The Burnout Legacy
Why, it seems like just yesterday I played the first Burnout™. This original down and dirty, and dangerous, racing game by Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. was an insanely exhilarating experience from the get go, with almost perfect arcade-style physics and the most spectacular automotive smash-ups yet seen on Xbox®. When the company released Burnout™ 2: Point of Impact—Director's Cut, they added a crash mode that took advantage of the engine’s marvelous physics and collisions—the whole point was to cause the most expensive, spectacular crash possible. Now, the Burnout license is in the capable hands of Electronic Arts. Will Burnout® 3: Takedown™ combine the best of both versions, while adding whole new features and full Xbox LIVE® support?
What do you think?
The first Burnout was already smash-tacular.
The Original Burnout
The first Burnout was simplicity itself. Drive like a nutjob through a series of increasingly tricky checkpoint-based races, performing completely insane stunts to build up a charge in your "boost" (or "turbo") meter, which allows you to drive like a nutjob even faster—and when you crash, it’s a work of art. Burnout proved to be fantastically addictive and original. The basic elements of building up your burnout meter were established here: near misses, driving into oncoming traffic, and drifting into curves. The game let you in with some easy lower levels, but became insanely difficult as you're compelled to unlock every secret mode, track, and vehicle (including crash-tastic juggernauts like the tow truck or fire truck).
Burnout 2 upended expectations (and cars).
Burnout 2: Point of Impact—Developer's Cut
The success of the first game offered gamers a much more polished and refined version of the original. The big difference wasn't the graphics, which didn't really need fixing (or so it seemed back then), the new vehicles (like the ubiquitous SUV), the deeper levels of track design, or even the greatly improved (though still not Xbox LIVE-enabled) multiplayer modes. No, what made Burnout 2 an instant classic was the addition of the attention-grabbing crash mode. Now going through thousands of dollars worth of automobiles, busses, 18-wheelers, etcetera, was a type of game all its own. Each crash set-up was unique, and the differences in size, acceleration, and mass for each car gave you multiple options (and excuses) for each spectacular crash. It wasn't unlike playing billiards, except with cars.
Sparks! Drift! Action!
Burnout 3
For the latest entry in the Burnout series, Electronic Arts has taken over from Acclaim. Burnout 3 is one of the new titles from Electronic Arts that will be fully Xbox LIVE-enabled. Burnout 3 builds on all the best elements of the first two games while giving everything a serious graphics overhaul, from the incredible-looking spark effects to the improved boost jets that make your car look like it's kicking into warp drive. Gameplay, more importantly, has been redesigned from the ground up as a result. Races take place in three major locations: the USA, Europe, and the "Far East." Crash mode has been worked integrally into the game itself, after a fashion. In a race, your goal is to not only score points and build up your burnout meter with the usual near misses, drift, air-catching, and oncoming-traffic driving. You're also looking to score a certain number of "takedowns" on your opponents.
Take down your opponents in slow-mo.
In the first two Burnout games, you could (and had to, really) force other racers into oncoming cars, barriers, and other solid objects. Your reward was advancing ahead of the other guy and a satisfying crash sound effect. In Burnout 3, whenever you manage to force your opponent into something that will cancel his trajectory, the camera leaves you entirely and snaps to view your opponent as he spins through the air, in glorious slow motion (the same happens when you crash, which may or may not net you some points). And when those other guys aren't just A.I. cars but actual gamers on Xbox LIVE, watching the metal fly is all the sweeter.
Acclaim may have laid the groundwork, but Electronic Arts has taken the Burnout series and made the crash-tacular goodness something all its own. Whether you're a racing fan, or just like seeing things collide at high speed, don't miss it.
Article by Ben Barker
