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Now as previously mentioned the game is based on almost crashing and getting rewarded for it. The longer you drift around corners, the longer you stay heading toward oncoming traffic and the closer you get to other cars the more points you get and the bigger your boost level gets. If you misjudge any of the boost enhancers you can kiss your boost (and your car) goodbye, as it cuts nicely in half. Pulling off a boost is a sight to see, you thought you were going fast before? Add a VERY nice camera effect, a heart beat sound effect and another 10 - 15 mph to your current speed and feel the exhileration shoot through your system. However if you do happen to crash for any reason be prepared to watch your car come to a halt through 2 (sometimes 3 -- depending on extent of crash) instant replays of skidmarks, shattered glass and twisted metal. These replays can also be watched after the race and saved to memory card to show off that $105,920 worth of damage. After the replays your car is put back on the road in a position slightly behind where your car should be had you not crashed. These replays are unskippable to let your opponents catch up, something that would be quite unavoidable in real-life. The AI of these so called opponents can be somewhat comical, not by any means bad as later championships are extremely challenging, but to be fighting for first place and then to see the guy (or girl of course) you have been battling the entire race with misjudge the final corner and smash bonnet first into an oncoming truck gives you an overwhelming sense of relief then guilt as you cruise effortlessly over the finishing line.
Graphically this game is impressive to a point where you are looking for drops in frame-rate or just a hint of pop-up. At times you will have all 3 of your opponents as well as 8 - 15 cars driving on their way around town all on screen at once without a noticable drop in frame-rate. As for pop-up, the only situation you may notice this is certain camera angle on the replay of the first level, other than that you may have trouble finding any. The models of the cars aren't ground breaking but they are pretty, and on the final replay of the race there are times where you will swear what you're looking at is real and even grimace when this "car" smashes into the side of a taxi as it gently drives through an intersection. The only other graphical problem is when cars roll. After rolling when they finally come to a rest they hit a point where they sometimes just softly float back to rest on the ground. In some instances there is a white van that keeps mimicking the titanic and slowly sinks into the sealed road.
The sounds of Burnout are nothing to get excited over. Yes it runs in Dolby Surround but it isn't used efficiently. Engine sounds are average, music isn't bad but it just doesn't fit in, the only real bonus of the sound element is the crashes and scrapes. Hopefully this will all be fixed up for the upcoming sequel. Finally, there's the unlockable secrets. Only a mere 4 cars? These are earned through a Face-Off mode, that pits you against an advanced driver in a car that you want to add to your collection. Beat him and take the car. Lose and try again. Also sadly lacking is variety in tracks, not to say they layout is bad as the tracks are extremely fun, but when you're given 6 different tracks (3 set in US, 3 in Europe), the the same 6 reversed, the the same 6 at night-time you feel a bit let-down. The nicest track feature is when you unlock the Marathons in the Championship mode. This puts the 3 US/Europe tracks together to make one long 3 lap race, taking anywhere up to 18 or so minutes to finish the entire race.
A lot of fun to be had here, which may only dwindle once you have unlocked everything and are just too good compared to your friends and no-one will play against you anymore. |
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