

The game also now allows the player to ‘check’ traffic. That is, to shunt traffic that is travelling in the same direction into other lanes etc so that you can force these vehicles into rivals and to cause obstructions in front of them. It’s worth pointing out that you can only ‘check’ small traffic that is travelling in the same direction – larger vehicles such as buses and lorries will still result in a nasty crash. All oncoming traffic also results in a crash – so avoid it at all costs!

The car the player controls can be propelled at frightening speeds with boost that is earned from ‘checking’ traffic, smashing opponents off the road and driving toward and narrowly avoiding oncoming traffic etc. Boost can be activated by pressing the R1 button but is best used sparingly. The amount of remaining boost can be seen on a gauge at the bottom-left of the screen. Be careful not to crash though as doing so reduces your boost meter!

Speaking of crashing, when you crash you can slow down time with Impact Time – this allows you to have slight control over your wrecked car while it is flying through the air after a crash. If you are lucky, you might be able to slam your wrecked car into an opponents car as they try to pass you – taking them off the road and earning yourself an ‘aftertouch take down’ which actually increases your boost meter again!

There are many different types of race to take part in – which can usually earn the player a bronze, silver or gold medal which advances their rating. These are the types of races that can be played:


CRASH:

Crash events are a lot of fun – even though the premise for them is slightly sick. It’s as simple as this:

Each crash event starts with a quick overview of a stretch of road that you must drive down and literally crash your car in a spot that will cause the maximum carnage – or carmaggeddon, if you will. This can involve hitting a ramp and smashing your car into a busy motorway etc. If the pile-ups you cause are large, you will be able to detonate your car – causing further damage and ramping up your score – and hopefully getting a nice gold medal for your efforts!

It’s worth mentioning, however that it’s not always easy to get a good start as at the start of a crash event, you have a gauge (not dissimilar to power gauges seen in golf games etc) to determine if you will have a perfect, fast start. Get it right and you’ll scream off toward your goal… Get it wrong and your engine may explode (accompanied by mocking laughter that is like the canned laughter heard on TV programmes like ‘You’ve Been Framed’… how embarrassing!) or you might just stall – either way, you’ll be going nowhere.


CRASH BREAKER:

This is for all intents and purposes a normal race (whether it be a standard race, Road Rage or Eliminator) but with a twist!

The twist therein is that when you crash or are slammed off the road by an opponent, you can use a ‘Crash Breaker ‘ which is essentially the ability to explode your car at a point of your own choosing: i.e. preferably as an opponent is screaming past you – thereby blowing them off the road!


ELIMINATOR:

I love these races! The premise is a simple one:

You race against another five opponents but every 30 seconds, the car in last place will be eliminated by means of an explosion! This makes you battle harder to reach and stay in 1st place. It’s exciting and very unpredictable – especially when it comes down to you and the one remaining AI opponent!


GRAND PRIX:

These events normally consist of three races which follow on one after the other. Points are earned depending on the position finished:

1st Place: 6 points
2nd Place: 4 points
3rd Place: 3 points
4th Place: 2 points
5th Place: 1 point and finally
6th Place: No points

(Should I have said “Nil point” as in the Eurovision song contest?!?)

The points earned continue into the next race so if you’ve earned 6 points in each race, you will definitely win but if your performances aren’t winning ones you will have to fight a lot harder to win the Grand Prix!


PREVIEW & BURNING LAP:

These two events are fairly similar. The aim of them is to drive a specific car around one lap of a course within specified times to hopefully achieve bronze, silver or gold medals. I personally find these levels my least favourite although I’m not sure if that’s due to the strict times you have to beat or that they’re just not quite as exciting as the other events.


RACE:

This is a straight-forward race against five opponents who thanks to clever AI will do everything they can to slam you off the road in order to get in front of you. Thankfully, you will no doubt have the same plan in mind for them. These races can vary in length from 1-3 laps – so you’ll have a fight on your hands for 1st place!


ROAD RAGE:

Road rage races put you up against limitless amounts of opponents who will be determined to shunt you off the road. For bronze, silver and gold medals in these events, you will need to take out a certain numbers of opponents. The problem is that should you crash or be taken out by another driver, when you continue the race, your car will have ongoing levels of damage and will therefore be totalled after a few wrecks.


TRAFFIC ATTACK:

This is a mode of play where you are up against time. When the clock counts down to zero, your car will explode and the game is over. The aim is simple: boost the remaining time by shunting as much same-way traffic. As always, buses and lorries should be avoided but smaller same-way traffic is fair game. The longer you last and the more traffic slammed off the roads will award you with the usual bronze, silver or gold medals!

There are plenty of different modes of play within Burnout: Revenge that will give the game a lot of extra value as well as replay value.


WORLD TOUR MODE:

This is the main single player part of the game and will be the essentially the only part of the game to players who (like myself) are not playing online with other players.

