Burnout

[Shagger]

@Boblee and @Heatman were talking about Burnout in a Dirt Rally 2.0 thread and mentioned me as I had mentioned I had played the Burnout games. I wanted to answer them back, but decided to do so in a new thread so as not to derail the other one.

 

As I have said, I hated Burnout Paradise. I hated it for serval reasons;

• The open world concept was stupid. It made finding the right game modes and challenge types a chore. Seriously. what was wrong with menus?
• The open world concept also meant you were racing around the same bits of track with the same environment again and again, so it actually felt less varied than in the older games.
• They kept the traffic check system from Burnout 4. This was stupid feature that should never have existed. Basically you ran through traffic moving the same direction of you to build up boost which is not only ridiculous to look at, it made the challenging and heart pounding risk of driving into oncoming traffic pointless.
• But by far the worst thing, and this is really sinister and greedy of EA considering the game released very soon after the launch of the PS3, they removed local multiplayer completely from the game. Even crash party, a staple of the franchise being a local multiplayer mode that involved passing the controller from player was removed completely. They knew if they included crash party even as a one player only option, people would still pass the controller to have a go. How dare people crowed around one console to play one bought copy of our game! We can't have that happen! They didn't even develop and online version, just removed it from the game entirely. The worst thing about this is that, for reasons that will forever baffle me, they made this philosophy for racing games popular, it became the norm'. So not only did EA ruin Burnout (the franchised died with Paradise), they ruined the arcade racer. Fuck EA.

So yeah, first tip, avoid Burnout Paradise. Unfortunatly, it's easily the most accessible game in series now. It's the only one that was released digitally and on more modern platforms and even got a remaster a couple of years ago. The only way to play the good games is on original hardware, that being a PS2 or the original Xbox..

 

Speaking of the PS2/original Xbox era games, for a start I'd recommend trying Burnout 2 first. The original was good, but would have probably aged the worst of them and feels a bit basic today. One done with Burnout 2, get ready for, imo, the best arcade racer ever. Burnout 3: Takedown. This was pure intensity converted to digital code. The series was always risk = reward, but this was another level. For the first time it was possible for a skilled player to keep boost going indefinitely, even in time trial mode. Taking down other players, drifting, approaching oncoming traffic and near misses all charge the boost and you fought for every bit of boost you could get.

 

So yeah, Burnout 3 is the daddy. the other 3 PS2/origonal Xbox era games are really good as well, but 3 was expectational.

 

Since this is a thread now and not a reply, let me know what you all think of this series.

Edited May 25, 2023 by Shagger

[kingpotato]

God I hated burnout paradise as well, worst purchase of my life, I remember buying this on my Xbox360. I had the same complaint, I didnt care much for the open world aspect,but my biggest complaint is that the game doesnt have a mini map, not even on the remastered version, so whenever Im on a race I have to constantly pause the game to look at the map and figure out a route , why didnt they just gave you a recommended route to the finish line ? it doesnt matter if it wasnt the fastest but at least you could get an idea as to how to get there. Horrible game, I couldnt bother  more than a day playing it. I just wished they had remaster Burnout 3 instead

[Crazycrab]

From the very first entry Burnout was always an intense, edge of your seat type of racing experience.  I always remembered watching this first trailer.

 

 

I'll be honest, the original Burnout wasn't that great a game especially when compared to the titles that would come from the franchise later on.  What it do a brilliant job at was selling it's concept.  The tension and intensity of racing through traffic was friggin awesome!  The crashing along with all the realistic physics and deformation was super cool, but the problem was that they kinda put those aspects left, right and centre and didn't focus enough on the actual racing.

 

They no doubt realized this and put way more focus on the racing in the sequel, Burnout 2: Point of Impact

 

 

This was fucking spectacular!  They absolutely nailed it this time with much better presentation, track design, new modes like crash party, improved mechanics and the time to recover from crashing was significantly reduced making a much smoother racing experience.  I actually remember thinking at the time "they cannot possibly make this any better"....

 

.... Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong!!!!

 

 

Burnout 3: Takedown!  This in my opinion is hands down the greatest arcade racer of all time!  It takes all the intensity and excitement of Point of Impact and ramps it all the way up to Spinal Tap!

Every new element that it introduces was gold.  Crash radio, a fantastic soundtrack (an actual legit benefit to having EA at your back, credit where it's due), a reworked crash party where the result was less dependent on luck and visuals so fucking good it could easily be mistaken for a XBox 360/PS3 game. But none of these had as big an impact as the stroke of genius that was Takedowns.  If you drove a rival off the road your boost bar would expand and fill completely, but if you were taken out your boost bar would empty and reduce.  It encouraged ruthlessly aggressive driving even more so than its predecessors.  The perfect arcade racer.

 

Then came Burnout: Revenue

 

 

This was another fantastic game, very similar to but not quite as good as Takedown.  There actually a handful of improvements here.  The crash party was reworked with a cleaner less distracting visuals and the new crashbreaker explosion.  It introduced network play, some new racing modes like elimination and the great new revenge mechanic which highlighted the last competitor to take you out making your piss boil and you become lazer focused on them for a revenge takedown.

There were some downgrades though.  The soundtrack and crash radio presentation weren't as good.  It indroduced shortcuts, a cool feature in other racers but here in my opinion works against what Burnout is about.  The worst thing, however was the new traffic checking mechanic which allowed you to just drive straight through traffic going same direction as long as it wasn't a bus or a truck.  This was a really stupid idea because it took a way so much of the tension.  Still a great game, but it doesn't hold up to the masterpiece that is Takedown.

 

Then came Burnout Paradise,  which I refuse to dignify with a flashy video so instead here is a picture of something that more accurately represents it...

