Gamenikki

• wii
• playstation 3
• xbox 360
• nintendo ds
• psp
• playstation 2
• gamecube
• xbox
• pc
• gameboy advance
• indie/amateur
• retro

pros

• Shortcuts? Sweet.
• Traffic Attack and Vertical Takedowns? Righteous.
• Multiple Crashbreakers in Crash Mode? Alright, you get the point already.

cons

• The engine-rev "start" in Crash mode is unnecessary.
• Having gold medal completion of the burning laps *require* use of the shortcuts rewards rote memorization, penalizes skill, and really robes some of the joy of the shortcuts in the first place.

My first thought when Electronic Arts announced Burnout Revenge was "Ah, jeez, I hope they aren't going to ruin this series with pointless yearly updates." Thankfully, Revenge is different enough from Burnout 3 - and in good ways - to justify the relative brevity between installments.

That said, not every change made was a change for the better, and I hope Electronic Arts and Criterion take that lesson to heart between now and the next Burnout: change made for the sake of change is not always positive change, and a non-positive change made for the sake of "freshening" up a game is worse than doing nothing at all.

But we'll get to my (few) gripes shortly. In the meantime, there are plenty of reasons why Burnout Revenge deserves its place in my Top 3 Games of the Current Generation (tm) pantheon.

Some of it is obvious; I really don't think I need to spend much time with the graphics. The game looks absolutely gorgeous, the framerate blazes along at a constant 60 fps with negligible slowdown, and the wrecks are as spectacular as ever. The courses are more expansive, sporting greater draw distances, and even the Crash Mode sites have greater depth than they did in Burnout 3, with additional areas beyond the main epicenter adding a challenge to the whole "rack up mondo damage" theme.

But - and I know this will sound like blasphemy, but bear with me - lay the graphics aside for a moment. I don't mean to disparage them, but they're sort of the bread on your sub sandwich. The game's graphical prowess sort of encompasses everything within. The looks draw you in, but the meat brings you back for more.

In Burnout Revenge, You're rated on a five-star scale in each challenge, and four of the stars are based on the reckless abandon with which you drive. Constant boosting, driving on the wrong side of the road, and Traffic Takedowns (as well as, obviously, opponent takedowns) earn you the first four stars, and earning all four of those stars and earning the gold medal will earn you a perfect rating. It is the accumulation of these stars that marks your progression through the game: there are ten levels, and each is tied to your Revenge Rank. As you gain a level, you will unlock a new territory in which to wreak havoc, and getting gold medals will continue to unlock individual events within those territories.

I mentioned Traffic Takedowns, and really, that's one of the two most delicious parts of Revenge. Unlike Burnout 3, you need not necessarily avoid all traffic. You still don't want to be in any head-on collsions, and rear-endinglarge vehicles such as buses and 18-wheelers is still a quick way to wreck your ride, but any normal-sized traffic heading in the same direction as you is eminently fair game.