Forum Overview :: Reviews :: Burnout 4 Revenge first impressions

[quote name="Mischief Maker"]So I picked this up instead of the new Katamari game. Pretty much an improvement over everything in #3. There are only two things that seem like major changes in this game: #1 tracks look much better and are more cluttered and interesting. They now have lots of jumping ramps and shortcuts. Races also seem to be over faster. #2 One of the main complaints I had about #3 was that it was actually safer to drive on the wrong side of the road because the headlights gave you more forewarning if you were on a collision course with some random car or van. In this game, instead of crashing if you plow into traffic going the same direction, you send the car or van flying and careening, smashing into other cars and potentially one of your opponents. While this feature is so rediculously unrealistic it would cause Tom Chick's fat little head to spin, it's really fun in practice. Violently attacking your opponent while smashing through hapless civilian traffic, sending them flying in every direction, causes a malevolent little corner of my brain to giggle uncontrolably. Other things: The Aftertouch camera is now at a fixed rear view, making it easier to line yourself up with approaching opponents. They're still just as good at JUUUUUST avoiding you, though. The enemy AI is noticeably meaner and harder to kill. Rubbing an opponent against a rail for 5 minutes is no longer sufficient to send their car flying. Road rage events are now a serious challenge. It also lacks that rubberband AI that would appear from nowhere and destroy your lead if you made the slightest fuckup. Tougher and fairer. Graphics are a little nicer and framerates are still silky smooth on the PS2 version. The Bad: Do you like unlockables? The game has a ridiculously convoluted unlocking system involving medals and aggression meters and tiers and other bullshit. You know how the game makes a big deal about how you can spend your boost meter to cause your car to explode and destroy opponents in aftertouch mode? Well let me know what it's like when you actually unlock races with that ability enabled because I sure as hell haven't gotten that far. Plus the game is specially designed to prevent you from cheating by replaying races over and over because god forbid someone who payed money for your game should have access to all the fun stuff without doing <B>all</B> the work! You <U>will</U> play these boring-ass single-car burning laps and <U>like it</U>, bitch! For some dumb reason, the world tour is the ONLY single player mode available. So instead of just jumping in and starting a road rage race on a random track, you have to wade through the far-too-complicated-and-abstract world tour menu to locate the kind of race you want. Is the eternal city road rage race located in tier 2? or 3? or 7? In crash mode, as you smash your way through through traffic, the destruction is accompanied by applause. For me that just ruins the nihilistic joy of unexpectedly hurtling a car into trafic causing a horrible multi-car wreck just for the hell of it. Final good point: The little "Challenge everything" cocksucker is gone.[/quote]