Burnout Revenge

Great timing EA. The same day some imbecile sideswipes my car along comes the new Burnout game on my doorstep. Lots of smashes, takedowns and violence. Grrr.

So it's fair to say that as I pounded the disc into the Xbox, I was vowing that this game better be an almost hallucinatorily (yes, I know that's not a real word) experience to get any love. After all, three Burnout games have already come out (not counting PSP Burnout Legends) on console. And we all know that constant, major improvements get a little bit trick by the fourth time around (Tony Hawk 4, anyone?)

Boy, was I proved wrong. Several hours later, I couldn't care less about my car's pathetic crumple. I was a boggle eyed, talking to myself mess. Burnout Revenge ups the series ante considerably. In it's way it's every bit as "big" a jump as Point of Impact, then Takedown were. Most noticeably, there's elements of Dukes of Hazzard/San Francisco Rush style verticality in the game. No, you don't get massive, kilometre long flight times, but a new approach to track design means you're in the air a lot more. There's loads of alternate routes to discover, likewise GTA-style ramps. Except in GTA you're not blitzing along at some idiotically stupid speed before launching.

Now obviously, everyone from Newton to Whitney Houston have taught us that what goes up, must come down. Here, it's no exception. You now can bust out death from above on other racers. If you thought sending someone flying over a guardrail was fun, landing on them makes that look positively tame.

Most noticeably, now, not all the drone traffic is your enemy. Non-race cars are no longer roadblocks, rather you can shunt them into other cars and blast into them without "crashing" your car - as long as they aren't oncoming. Known as "checking", it's become a lot harder to roar up on someone's tail on boost now - often the cars that get skittled fly behind, meaning the more you're tailgating, the quicker your reactions have to be. An absolute thumbs up to this idea, it simply rules. Online, it seems to be less gratuitious sadly, but we'll still take it.

But there's more than just being able to smash Barinas into your mates. This is Burnout kid, where your smash'em up derby instincts have to be tempered with a little speed demon. And the feeling of speed you get here is unprecedented - despite the game looking better than ever. This game has plenty of the "jump" factor to it - where you almost get shocked out of your skin by something flying into you out of nowhere. It's not a random experience, more you tend to get lulled into a false sense of security, tootling along at high speed then BAM. It's all over.

Once you attain a high enough rank (see below) you've also got the ability to set off crashbreakers mid-race now (during your crash, obviously). It's a function of boost, so you can't just bomb into somebody and trigger them willy nilly - the more boost you have, the bigger the bang. but it's a crackup collecting racers in the vicinity who think they're safe.

New in the modes is Traffic Attack, which is essentially a bash and race mode. Not as well realised as past Burnout introductions, but to be honest, it doesn't matter when the game's core play has been elevated this much. You also cop the traditional race mode, burning lap, road rage, eliminator, and GP style modes, as well as the all conquering pastime of post-day of snowboarding favourite, crash mode - which has been juiced up even more. You now get a "launch bar", which dictates how fast you take off - unless you conk the engine out. It's still the most non-race fun you can have in a car... at least in a video game.

Naturally, the focus for most will be the World Tour mode, which is more structured than last years freewheeling, globetrotting exercise. You've got a ranking system now of 1 (newbie) to 10 (essentially: race god). This time around you don't have a smorgasbord of event style to choose from - you slowly work your way through the ranks to earn and unlock new modes and cars, which for guys like me - we love. Others may not be so enarmoured with the approach, but it keeps you coming back for more.

Things that could have improved this game? Only one major one comes to mind, and that is licensing "real" vehicles into the game. Given that the game focuses heavily on smashing cars to smithereens, don't count on this happening any time in the near future.

This aside, Burnout Revenge is the perfect arcade racing experience. You can take issue with odd little snippets of the game, question why the new Traffic Attack mode is pretty pointless, whatever - but when it comes down to it, you're going to fire this game up, and have the most fun, arcade race experience possible on console. It's that simple. It's stupidly fun, like its predecessor, and while it's even more arcadey than Need For Speed Underground, it's so well tuned in the gameplay stakes that it's unmissable action racing fun.