Written By Shaun McCracken
It's not often that I buy games on or a little after their release date. Usually
I'll wait for the price to go down or read what others said about the game. But
I couldn't help it. I was looking forward to this game much more than the new
Zelda game or even the port of Splinter Cell. I was addicted to the first Burnout,
and after hearing about all the new things added to Point Of Impact, how could I
resist? And with the price of $39.99, which is $10 less than the 6-month old PS2
version or the upcoming X-Box version, that sealed the deal. And it was worth
every penny. Burnout 2: Point Of Impact has met and exceeded my expectations
of what the sequel should be.
If you're not familiar with the Burnout series (there's only 2 games in the line,
people), Burnout is strict arcade racing with an emphasis on dangerous driving and
horrendous (and gleeful) car wrecks. In order to win, you must drive on the wrong
side of the road, drive along cars (near misses) and drift around corners. The
more wreckless you drive, the more boost you accumulate in your "Burn Meter", which
then increases speed and dangerous driving even further. If you use all the boost
without crashing or stopping, you have pulled a "burnout". Yeah, it's not the most
aptly named event (before playing the game, I though Burnout referred to the crashes,
not the boost), but you get the idea. Point Of Impact ups the ante of dangerous
driving even further by extending boost accumulation to jumps (air) and by executing
combos. It's easier than it sounds. Try not thinking about it.
If you never played the first Burnout, Burnout 2 may be a better place to start.
Before you do anything, you'll go through the short but useful "Offensive Driving 101"
tutorial that will teach you everything you need to know about how the game works.
It's not long, probably 7-10 minutes, and if you get all gold medals on the challenges
(which is much easier than getting golds on GT3's license tests), you'll unlock
a pretty useful car. In Burnout 2, almost everything you do does not go without
reward.
This time around, you'll be racing in courses that are supposedly designed
after US cities. Of course, no real names are used, and when you see their placement
on the map, you can't help but to wonder what they were thinking; but when you race
on the courses you can tell "Big Surf" and parts of "Hwy 88" are in Los Angeles,
"Palm Bay" is modeled after Miami, "Crystal Summit" is like the Rocky Mountains,
"Sunrise Valley" is like Phoenix or a New Mexico city and the "Pacific Airport"
is a little like LAX. Also, these cities are a little better connected than the
ones in the first Burnout, which leads to a few interesting point-to-point races.
Burnout 2 looks fairly similar to the first game, but with a little more "zazz".
The textures are a little sharper, the cities are bigger, the courses are better
designed, the cars are better detailed and so on. But the biggest upgrade is in
the crashes. In the first game, when your car would crash, it's body would deform
and the glass would shatter. It was fairly impressive then to see your car fly in
a flailing glory with galss particle, but when compared to Point Of Impact, it
seems like crap now. It's that improved. Now, not only does your car deform and
glass shatters, but pieces of your car such as hoods, fenders, trunk lids, bumpers
and tires will fly off depending on how hard you hit something. Plus, the particles
are much better. Glass no longer looks like black dots, sparks fly, smoke spews and
some random pieces of metal fly in a showpiece of a projectile fury. With each new
crash, I kind of chuckle at what flies off my car, as well as the other cars. It's
pretty damn amusing, and some look pretty gruesome. When you get into the Crash mode,
creating multi-car pileups can be a glorious and devestating sight. Sadly, your
carshes can't be saved this time around. I wonder why?
Burnout 2 also comes with a variety gameplay modes that really shake things up
and keep you playing for days to come. The championship mode is broken down to a
variety of race modes. There's a typical series, where you race (x) number of courses,
there's the face-off matches where you can win new cars, a pursuit mode where you
have to take out a rival car, and a couple of point-to-point races. And there's not
just one, but two championships! Complete the first championship, and unlock the
Custom series, where you race modified street cars. It's shorter, but a thoughtful
inclusion. The best part of the game lies in the Crash mode. With 30 crash junctions
(15 new ones over the PS2 version), your goal is to come up with the most expensive
and devestating car wreck you can make. And it does take some skill, too. It's a
challenge trying to meet all gold medals. I spent at least a good hour on one stage
trying to get a gold medal. But it's a pretty good payoff to see some mass destruction.
Everything is evened off by a single race mode and a time trial mode. Believe me
when I say this is one big, meaty arcade racer. This is possibly the best and most
addictive arcade racer I've played since San Francisco Rush 2049, and that's saying
something.
I delved into the graphic details earlier by mentioning the game's excellent
use of particle effects and blazing framerate and sense of speed. Currently, there
really is no other racing game on the GCN that hauls as much ass and throws as
much eye-candy as Burnout 2 does. While I would have like to seen some bump-mapping
on the road (if there is, I missed it), you'll be traveling at such a high rate of
speed, you may not notice. And I would rather have the smooth, fast framerate with
some slightly downgraded effects than have a chopfest with some enhancements. Racing
games demand speed, and B2-Point Of Impact does not disappoint. Oh, and it has
progressive scan support.
The game's sound is a fairly solid as well. Some say the music is average or
annoying, but I actually like it. It suits the game well. It mostly consists of
rock-like music, but it's suitable. It's also cool how the music volume changes
when you use the boost. The car wreck sounds are loud, but very good. And this
all runs in DPL II.
The control is excellent. Tight and forgiving, this is the design many arcade
games should follow. And this game is well suited for the GCN controller, which
is pretty much what the controller can handle, racing games and platformers. I find
it pretty cool that when you click that R-button down, you activate the boost. This
version feels much more interactive than the other versions. When you deploy a
nitrous boost, by god, you should feel it.
If there is one major thing to complain about, is that the game could have used
at least one more city, and seeing how you earn boosts by jumping i air, a San
Fransisco-like city would have been very ideal. But, we'll have to wait for a sequel,
that is if Acclaim is willing to publish a sequel (or seeing their current state, even
being in business). But this is an excellent sequel to an already intense arcade racing
package. With 30 courses, 30 crash junctions, and pursuit modes, Burnout 2 is
a very solid gaming package. If you've never seen what the series was about, or
aching for a new arcade racer, Burnout 2: Point Of Impact is just the ticket.
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