 

 

Burnout Paradise is a near perfect execution..... OF SOME OF THE WORST FUCKING IDEAS IN THE HISTORY OF GAME DESIGN!!!!  I've seen so many people that defend that abomination and it makes me sick.  If the earlier games where sitting in the driver's seat with you butt clenched desperately trying to survive, this one was slouching back with one hand on the wheel and the other grabbing a bottle of cheap whisky looking for a place to die.

@Shagger already discussed the flawed concepts with the open world and the bullshit removal of local play so I won't rant about them to much but there is more I would like to add.

The intense edge of your seat concept we had with the other games is only delivered in short bursts at best.  You spend most of your time driving across what is essentially and open world menu selecting your vehicle, event and so on.  Then when done with the even you go back to the open world menu to select you next event your next event and vehicle rinse and repeat.  The main concept that EA and Criterion sold this game on's main purpose is there to literally waste your fucking time.

Even if you are one of those people that do genuinely like Paradise you have to a least acknowledge this.  It is NOT a Burnout experience.

 

After this Burnout was essentially folded into the Need For Speed franchise never to be seen again, but considering their idea of "Paradise", that's probably for the best.

[TheFjordFox]

I wholeheartedly agree with the statements towards EA. F them. "It's in the game"... not anymore! Now it might be in the fifteenth DLC!

[Boblee]

I can't thank you guys enough for all the inputs on this racing game Burnout. With the flaws explained in the Paradise edition of the game, I know very well not to waste my dime on the game. 

The crash impacts in Takedown looks so real from the trailer and I imagine it's going to be a lot more real when you're playing it. 

[Yaramaki]

I haven't played a burnout game in years so there's not much i can add that isen't already said, i did enjoy burnout paradise when it first came out unlike some of you. I bought the remake for cheap a few years ago but never really got around playing that version, doubt i'll get around to it anytime soon.

Since my favourite in the series hasen't been mentioned yet i'll do the honours and say that burnout legends on the psp is the best in the franchise, if you have a psp laying around you owe it to yourself to buy a copy and play it as It's pretty much a best off from the first 3 games crammed into one game. 

[Crazycrab]

16 minutes ago, Yaramaki said:

Since my favourite in the series hasen't been mentioned yet i'll do the honours and say that burnout legends on the psp is the best in the franchise, if you have a psp laying around you owe it to yourself to buy a copy and play it as It's pretty much a best off from the first 3 games crammed into one game. 

 

I forgot about that one, your right it is a cracker!  It's basically a portable version of Burnout 3.

[Shagger]

On 4/23/2022 at 4:32 PM, Yaramaki said:

I haven't played a burnout game in years so there's not much i can add that isen't already said, i did enjoy burnout paradise when it first came out unlike some of you. I bought the remake for cheap a few years ago but never really got around playing that version, doubt i'll get around to it anytime soon.

Since my favourite in the series hasen't been mentioned yet i'll do the honours and say that burnout legends on the psp is the best in the franchise, if you have a psp laying around you owe it to yourself to buy a copy and play it as It's pretty much a best off from the first 3 games crammed into one game. 

 

Aside obvious limitations by being on the PSP, I couldn't agree more. Burnout Legends was a gem of a game. I don't know why I failed to mention it in the my original post.

Edited April 29, 2022 by Shagger

[Boblee]

5 hours ago, Crazycrab said:

 

I forgot about that one, your right it is a cracker!  It's basically a portable version of Burnout 3.

So, if I'm to play Burnout 3, there wouldn't be much need for playing Burnout Legends? Or should I just play Burnout 3 before playing the Legend edition? 

[Crazycrab]

21 minutes ago, Boblee said:

So, if I'm to play Burnout 3, there wouldn't be much need for playing Burnout Legends? Or should I just play Burnout 3 before playing the Legend edition? 

 

Burnout Legends is a PSP game so outside of emulation you would need a used copy and a PSP in order to play it.  It's on the Nintendo DS as well but from I understand that port is vastly inferior to the PSP version.

 

I'd recommend playing Burnout 3 over Legends.  Don't get wrong Legends is great but they did have to make some compromises in order to make it work on the handhelds.  Burnout 3 on the home consoles is the full experience.

Edited April 23, 2022 by Crazycrab

[Boblee]

1 minute ago, Crazycrab said:

 

Burnout Legends is a PSP game so outside of emulation you would need a used copy and a PSP in order to play it.  It's on the Nintendo DS as well but from I understand that port is vastly inferior to the PSP version.

 

I'd recommend playing Burnout 3 over Legends.  Don't get wrong Legends is great but they did have to make some compromises in order to make it work on the handhelds.  Burnout 3 on the home consoles in the full experience.

Then, that's settled as it is. I would start out with the second edition of the series and hit it up to the 3rd one. If there is any need for me to play further, I can easily refer to the suggestion you guys made already for me. 

Thanks once again!! 

[Justin11]

Burnout paradise is one of the oldest racing game I've played ever since I picked interest in racing game. At the moment, their is no new version released.  

[kingpotato]

23 minutes ago, Justin11 said:

Burnout paradise is one of the oldest racing game I've played ever since I picked interest in racing game. At the moment, their is no new version released.  

the game is not that old and there is a remaster...

[Boblee]

6 hours ago, kingpotato said:

the game is not that old and there is a remaster...

Maybe to him, for a 2008 game, it's an old game but that's not really the way I see it. It's his opinion on it though, I'm not going to challenge him on that. He's got his reasons for calling it old. 

[kingpotato]

1 minute ago, Boblee said:

Maybe to him, for a 2008 game, it's an old game but that's not really the way I see it. It's his opinion on it though, I'm not going to challenge him on that. He's got his reasons for calling it old. 

Well yeah you are right 2008 is a long time now that I think about it. I take back what I said then.