Gaming Review: Road rage for gamers

Seeing how I've actually gotten away from Halo 2 for a bit, I have been able to indulge in other gaming goodies. The Capcom Collection I mentioned a few issues back as still been good to me, but it's taken a backseat (damn puns) to another game I've gotten my hands on: Burnout Revenge by EA.

I'm not the biggest racing game fan (although I DO LOVE Rallysport Challenge 2) so I wasn't sure what to expect. I've read about the Burnout series in EGM and online, and people seem to have awarded it the crown of best arcade racing series and now I can see why. Unfortunately, I can't really talk about the improvements to the series since this game is my first taste of the arcade racer but I will say that I'm quite impressed with the game.

Basically, you race different types of races in various locations trying to unlock new cars that are faster, as well as other courses. Of course it's not as easy as it sounds because you're going to need fast reflexes and uncanny eyesight if you are to make it to the very top of the rank. This game moves so fast it makes the pod races and the Speederbike chase on Endor from the Star Wars movie look like old ladies are driving on Sundays. I kid you not.

To get ahead of the racers, you can smash them into any part of the course or the city that you're racing in. Hell, you smash the crap out of any vehicle to make them bounce into opponents or the regular drivers, just so you can clear a path for optimum speed boosting. If that's not enough, there's the opportunity to blow your car up to get revenge on any of the vehicles that have caused you to crash. The more revenge you get, the more your speed boosting meter rises which allows you to get higher ranks and rewards.

Don't even get me started on the crash tests where you have to figure out the best way to send your car into traffic in order to smash the highest number of cars. Strategy AND carnage? This is my new crack!

Racing fans will definitely eat this game up and I'm writing about it to convince non-racing gamers to give this one a try. Make sure that you have a pillow near you because when you lose a race by a millisecond and you've been tense and attentive throughout the whole thing, you're going to chuck your controller right into the carpet. Or perhaps I'm just an angry gaming driver, just like I am in real life.

With almost unlimited replay value and online racing via Xbox Live, this is a must play title. I give this one a 9 out of 10.