The World Tour mode is comprised of all the types of race mentioned above. You are gauged on your driving skills which takes the form of 1-5 stars being awarded for your performance. The ratings are pretty simple and are as follows:

* (one star) - OK
** (two stars) – GOOD
*** (three stars) – GREAT
**** (four stars) – AWESOME
***** (five stars) – PERFECT

The most stars you can accumulate for your race performance itself will be a four star ‘awesome’ though this will be upgraded to a five star ‘perfect’ if you earn a gold medal for the race. Should you earn a silver medal, your rating will remain a four star ‘awesome’ and if you earn a bronze medal, it will be downgraded to a three star ‘great’. Earning no medal for the race results in a no star downer!

All the stars are deducted from your current rank rating. When all stars have been deducted, you go onto the next rating.

Earning high ratings and good medal results will unlock new events and cars – so there’s plenty of good stuff to motivate you to race hard and to win!

There are lots of different environments to race through. Most of these are visually impressive and are based upon real places in the world:


ANGEL VALLEY:

Angel Valley is an scenic suburb of Los Angeles. Famous areas within this region include Sunset Boulevard. If you can take in much of the scenery as it whizzes by, you’re going to crash!


CENTRAL ROUTE:

Based upon the Central District of Hong Kong, this area is full of tight and dangerous backstreets. You’ll have to keep your wits about you if you want to make it through this environment in one piece!


EASTERN BAY:

Full of neon signs and high skyscrapers, this area is based upon Tokyo, Japan.


ETERNAL CITY:

Based upon Rome (if you’re observant, you’ll even see the Colosseum!) this level takes you through some pretty hair-raising back streets of Italy! Mamma mia!!!


LONE PEAK:

Based upon several US National Parks, Lone Peak offers some fantastic East coast scenery. Pity you’re far too busy trying to stay alive to take it all in.


MOTOR CITY:

This area is based on Detroit and is a highly industrial environment. Absolutely full of short cuts and roads that take you through ware houses and rail yards which can at times make it both one of the most confusing and yet challenging areas within the game.


SUNSHINE KEYS:

Based on dreamy areas such as Florida Keys and Miami Beach, Sunshine Keys is a racers haven of long highways, alleys and boulevards marked with palm trees. Perfection… until you and your opponents tear your way through it!


WHITE MOUNTAIN:

One of my favourite areas, I think White Mountain should be renamed ‘White Knuckle Mountain’ as it is absolutely terrifying!

This course will take you perilously close to cliff edges that overlook very steep drops (sadly, you will sometimes get shunted off aforementioned cliff tops by annoying opponents!) and around some very scary mountain roads.

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GRAPHICS

The graphics are of a very high standard with some excellent detail. The problem is that you won’t get much of a chance to admire how nice the graphics are when you’re playing the game as it moves so fast you’ll be keeping a constant eye on the road ahead.

As the game moves at such a break-neck speed, it can be quite difficult at times to spot obstructions, oncoming traffic and even bends in the road until it’s too late. This isn’t a massive problem as the more you play, the more you will be able to spot these hazards – and take them in your stride.

The models of all the cars in the game are very impressive as is the physics engine which kicks in when you crash your car – ensuring the car folds and crumples in a frighteningly realistic way! Another thing that is true with Burnout: Revenge is that you will rarely laugh during the crashes as they are very convincing and as a result are at times quite sobering to look at.

The frame rate of the graphics is so fast and smooth that it is at times difficult to remember that the game is in fact running on a trusty old PS2 and not a next-gen PS3!

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SOUND

As with most games, the sound plays an important part. The sound effects for Burnout: Revenge are all generally very good with the usual engine sound effects and other sounds they convey the high-speed, adrenaline-pumping danger perfectly.

Beyond that, the songs in this edition of Burnout are in my own humble opinion not as good as some that featured in this games predecessor: Burnout 3: Takedown. That game featured some famous bands such as Franz Ferdinand that I always loved listening to as I bombed about the courses.

This game doesn’t feature music that totally floats my boat. I guess at the end of the day, this is very much just down to personal music tastes but as a result, the soundtrack may not be to everyone’s liking.

Whether or not you notice much of the music whilst playing the game is a different question altogether. Perhaps the adrenaline rush and the sound of blood pumping around your veins will block out the music that you don’t like!

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VALUE

Burnout: Revenge is a fantastic, fast and dangerous racer. It’s certainly one of the fastest racers on PS2 and I defy anyone to discover otherwise. Its many modes of play should keep you engrossed for absolutely ages – and the beauty of a game like this is that it still has a very high replay factor even once the game has been 100% completed (especially to those who can play it online).

It’s nice to see that although the PS2 has now been superseded and overshadowed my its successor – the PS3, that it can still hold its own and still has some very high quality games on it that still are fantastically enjoyable.

If you like any type of racing games and want one that is so fast, you will practically be able to feel the wind in your hair as you play it, then Burnout: Revenge is certainly worth a look!

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Many thanks for reading this. I think I’ll go and grab a quick game of Burnout: Revenge now as just writing about it has my poor hands aching for my joypad!

Derek.

Summary: ONE OF THE BEST AND FASTEST RACERS TO BE PLAYED ON THE PS2!!!