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Burnout Revenge Preview
Gamespot has a preview of the next title in the Burnout series, Burnout Revenge. From the article: "When we saw Burnout Revenge at E3, Criterion compared this year's crash mode courses to holes you might play during a game of golf, complete with a simplistic teeing-off mechanic that determines how fast you get off the line, fairways--aka freeways--full of hazards (like cars you don't want to crash into...yet), golf green-like areas (such as intersections that ooze carnage potential), and a hole that takes the form of a moving "target car" that's worth loads of points if you manage to wreck it. These comparisons still hold true, but Criterion has clearly been hard at work refining and improving upon the crash mode since it showed it off in Los Angeles." Given how good Burnout 3 was, I'm looking forward to this.
Unfortunately, I'm torn. You see, EA is far more evil than any game can be good. I shed a tear for missing out on Oddworld and the new Burnout installments but I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for actually giving money to EA. It's almost a shame, really.
"This is considered plagiarism."
What they need to do is be smarter about all the damn loading screens. It really kills the energy of the game sitting through as many of them as you have to. Especially in crash mode. I did some of those crash levels a dozen times in a row trying to get gold. There's no reason I should've had to sit though a couple loading screens each time I reset the crash to try again. Everything should be there in memory, what are you loading for?
That was, by far, the most aggravating part of Burnout 3. All that being said, what an awesome game. Even my girlfriend loves it. She bought herself a smaller xbox controller for it. Games that I can get her to play with me are automatically winners in my book.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
The preview video available at the official site features the music of Andy Hunter, a badass DJ.
If that's the direction they're going with the soundtrack (which, IMO, was the only real weakness of Burnout 3), then I'm sold.
OMG! Wau!
The AI doesn't rubberband in the traditional sense. When it's winning, it drives more conservatively and lays off the boost, just like a human in the lead might. When the player is leading, it drives more aggressively to catch up. But since it plays by most of the same rules as the players, the AI crashes more often when trying to catch up. Just like players statistically do when boosting.
Ever noticed the AI fighting with itself? It does all the time, and that's how it's possible for a human or AI car to win by 15 seconds just because 2nd and 3rd place "decided" they were more intent on crashing each other than catching up to the leader.
They can start by removing the tracks with pillars that lanes actually dead-end into. Those go against the spirit of the game. It isn't a racing sim, where I have real control over the car. It's no fun to powerslide around a corner and crash by bad luck. Even worse is when a race on that track starts, like Kings of the Road, the AI bumps the player around and possibly into pillars. But restart the race and perhaps that time the bump will miss the pillar. If skill can't save the player, and it's just a matter of chance, that's stupid.
Also, they need more, if not all of the single-player tracks, available for multiplayer. My friend and I have played out all the multiplayer tracks, but half of the single-player tracks aren't available to us. How dumb is that?
They also need it to remember my audio settings. I don't like their 40 tracks that all sound like weak Alien Ant Farm and 311 alternative-light ripoffs. When I do single or multiplayer I want my five albums of Offspring, and I want Burnout to remember that.
Granted, it's hard to make Burnout prettier than it is already ... Let's hope the sequel has better physics than the "matchbox car physics" of the original. Buses that hit a curb and flip up onto their end, for example...
I have burnout 3, and it's certainly entertaining (except for the DJ and 2/3 of the idiotic tracks), but I'll definitely wait for burnout 4 until it's in the $20 bin before getting More Of The Same.
Given how many tracks in this game are repeats with different cars that handle barely different from the others (compacts and coupes, anyone), there's really only 1/3 as much game as there really are. It's still not an overly short game, but I still would have felt cheated if I shelled out $40 for it (I got it bargain bin).
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
I have been in races where I have an 18-20 second lead, and a few seconds later will get a "on your tail" note and lose boost because of it. This is notable in the one-on-one races. It essentially makes the game one of "crash him once and then go the rest of the way without crashing, and don't boost to try to build a lead." If you boost, you are liable to crash, and you can come out of a crash with a twenty (or more) second deficit, when the actual crash should have cost you five at most.