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Dom Robinson reviews
Acclaim
- Price: £39.99
- Players: 1-2
Burnout. Sounds a bit similar to Wipeoutand the principle is similar as you drive, not from A to B, but from A back toA again as the track takes you back to where you first started from for lapafter lap of racing for as long as you can stand it with several differentcars.
For a typical racer there are the typical options – a single race, a multi-race(known as ‘Championship’ here), a head-to-head for those with more than onejoystick to waggle at once, a time-attack for those who like the solo action,a ‘Special’ section for crash replays and a music player which plays tracksin Dolby Digital 5.1, but why can’t it do this in the game??
The game has two main selling points, the first being a sort-of adrenaline metersuch that as you drive close to the knuckle through the traffic, so does thismeter increase and so your speed will be upped along the way. I didn’t noticemuch difference as it runs like the clappers anyway.
The other thing of note is the crashes which some will have seen from thegame’s previews on TV. However, while this is interesting for a while, itquickly becomes irritating. The crashes don’t serve to enthrall, just enragebecause they look like tacked-on extras that have no part in the actual gameplay -they only appear as soon as you hit something and go away just as quickly, soyou don’t get the chance to right your car first, it just reappears in thecorrect direction but slower because you’re having to get yourself going again.Put simply, it just doesn’t feel like like a crash inGrand Theft Auto 3does.
Speed is definitely of the essence here. The graphics are insanely fast,almost like running the gauntlet in a Tron race in terms of the pace, but howmany times can you run the same race since too many crashes will stop you fromprogressing further and you’ll have to replay it. Some anti-aliasing wouldn’tgo amiss though as there are noticeable jaggies throughout.
The sound is okay. It’s nothing you don’t expect from a game like this andthe Dolby Surround is an added bonus but isn’t made use of as much as it wasin Extreme G3 and I stillwant to know why there’s no DD5.1 in-game as opposed to in the ‘Special’section only.
Overall, it’s fun to play for a while but its longevity is severely in doubt.If you must play it, try a rental first.
SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC
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Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.