Xbox 360 Factor: A Smashing Hit

I have at least five good reasons for not driving like this in real life: two arms, two legs, and one head that all work best when in one piece. Perhaps that's why so many find the Burnout franchise so much fun. Burnout Revenge for Xbox 360™ rolls up to the starting line this year and brings extra graphics horsepower with it.

These games provide chills that we could never survive in real life. Xbox 360 has brought this thrill-a-minute battle racing game into a whole new realm. Criterion and Electronic Arts, developer and publisher respectively, have dubbed this release their showcase version and have worked hard to live up to their own goals.

Improved motion blur elevates the experience.

The experience does not approach reality; it transcends reality. The graphics take Burnout Revenge on Xbox 360 up, up, and over the top. Realism in lighting effects, textures, and reflections bridges the gap between what might have been just a nice bit of fun and what has instead turned out to be an adrenaline-releasing crash-o-rama.

Next-Gen Processing
The Xbox 360 console's remarkable speed and memory crank this game up in ways that make your heart race. The controls match what you see on the screen so smoothly, there's no disconnect between what you're seeing and what you're doing.

Unfortunately, the screen captures in this article do not do the graphics justice (especially not those viewed on HDTV, 720p). Take a close look at the screenshots though, and imagine the scream of the engine in your ears. Imagine the thunderclap with each crash. Imagine the flash of sunlight in your eyes and the bugs on the grill of the truck you just hit head-on, and think about what you're missing until you get this game rolling.

They start out beautiful.

Light and reflection make or break suspension of disbelief. The folks at Criterion who developed Burnout Revenge have improved on the already fabulous lighting effects. They've taken full advantage of the system's ability to reproduce reflective surfaces. In the screenshot above, you can see a sample of both the lighting and the reflective sexiness of this game.

Sunlight glints as it should. Shadows crawl across the surface of the car, embellishing the sensation of realistic movement. Speed blurs the scenery, road and lighting at pixel-level with vector motion blur. Soft-filtered where logical, the light takes on a dreamlike quality at times and draws your attention to the larger-than-life nature of the game.

The Big Crash
Why are we here if not to crash? For Burnout Revenge, Xbox 360 opened a portal into the realm of possibility, the possibility of more detailed damage. Improved shader technology, for example, adds depth and dimension to vehicle damage.

Designed for realistic effect, the complexity of the damage modeling has increased. Every scratch removes paint. Every ding leaves a mark that affects the reflections in it. Pieces fall off the cars, in small bits as well as large chunks. Bumpers hang askew. Engines and other interior elements become exposed. Glass flies. Tires burn. Pile-ups explode.

And they finish even more beautiful!

In the screenshot above, you see many of the improved damage effects they've added to the game. Notice, in particular, how the paint has been scraped away in places. The metal bumper on the bottom of the front bumper has also taken quite a few scrapes. Check out how the light plays over the dents and scrapes.

Sparks and parts fly like never before!

Having all these fantastic visual effects wouldn't be worth their pixels if you didn't have a truly next-gen way to replay them for yourself and share the best highlights with your friends and fans. The folks at Criterion have put a big fat spotlight on the fact that you can capture highlights from your replays (up to 30 seconds for the clips) and share them with friends.

Snip out your favorite crashes and show them off. The best part is that when others watch your pride and joy, they will have full control of the camera angles. You don't have to monkey with setting it up just right to show off your car's damage. The person viewing chooses from which angle they want to view the action, and they can rotate the camera during the viewing. They can watch, and watch again, from all angles. Thus, you save your most smashelicious moments for posterity, fame, or even infamy.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy