The TPS Report - Games, Beats 'n' Blogs

Burnout 3 Verdict & My First Play of Outrun 2 On the Xbox
Posted by Diggler - 7/9/2004 12:00

Burnout 3 is all about smashing your opponents out of the way. Hard

Wow. Right from when the first engine revs up, you know that Burnout 3 is gonna be something special. Throwing realism straight out the window of a moving car, this one is all about pure unadulterated fun. And fuck me, it's a blast.

This is the best implementation of pure speed in any game I've played, making the likes of Episode 1 Racer and F-Zero feel like gentle bike rides through the country lanes. It's just so damn fast it becomes comical. Thankfully, the game doesn't punish you hugely for crashing, only setting you back a few seconds each time, and this is quite a blessing as believe me, you're gonna be crashing an awful fucking lot.

Trust me though when I tell you, the crashes are the best thing in this game. Many a time I purposely blew a race just 'cos that big cement wall up ahead looked way too tempting to merely steer passed. The sheer amount of sparks, parts and paintwork that go flying is a sight to behold, and just trying to see how many times you can flip your car over is an art in and of itself.

Kill Them All

The level of detail seen in the crashes is absolutely incredible

In a stroke of genius, the game realises this and actually has specific levels set up for nothing but crashing. The aim being to plow head first into oncoming traffic, and much like a paparazzi hurtling through the streets of Paris, cause as much death and destruction as you possibly can. The damn thing even calculates the amount of dollars worth of damage you did and awards you with medals! And then of course you can rewind it and watch the whole thing over and over again. It's like car porn.

You won't just be smashing your own car into a million pieces though, Burnout could actually be described as something of a fighting game too. The aim being to ram and bash the opposition off the road amidst trying to navigate at those immense speeds. A drive 'em up, if you will. It's Road Rash on speed.

Excessive motion blur and over the top physics are what bring this game to life

Naturally this style of play works especially well online and against friends. Chuck in the Xbox' ability to run custom soundtracks instead of the admittedly atrocious bundled tunes, and you have a winner on pretty much every score.

I never thought of myself as a big driving game fan to be honest. I never played the previous Burnouts, or any number of other big driving games of recent years. Project Gotham 2 rocked my world a year back though, and now accompanied by Burnout 3 I'm starting to consider myself quite the obsessee of the genre. With Forza Motorsport and Outrun 2 also on the horizon, the Xbox is certainly kitted out nicely for the road right now.

Outran

Which brings us onto the aforementioned. At the time of writing, only the demo for Outrun 2 is out, but from giving it a quick spin around the block, I can't help but feel like it's something of a let down actually.

Had I been writing this a week ago before Burnout arrived, you'd be hearing a different story. I'd be hammering on about the gobsmacking graphics, the beautiful frame rate, and the glorious, expansive views for miles around. I'd even be blathering on about the immense feeling of speed on offer. But despite the pleasing inclusion of a female co-pilot, I'm afraid Burnout 3 eclipses it in pretty much every single one of these areas, and in fact a whole lot more.

After smashing my adversaries 20 feet into the air by veering them into billboards in Burnout, returning to the more mundane, simple time attack style of Outrun seems dull in comparison. I even found myself subconsciously trying to ram passers by in an attempt to spice things up, much to the disproval of my lady friend. Actually, the other cars on the road may as well not even be there, completely ignoring you at all times, and a far cry from Burnout's impressive AI that gives as good as it gets. Oh and in this demo, there are no custom soundtracks to be seen, with the music being, believe it or not, even worse than Burnout's.

Conclusions

I'm sure Outrun 2 will be a fine enough game when it's all done and dusted, but make no mistake, it'll be no Burnout 3. Never the less, it would be unfair to compare a demo to a full game wouldn't it? It would be wrong to tell you Outrun is a slight disappointment, to lower your expectations, and to save your money for something else. And it would be unjust to proclaim Burnout 3 as the Xbox' finest driving game by miles, and worth a hundred Outrun 2s.

So I won't.

(Pictures courtesy of EA Games)