Or those of you who were deeply pissed about Electronic Art's poor handling of the Xbox Need for Speed, fear not; Criterion has not only ported Burnout 2 successfully, they downright gave you the better version!
Burnout 2 is the way a sequel should be: stuffed full of new features, better graphics, improved game play, and be so damn addicting that you can't put it down, even to go to the bathroom. See where this is going?
What draws you in is the speed at which the game moves; textures haven't flown by this fast since the good old Rage Racer days. The game's main feature is the Boost option, which when implemented sends the odometer into overdrive, literally. As you use up your Boost, should you skillfully avoid all possible crashes, your meter will be automatically replenished, and multiplied. Do it again, and it will be multiplied again, ad infinitum. These 'extra boosts' are where Burnout earns its name.
This is no ordinary racing game either; you're going to be going up against 3 competitors as well as oncoming traffic. Avoiding the onslaught of cars will allow you to power up your Boost meter, as will successful power slides and long distance jumps. If that's not enough, you can head over to the Crash option, where you'll spend 16 luxurious stages trying to cause the greatest and most expensive car pile up in history. Once you're done with those, you can then enjoy another 15 exclusive tracks not found on the PS2. Did I also mention the ability to play a law-abiding cop who has to ram the secret cars off the road? Yes Virginia, it's all here.
To sweeten the deal, the game looks down right fantastic, with smoother textures than the original. Excellent car modeling, very realistic damage effects, and very realistic locations are just the tip of the experience. Quite frankly, the game is like watching a stock car race; you really do want to see the big crash happen, since you'll see cars roll, glass panels shatter, tires go rolling off and even the fenders gain flight. There literally is no slowdown (aside from the slow motion camera) and you'll be hard pressed to find anything wrong with the graphics display.
Like the visuals, the sounds rock the house. Besides the incredibly great soundtrack, the sound effects are some of the best around. You'll hear every ding, dent, screech, window crack, bus tumble, horn, and anything else that could possible make a noise in the game. Oddly enough, there aren't any pedestrians around, so while there may not be any screams for help, it does mean you have more room for your crash course in fun.
Any racing enthusiast will tell you that control is the most important aspect in the game. It doesn't matter how much you can tune a car; if the control sucks, the game is worthless. Thankfully, you'll have no issues here, as Burnout 2's control is nearly flawless. The higher ranked cars can be snapped into a turn and bent back into the straightaway like they were glued to the road. Even the lesser cars don't seem to have a problem, unlike the dreary NFS:HP2.
Now here is where it gets really sweet. The Xbox version features 21 exclusive car skins that no other version has. There's also Xbox live support, so you can upload your crazy high scores from Crash Mode and prove yourself to the worl
Xbox fans have needed an arcade racer since the original Project Gotham and finally, we have the game to beat. It's fast, it's addicting, and it's got Live support. You simply cannot go wrong with this title, and this one is truly the best version.
