Gameplay - 83
I bought this game because of all the hype surrounding it. Everyone said it would be “the” game for the PSP. It’s good, but it’s not “the” game. This is a fun game where you knock out your opponent and watch slow motion devastation of their (or yours, if they get you) car. You can pick it up and start playing in no time. The control is spot on having the car respond exactly as it should. Drifting around corners, weaving in and out of traffic. The game is very fun to play.
I found it is a bit repetitious. The races aren’t that varied. Tracks seem to be reused a bit as you progress, or at least portions of them. But the actual gameplay and the different environmental variables (traffic) make each race more or less a unique experience.
This game is very arcade-like. It dictates which cars you can race on which tracks. Sometimes you have a few to pick from; sometimes you are playing a car to unlock or the police racer. I have no idea if cars in a particular class are better than any of the others. From what I can tell they all seem to drive the same. Maybe I’m wrong, but I sure didn’t notice any differences. There is no customization you can do to your cars other than change the color up a bit on a few cars (Is it white with black, red, or blue trim?). Vaguely reminds me of the style of Cruzin’ the USA, or Rush.
Graphics - 81
Graphics looks good. The could look better, but there are no real issues with them. The effects are nice such as sparks from grinding metal and the sense of speed. But for a game this early in the systems life span they graphics are very good but I expect them to slip beneath par as time progresses.
Programming - 84
The game is written well. Fast load times make it easy to grab it and start racing. Sometimes you see some jitter in polygons, usually noticeable in the bullet-time crashes. Sometimes in pursuit if you are ahead of your opponent, they will crash on their own, not receiving any damage, and you will have a small cut scene to wait for them to catch up. The blur effects could be a bit more pronounced. It could be PSP architecture that makes those tough, but I think that’s missing a bit. But more ore less there aren’t any flaws that take away from game play, maybe some minor annoyances.
Multiplayer
I have not experienced game sharing or multiplayer in any aspect. There are collector editions of each class of car that you unlock in the game. When you win whichever race to get it, you are awarded 1 of 4 (or maybe 5) cars randomly. To unlock the other cars you must race someone who has one and beat them. This is kind of a neat feature, but also a but dissatisfying as you may never unlock them all if you don’t know many people with a PSP.
Sound FX - 90
Things sound like they should. I have not noticed any annoyingly repetitious sounds. Crashes are good. The engines of the different cars produce distinctive sounds so you can hear the headers on your muscle car vs the high hum of your compact tuner. Sounds just like you would want a racer.
Music - 45
I listen to a lot of different genres of music but I don’t listen to pop/punk music. There for I did not recognize any tracks nor did I enjoy them. You can turn tracks on and off so if you hate a couple, you don’t have to listen to that particular track. It would have been simple to add more genres with the same functionality, or at least pick the type of music similar to Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition.
Load Times - 95
Load times are great. The progress bar just zips up and you are in the game. Shortly after you have a race loaded and are about to hit the gas. I didn’t time it, but I would estimate maybe 15 seconds more or less for a race. Completely unnoticeable if you’ve been playing Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition.
Replay - 80
You can win races and progress through the game unlocking cars. You can race each race over till you get a gold. Unfortunately, the gold isn’t that tough to get and having the game for only a weekend I am expecting to get all the golds in a week or two depending how much I feel like playing. Once that’s all done, I don’t really know what else there would be to do except just replay old races or try to find some multiplayer action.
Overall - 81
It’s a fun game. I enjoy it. I just don’t know how long it will keep me occupied. It may be a better rental than purchase depending how good your driving skills are. If you have friends with it, the multiplayer will probably be a good reason to add it to your library.
Authors note:
Personally I prefer Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition over this game even despite the load times. I prefer the car customization and I think the races are better. If gives a better feeling of realism to racing while sticking to the arcade play style. That being said I still enjoy Burnout, I’ll just be going back to the other game after I beat this one in about a week.
Nope... I dont sell games, even after I beat them. I keep them as trophies. Plus I may find someone to play (eventually). And I really do enjoy playing it, it will just be a fast play compared to other games.
I think an 81 for this game is fair. I'm really enjoying the game right now. One of the best parts about it is the single race mode where you can choose which game type to play, testing your crash tactics over and over keeps me entertained. I put the rest of my thoughts on it up at squalidlittlehobo.com .
i jsut beat this gmae lol, all 100 crash levels gold, all vehicles unlocked and all gold medals in all events. now i'm bored, there's no more replayability :P it was fun while it lasted.
ridestowe said: "i jsut beat this gmae lol, all 100 crash levels gold, all vehicles unlocked and all gold medals in all events. now i'm bored, there's no more replayability :P it was fun while it lasted."
Well please share with the rest of us and post your game save on this site then. Also, which unlockables, by #, did you win in each catagory?
ridestowe said: "i jsut beat this gmae lol, all 100 crash levels gold, all vehicles unlocked and all gold medals in all events. now i'm bored, there's no more replayability :P it was fun while it lasted."
That's what I was worried about.
Did you get all the custom cars by playing against other people?
just bought this game and i must say it is better than i expected. i have only played burnout and burnout 3 and this has tracks from burnout 2 as well so there are traks i know and new ones that i don't. the races and crash events are easy but it is still fun to see if you can get higher damage dollars than last time. i think my highest is 2 million. i traded in burnout 3 for ps2 for this game because its portable and it has more types of gameplay. good review!
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