Burnout Revenge

THE BAD:
Nothing!

SUMMARY:
The 4th game in the Burnout series, Revenge could also be called "How to make a Road Rage-style driving game". At first it looks like any other racing game, but where as other games encourage safe driving to win, Revenge does just the opposite, taking place in high-speed race courses, grand prix series, and even events where the sole object is to cause unbelievably massive crashes and total carnage everywhere.

The graphics are unbelievably impressive, so much so they could easily pass for typical Xbox 360 visuals. Everything looks incredibly detailed and the ultra-smooth frame rate never slows down, and everything from rubbing fenders to explosions features super-realistic details. Sounds are outstanding as well, nicely mixing realistic sound effects with an excellent soundtrack that, on default settings, doesn't even try to drown out the sounds of the action. Controls are perfectly tuned, always as responsive as they should be and very easy to learn. Additionally the game always provides onscreen tips for which buttons to press at certain times and excellent tutorial videos help new players get in the game quickly. Gameplay is fast, furious, and extremely fun, spanning several styles of play. In addition to standard point-to-point and lap racing, there are awesome modes where your goals include checking (rear-ending) as many cars as possible, causing massive pile-ups of traffic and subsequent explosions, and performing various takedowns of computer-controlled rivals, all of which help you earn the many unlockables in the game. The slo-mo replays of takedowns are awesome and cars show perfect detail of damage from the action. The trophies you can earn for completing the almost 200 challenges in the game are very cool-looking and winning them rewards you with extremely fun animations. Being able to improve your rank by winning and replaying events only further increases the already-high replay value. You can also play online or offline multiplayer with up to 6 people. And as a special bonus (and effort by EA to get more cash from you), if you have Madden '06 you can unlock a special "Madden Challenge" van to use in the game, and having a Burnout 3 save gives you a head start on the game. As for what's bad about this game...absolutely nothing. The only complaint some people might have, and it's very minor at that, it you can only save 3 profiles to your Hard Disk. But you'll be playing for so long that you won't want to start all over again.

It goes without saying that this is perhaps the best racing game to hit store shelves in 2005, and one of the best games of the year for that matter. Even if you have the other Burnout games, if you have an Xbox there's no excuse for not buying this game. Get it now and prepare to go road rage to the extreme.