Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 29
 Like the best cupcake ever, except for the huge worm in it. September 29, 2005
If Then Why (Oakland, CA United States)
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
While this game is insanely fun, and combines the satisfiing disfunction of road rage with mad speeding, Burnout Revenge sadly remains a flawed experience. What I simply cant understand is why the developers, who have hands down made the most entertaining race and crash experience for any video game system, included a complex (for video games anyway) rating and advancement scheme.
Imagine this, your racing along, your laughing, your madly smashing cars into Matrix like pileups, your driving like an idiot through crowded city streets (populated by ghosts it seems), you complete the level and are now looking forward to the next race, the new city scape etc, and the next thing you know your being tested on your ability to crash your car into parking lots for "points " to the sound of canned applause. Odd to say the least.
I never experienced such gaming greatness combined with such gaming idiocy. Someone on the EA design payroll is a clearly a schizophrenic. And if crashing into parked cars isin't bad enough, you have to also learn a relatively unintuitive set of commands to maximize your damage. And nope, you cant advance to the next juicy city street racing smash em up UNTIL you beat these levels of game design ineptitude. I think Napoleon Dynamite said it best: "IDIOTS!"
Phew.
Having said that, the driving agro sections of the game are so fun, so well rendered and so pleasingly violent that one forgets that around the corner another altogether different game is awaiting you.
And what corporate record company got their hooks into the marketing department at EA? The insipid " Mall Punk" music is so transparently manicured by corporate hipsters one can almost hear the money changing hands . Just thank the Gods that EA provided a soundtrack volume control.
So yeah, buy it. Burnout Revenge's sweet spots are sweet enough to mask the bitter, boring filler, but it does make one wonder what the powers that be at EA are smoking these days and why they ruined what could be a classic.
Great sequel October 28, 2005
Jimbo Jones (Las Vegas, NV)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
EA have done a bang up job with Burnout Revenge. Although gameplay has hasn't changed that much and only minor improvemnts were made this is nothing short of spectacular. I would have to give this 4.5 out of 5 2 thumbs up all the way
 One of the BEST xbox games available! December 24, 2005
Jay Owen (St. Augustine, Florida USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
Right when I thought burnout 3 was the best racing and crash game that could be made for the xbox they went and released burnout revenge. The graphics in this game are some of the best I have seen on an xbox. The amount of variety in this game on a single user, multi-player, and xbox live is incredible. If you havn't played this game you are missing out on one of the best xbox titles.
The best racing franchise this generation December 31, 2005
Bert Rinderle (L.A., CA United States)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Who would have thought when the original Burnout was released that the series would blossom into a top-selling franchise, with four entries in one console generation? Over the four installments, Criterion kept the basic formula of wreck-heavy street racing, but comparing the first game with the newest, Burnout Revenge, it's hard to believe this is the same series.
No matter which game you prefer, fans of arcade-style racing games would be hard pressed to find a better, more enjoyable series than Burnout. Each title introduced something unique, improving the formula without making previous titles obsolete.
The original Burnout focused on traffic-weaving, included the challenging Survival Mode, had a quirky soundtrack, and featured tracks that took over ten minutes per lap. It was a welcome, bare-bones game that is still fun to play today, although the sequel improved the formula dramatically.
Burnout 2: Point of Impact introduced Crash Mode (PoI's is still the best in the series thanks to the ridiculous dollar damage amounts and post-wreck helicopter flybys), focused on playing for score (which never gets old), gave the game a major technical facelift, and allowed for custom soundtracks on the Xbox. My personal opinion is that this is the best driving game ever made.
Burnout 3: Takedown changed the focus to making opposing racers crash. The icon-ridden Crash Mode was a mistake by Criterion, but the World Tour was a fine addition. A good effort, but in my opinion, the weakest in the series, despite the addition of online play.
Burnout Revenge is the last we'll get for this console cycle. It added traffic checking and crashbreaker races, while thankfully going back to PoI's more basic Crash style and track design (adding alternate routes, shortcuts, and jumps). It's the most kinetic, fastest, chaotic racing game ever made, and features the same precise control and technical excellence that is the series' calling card. Criterion packed a ton of content onto this lovely disc, and seemed to listen to fans' complaints about Takedown, despite being owned by controversial software giant Electronic Arts. A fitting way to bid farewell to a series of consoles that birthed the franchise.
