 Burnout 2 |
Developer: Criterion Games | Publisher: Acclaim |
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Type: Action | |
Skill Level: N/A |
| Players: 1 | Available: Fall 2002 |
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The original Burnout is arguably the best arcade-style racer to come home during this current generation (I would add Crazy Taxi to this, but you don’t race against other cars in that game), and a sequel is coming upon us. Burnout offered me two things I’ve always wanted in a racing game: lots of traffic on real streets and incredible crashes. One of the main reasons I originally fell in love with Metropolis Street Racer was because of it using actual city streets for courses, but they always seemed so empty. But then came a game which allowed me to race in traffic and find out what would happen if I side-swiped a car at 120 mph going the wrong way on the streets of a busy downtown area, and I was in love. Now we get to do it again and it’s going to be even better. Burnout 2 appears to improve on its predecessor in every way, which hopefully includes getting rid of the nasty shimmer that plagued the PS2 version and clouded the ability to see down the road. At the very least, we’ll be getting six new locations all located in the US of A, and two of them sound really interesting: the Rocky Mountains and “a busy international airport.” Maybe we will have the ability to knock some planes off course down the runways; that would add some great fun to the course. From these locations come thirty-two new stages to drive and fourteen new cars to burn them up with. The selection of car types will also be even larger (despite the original having even a tow truck among its listing) adding in stock cars and classic 1950’s hotrods. For those of you who like to pretend you’re doing some chasing, a police car will also be available. Chances are I’ll be doing that as I loved to pretend I was playing the videogame version of the movie Speed when I used the bus in the original. Adding to the races themselves are weather effects like snow and rain, though whether they will affect the driving or are just there to be pretty is unknown. You’ll also be able to actually leave the road upwards now and boosting off ramps will add to your boosts (reportedly, Criterion is doing an overhaul to the Burn system, so it’s unknown if it’s still known by that name or reacts the same) and the vehicle deformations are much more realistic. Pieces of the cars can now come off, and they perform some serious crushing inwards, much more than the slight bends the cars got in the first game. This should get to look even cooler, as you can now also modify vehicles and add body kits and decals. How deep a system this is remains unknown, though with any luck they’ll include a decal editor like Ridge Racer has. I can only hope. Probably the best features are the traffic AI and the Pursuit mode. The AI has been bumped up to now include three different types of drivers, which will hopefully react much more unpredictably then they did before. You were able to almost memorize patterns and rely on those which should now be a thing of the past. Pursuit mode is the next best thing in this game as you are now chased by a police car and can ram opponents off the road. That alone makes me all tingly inside. There is no release date yet, only a Fall 2002 projection, but I’m eagerly awaiting this return to the busy streets. For that matter, so should all arcade racer fans. There’s nothing else quite like this on the market.
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