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Platform Filters:   All Platforms  Xbox   GameCube   PlayStation 2   PC   Game Boy Advance   Site Sections:   Updates  News   Games   Publishers   Developers   Reviews   Previews   Release Dates   Editorials   Glossary   Contact Us		Review:       15th November 2001: Burnout  Does this high-speed, action-based racer leave the opposition standing or fail to get off the starting grid? Posted by Marc Hull - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe After a string of teaser videos, unusual marketing tactics and a good reception at this year's ECTS, our hopes for Burnout were pretty high when we finally got our hands on the full version of the game. We'd seen movies of racers weaving between traffic, brushes with huge trucks coming in the opposite direction and, of course, the high-speed collisions, and thought that we knew pretty much what to expect from this game. How wrong we were. You see, we should have taken the marketing more seriously - nothing can prepare you for the moment when you first boot up the game, start a race, and then experience the full speed of this title. It is, quite literally, insane! The whole idea behind Burnout is to race around the many tracks available going as fast as you can, but avoiding collisions where possible. To put this in perspective, for the most part you end up driving at full-throttle, with other law-abiding traffic screaming towards you and fractions of a second to respond and save yourself from another embarrassing collision, which would cost precious time and race position. What is particularly clever is the way the game rewards you for taking risks, so driving on the wrong side of the road, having near-misses with other cars and drifting around corners charges your 'boost bar'. Once full, this allows you to execute an extra burst of speed briefly, but have a crash and it'll decrease rapidly. There are several game modes available in Burnout - some initially selectable and some that need to be unlocked by progressing in the game first. The Championship mode sees you racing against three other cars across three tracks, and you have to reach a certain place at the end of each race in order to move on to the next, with three credits allowing you to restart three times. There are five Grand Prix to choose from, each containing some new tracks to unlock, with fourteen to race on in total. There's also a good range of cars available, from easy-to-drive superminis to difficult pick-up trucks, with more to be unlocked later on. Aside from the main Championship mode there are Single Race, Head to Head (2-player) and Time Attack modes, as well as some special ones such as Face Off which sees you challenging other drivers to unlock new cars. So, the game certainly has some depth, but what about the graphics? Fortunately, it is up there with Gran Turismo 3 in this department, with some huge, detailed tracks, a smooth frame rate and nice motion-blur effect which kicks in during bullet-time crashes. Considering the scale of the tracks, and the fact that not only does the PS2 have to handle your vehicle and your opponents', but also the hundreds of just as detailed cars that are going about their daily trips, following traffic laws and trying to avoid you, it's quite incredible how smoothly and quickly the game runs, with hardly any noticeable framerate drop when things get hectic. The overall effect is superb - you can go charging into the traffic and watch them trying to avoid you, or be approaching some CPU opponents only to watch them make a mistake, go sliding into a bus, and cause a massive pile-up as you carefully move past and up into first place. My only concern is that during play the jaggy effect can sometimes appear, but for the most part this isn't noticeable and disappears as soon as the motion blur kicks in. For music, Burnout consists of a good mix of styles, most of which are fast-paced to suit the nature of the game. Although the background tracks may not be particularly memorable, they certainly do the job as you're racing around the circuits, and hardly distract you from the task in hand. Some nice effects can be heard while driving around, such as horns being beeped by angry drivers, but you'll probably miss this when playing and only notice it in the replays. In terms of gameplay, Burnout has certainly been well thought through. Despite it's speed, you rarely feel as if your car is out of control, and therefore the only person to blame for a collision is yourself. Initially, this might be frustrating, but with some concentration and practise you get more used to weaving through traffic and predicting where there might be jams. Even if you do have an accident, the only thing to really be dented is pride, as the game switches briefly to a track-side view to show you the full extent of your damage, before placing you back on the track, facing in the right position, and with little time lost. This means that, even though you'll want to avoid head-on crashes like the plaque, they aren't damaging enough to put you off continuing the race, so you'll want to keep playing the game to improve your driving skills and make sure the same mistake doesn't happen again. Burnout certainly can't be labelled as too short - each of the tracks really are enormous, and with three per Grand Prix, and five Grand Prix to get through plus extras, you'll have to play for hours to see it all. However, this leads to pretty much the only problem I found with Burnout - sometimes it's just too long. With tracks as large as they are, just one lap can take some time to complete, but to complete the race you have to do a full three laps. This wouldn't be so bad apart from the fact that you can't save in the middle of a Grand Prix, so you have to do all three races, one-after-the-other, before you can save. However, this is more a minor qualm than a fault, and certainly doesn't spoil the game. All in all, Burnout is an excellent game, with a great deal of depth, great graphics, nice sound and fast-paced gameplay that many other titles lack. If you're looking for something to show off your console, which is easier to pick up and play (and less serious than) GT3 then this has to be first choice. Get it now! Marc Hull             Latest Images:		Review Scores:    Graphics:   Sound:   Gameplay:   Length:   Overall: Click here for our Review Score Guidelines.  Review Summary:  Burnout is all about going as fast as you can, on streets populated with other traffic, and getting away with it. The speed of the game is quite incredible, especially considering how smoothly it moves and how detailed the tracks are, but it's never so fast that you can't keep up, and you'll feel that most of your crashes could have been avoided with a bit more concentration. Overall, a great game, bringing new life into the genre.  Related Games:  Burnout for PlayStation 2  3  Screenshots  1  Review Click here for All Game Information.
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