Burnout: Revenge

If you’re tired of the mundane racing simulation experience of Project Gotham Racing 3 or Gran Turismo 4, you probably seek a more robust and invigorating approach to the genre. And that my friends, is exactly what Burnout: Revenge is all about - carnage, extremely reminiscent of Carmageddon, car crashes that will shake you up and stir the fluids in your stomach, and blurring speeds that’ll make you puke all over your dashboard. Although the gameplay in Burnout: Revenge is fast as hell, developer Criterion has done a great job in making the cars manageable at the highest of speeds, by allowing you to use the curvature of the walls outlining the track to turn your car, and by allowing you to crash into the traffic headed in the same direction as you, without damaging your car (unless you crash into a heavy vehicle such as a truck or a bus).

Most of you already know, that Burnout: Revenge was out for the PS2 and the Xbox last year, so why would Criterion port the game to the 360? If you’ve played the game on the 360, you’d agree with me when I’d say, that the game was made for High-definition. Don’t get me wrong, the game looked marvelous on the PS2 too, and it really stretched the console’s capability to the max, but the high-definition version of the game looks so sublime, it’s even managed to surpass Project Gotham Racing 3, which is considered by many as one of the best-looking racers around. With the raw graphical power of the Xbox 360, you get the privilege of seeing each shard of glass propelling into the air when it shatters, and all the chunks of metal that break away from the body of your car when you crash, all of which looks crisp and vibrant on an HDTV.

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The game scores high in the sound department too, as Criterion licensed some sweet soundtracks, which go really well with the general feel of the game. Even the in-game sound effects are brilliant, and if you have a good surround sound system, you can actually hear the traffic whiz past you as if you were really there. The great sound and brilliant visuals of the game go hand-in-hand, to create a truly breathtaking experience for anyone who plays this gorgeous game.

The single-player mode in the game allows you access to all the modes you saw in the PS2 version, such as the Crash, Road Rage, Crashbreaker Race, Traffic Attack, Elimination and Grand Prix. A Crashbreaker race is like racing in any other game, except it has a lot more variables, such as the traffic that you can crash into to gain more boost, and opponents that you can slam into to gain a better ranking and a lot of boost. The Crashbreaker feature lets you detonate your car after you crash, allowing you to blow up your opponents with you. Elimination is a lot like the Crashbreaker race, only here the last person gets eliminated every 30 seconds. Road Rage is my favorite mode in this game by far, where your objective is to score a certain number of ‘takedowns’ to get bronze, silver or gold medals. You can take your opponents down by ramming them into walls, other cars or oncoming traffic; oh and guess what, you can even take people out once by blowing your car up after you crash. The Crash mode is by far the most innovative mode the game has to offer; where you start off at locations such as a rooftop or a parking lot, and you have to drive your car up a ramp and crash it in the middle of a busy freeway junction. The more cars that crash because of you, the more points you score. If you crash enough, you get access to a Crashbreaker, using which you can score even more points and gain a high score. One thing I’d like to point out here is that the Crash mode is a bit different from current gen versions, which means there’s no stupid mini game to get a perfect start. The last mode is the Grand Prix, which is basically a series of Crashbreaker races.

In order to advance in the single-player mode, you will have to boost your ranking by winning races. You start off with a ‘harmless’ rating, which you can increase to ’elite’ by taking out a lot of opponents and earning a lot of points. As you progress in rank, you gain access to a lot of awesome cars and new challenges.

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The game’s online experience has been enhanced in the 360 version, with the help of Microsoft’s Xbox Live (I must say, Microsoft has done an amazing job with Xbox Live). At the end of each event, you can watch the whole event again through some pretty well placed cinematic cameras, and if you like what you see, you can record up to 30 seconds of footage. This footage can be uploaded on the Xbox Live network for your friends to see, which is a really awesome feature in my opinion, as it helps build the online racing community. The other outstanding feature is the ‘Revenge Rivalry’ tracker; every time someone takes you out, they become your Revenge Rival, and you get extra rating for taking them out. If this rivalry continues, the player can be called your Nemesis. Xbox Live saves the information regarding your nemesis, so you can pit yourself against them as and when they hit the tracks. This allows for a long drawn rivalry amongst racers, making the game a lot more personal and competitive. You can also buy and download additional cars that you can use online or offline, using the Xbox Live Marketplace.

To sum it all up, the game has all the ingredients for an awesome title – great single-player content, really good presentation, addictive gameplay, wide appeal and some incredible online content. So, if you haven’t played Burnout: Revenge, and you own an Xbox 360, I suggest that you buy the title, as it’s worth every penny.