This was a topic
here last year right after I wrapped up Burnout Revenge. I dumped all my opinions onto the page, but never got any feedback. The thread was a day too old, I guess. Anyway, given the chance I'll repost them here, since I still hold them.
11-5-2005:
I've played a ton of every Burnout, and I say Burnout 3 is way better than Revenge. There are just a ton of things about Burnout Revenge that piss me off to no end. I will say that Revenge's crash mode is a lot better than 3, but it sucks that there are so few junctions. I also love the track design. The branching paths, liberal takedown setups, and opportunities for air are awesome. It's all the places they dropped the ball that ruin the game for me.
My Burnout Revenge Gripes:
AI - Holy shit. In the course of a year they managed to turn this game's AI all the way back down to Burnout 1 levels. Even worse, actually. Like Burnout 1, your opponents are always immediately behind you. You can boost an entire race, wreck once, and get passed by the
entire field (well, usually one car will stay behind you). No worries though, as you'll be pretty much immediately sprung back to first in a matter of seconds. It might seem like these two things cancel each other out, but what it comes down to is that you don't have to play the game. Try this: start a race, don't boost, don't takedown anyone. Just press the gas, and don't wreck. On the last lap gun it and see how easily you pick up the win.
Speed - When you boost, the game is perfectly fast. But if you ever run out you'll be hating yourself. Not boosting is just plain boring. And since the impact of wrong-lane driving has been seriously diminished in favor of takedowns, running out is a distinct possibility. Consider this scenario - Start the race and take down one opponent to get your boost up, then floor it. If you manage to miss the other cars as you fly past them, you've now got a race ahead of you with 2x boost that will likely run out. When it does, you can
hope for one of the AI racers to actually catch up and provide some takedown fodder without your having to wreck first, or you can go the more effective way and just die (see next topic).
Crashbreakers - I actually can't complain too much about these, since they are pretty satisfying and offer a good counter to the crap AI. But damn did they ever mess up the boost system. The best way to gain boot by far is to just wreck and blow everybody up - boom, full boost meter.
Single player - I actually have nothing to complain about here except for the fact that
it doesn't exist. Keep in mind I'm not talking about the World Tour (or career? I forgot), I'm talking about the ability to select a track, a mode, and a difficulty level, and then race. If you're playing by your lonesome you’re stuck to the track setups they've laid out. Sound absurd? It is. Now, you may have noticed that I'm not too happy with the gameplay anyway, so perhaps I shouldn't be bothered by this. But damnit, they could have at least given to us for crash mode. Want to try to best your high score? Here's how you do it:
Select one of ten difficulties.
Select a track associated with this difficulty (all tracks are not in each difficulty)
Select a game mode from this track/difficulty (all game modes are not in each track/difficulty)
So yeah. Page through about 50 menus to find the combination you’re looking for, and there's a very good chance it doesn't even exist.
Glitches - These are just annoying. There's a very common glitch where, if you’re fighting other cars, you may get pushed through the geometry. You'll fall into an abyss of nothingness for a while, and then get placed back on the track, most likely in last place. Another one in crash mode causes the game to freeze semi-randomly if you opt to retry after you earned a medal. It requires a restart, but it's avoidable.
All this comes down to...
EA Bashing - I try to enjoy games for what they are, but this game just struck me as EA-ized in every way. It's a game that's made to show you a lot of pretty sights with the illusion of challenge, when in fact it's just pushing you through the doors so you can hurry up and buy next year's installment.
For the record, I've got a 100% completion on Burnout Revenge, including golds in every race. Think golds in every race would be implicit with the hundred percent? It's not. I have not played Burnout Revenge online, so consider all my critiques to be on the single player. Burnout Revenge should be better than B3 online, since B3's implementation was horrible, but Revenge just didn't give me the incentive to try it. Maybe someday. I don't have a 100% in Burnout 3, mostly thanks to Signature Takedowns, but it's been played thoroughly.
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Back to now - I still haven't put Burnout Revenge back in the system.
