Full Review

21 October 2005 - Burnout revenge isn't about getting the fastest times or pimping out your ride to look the best it can be. It's a good thing too in our books, as we at Pocket-lint are started to get a little jaded by yet another racing game that involves you spending most of your gaming time in a garage choosing what dubs to fit.

The sequel to 2004's racing game of the year, Burnout Revenge is all about crashing into stuff and forcing opponents and other vehicles off the road.

There are three main elements to the game; world tour, multiplayer and online. World tour is the single player option that sees you race in a number of different race modes to become crowned the badest driver of them all. Multiplayer brings in upto seven of your buddies, and online as you would expect allows you to crash it up with others over the web.

Races range from Traffic Smash, where you have to crash into as many vehicles as possible on the course to Grand Prix events that see you racing against other drivers across a series of races. As we said in the beginning, it's not all about the winning, and points are awarded depending on how you drive. Get some Big Air by launching your car off a ramp and you get points. Drive the wrong side of the road towards on coming traffic and you get more points.

Most challenges involve racing against other cars on a street course with other traffic rather than a racecourse and the aim here is to take them out by nudging, shunting or slamming them into on-coming traffic or jutting out walls. Do so, and again you win points, and gain a place in the race.

The ultimate aim is to gain enough stars to climb to the next level and next race of courses to race. Depending on how well you do in each race (a combination of all of the above as well as coming first) you get awarded stars those stars get progress you through the game and the circle is complete.

Gameplay as you can imagine is hectic. The races are high-octane fast-paced driving craziness with the added bonus of a boost button that speeds everything up even more.

The tracks are challenging, the soundtrack awesome and the crashes even more impressive.

VERDICT
Burnout Revenge is a great twist on the racing genre and reminds us of the final elements of Police HQ when you had to take the bank robbers vehicle off the road.

This game foregoes the racing to catch up with the car and sets you on a destructive course from the start.

Better still the game has loads of depth to it meaning you aren't just racing around the same three courses all the time. The different game modes also break up the pace and mean that one minute you are racing against the clock to complete a track and the next you are trying to crash into everything and anything you can find to keep the points coming in.

Top marks.