In fact, Revenge brings up an interesting question: beyond next-gen technical improvements, how can Criterion improve upon what's already been done? I personally think the series peaked with Burnout 2, so a return to that style of gameplay would be welcome, but since Burnout 3 was a best-seller, I think takedowns are here to stay. However, I suspect the Criterion genuises will surprise us all.
I own more Burnout games than any other franchise this generation, and each one excels in its own way. I wasn't even a big fan of racing games before this series arrived. From the thrill of a perfect lap in the original's Euro Marathon to the joy of landing a vertical revenge takedown on Revenge's Angel Valley, I've had a lot of fantastic memories thanks to this series, online and off.
A hearty THANK YOU to Criterion for all their amazing work -- see you guys next gen!!
 Adjustments made, but sometimes unnecessary January 28, 2007
M. Lingrosso (Earthbound (as of yet))
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Burnout Revenge. The next incarnation of a great series. I couldn't wait to get my hands around the XBox controller and race a few computer cars and friends. Well, I got what I wanted. The problem, however, is that I got a LOT more than I wanted. And all that extra pushed me right into the pit, and contentedly so.
All of the good elements are still in this edition. The sense of speed is unmatched; adrenaline still flies through you as your car weaves in and out of other cars/traffic (a rare occurence here) to be first across the finish line. The car models are sleek and shiny. The crashes are nasty and involve other cars. This game overall looks really good. Maybe too good, but more on that later.
I soon discovered the first annoyance: Racing along at 190 miles an hour, miscalculating a turn, and flying towards a guardrail and.... No crash! Instead, a dead stop! No violent wreck that produces a sports-car comet with debris-tail. That would be at least acceptable. You go head-on into an obstacle, you crash. Such is the Burnout way, right? Not this time. The clock ticks away and you have to hold down the brake to slowly back out of the corner you're now stuck in. This is a common occurence with this game, and I'm frankly surprised it is so obvious. Deduct a fair amount of fun points there.
Now to the looks part. Burnout Revenge is eye-candy. It's a beautiful array of rich scenery and (nerve-racking)light effects, which I guess are supposed to add to the ambience of the experience but only end up hindering the path. Which is, to say the least, very distracting. Rarely can the driver clearly see the road ahead (save for a few tracks) until it's too late and he's about to slam into something. If the point of a race is to win, or have fun trying, this is not the way to do it. There is simply WAY too much going on at one time visually to try and have a serious, competitive race and expect to progress markedly. Couple this with the fact that no CPU driver really ever crashes unless you bump it off the road. So much for race mode. Crash mode would surely be fun! Uhh.. kind of.
New to Crash mode are an utterly pointless half-moon power-guage start thingie, which if not done right every time will somehow blow up your motor on the Starting Line, and the shameless plug of a Carl's Jr. Mobile Diner(?). Here, the crashes are more challenging, and the payoff is spectacular, but you'll need a lot of patience. Tweaking the Crash mode with this "startup meter" was a mistake. Who really cares how you start? You are there to careen towards traffic at an insane speed and cause insurance damage, not make a pretty start!! Give me a 5-second countdown and let me step on the gas! Also, if you want a preview of the crash route you're about to embark upon, and it shows you the complete route, you have to sit through the WHOLE thing as it winds back up to the starting line, and THEN you get to start. All in all, crash mode still playable, but lose the product placement and the startup gauge. Both needless.
New mode: Traffic attack. Another step in the wrong direction. Until now, the protocol of Burnout racing is DO NOT hit other traffic except for the cars you're racing.. Now it's suddenly OK to hit traffic going the same direction as your car. All of this while fighting to keep a clock going.. Whatever.
Summarily, this game feels rushed. The new "shortcuts", provided you can steer into their path, are a toss-up as to whether or not they'll actually help you in the race. Every opportunity to get ahead of the others is met with some building or piece of map that juts into your path at the wrong place, causing a crash. Frustrating it is, especially when you're finally passing that car ahead of you! There's no room to boost freely and enjoy pure speed and traffic-weaving.
Whomever tinkered with the formula adjusted the wrong spots. Burnout Takedown is easily a better and more fulfilling game. Takedown isn't so flashy and is more engaging, and in less time. I dislike excess tedium in any game, especially a racing one. Burnout Revenge needs to take more pages from its big brothers. Only then would it be more enjoyable. This game has its good points but they're few and far between. San Francisco Rush did it better. I hope someone else has a good time with this installment.
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