Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Burnout 2: Point of Impact

Written by Adam Woolcott on September 27, 2002

First Impressions: Burnout 2 is a high-speed racing thrill-fest that looks to not only maintain the wild crashes and great speed of the original, but create a deeper and smarter game as well.

The original Burnout was one of the PlayStation 2's sleepers of 2001 in an amazing fall season. The game definitely wasn't perfect, with unfortunate AI flaws dragging down an otherwise excellent game, but there's no doubt the combination of awesome speed, cool cars, and the wild, realistic crashes, along with a very old-school feel to the races made for a unique twist on the arcade racing genre.

As you might expect, Acclaim and developer Criterion Games is back at it again this year with a sequel Ц the creatively titled Burnout 2: Point of Impact. Borrowing heavily from a certain Fast & The Furious movie, Burnout 2 is a high-speed racing thrill-fest that looks to not only maintain the wild crashes and great speed of the original, but create a deeper and smarter game as well. From the looks of things, it's set to do just that.

With Burnout 2, it seems that Criterion has gone back to the drawing board and come up with many new ideas, as well as borrowing some from another racing game. The best place to start off should be УOffensive Driving 101Ф a training mode giving you the chance to learn the various techniques required to succeed in the other modes. Also new is a УPursuitФ mode, borrowed from a game with Pursuit in its title Ц Need for Speed. However, instead of running from the law, you are the law, and it's your job to run the miserable bastids who can't obey the speed limit off the road and give them a cell with Bubba.

Also revamped is the championship mode, which now will be points-based to decide who's the winner. The last Burnout had it set so you had to win pretty much every time to advance, which in some cases was impossible for reasons beyond your control (as in, cheap opposing drivers). With the 30 new tracks included in Burnout 2, the championship mode should be not only more fun, but longer as well.

Speaking of 30 tracks, the 30 tracks are spread all around the US and some of its most interesting locales. You'll be able to race around Miami (Grand Theft Burnout 2: Vice City?), Los Angeles, New Mexico (eh?), the Rockies, and an airport. And no, you cannot get out of your car and find a Dodo to fly, capiche?

Burnout 2 will have 14 different cars to use, 7 of them unlockable. The unlockable cars include stock cars, police cars, and those crazy 1950's hot rods you'd see in American Graffiti. Most of the cars are very much tailored to appear like the Rice Rockets that were in Furious, only no goofy cops or Vin Diesel driving them. The cars are customizable, letting you add in different body kits or decals. Kinda like swappable Hot Wheels, only not quite, since those don't exist.

While opponent AI isn't really known yet (besides saying it's УsmartФ), Acclaim and Criterion promise much improved bystander car AI. In the first Burnout, the innocent cars traveled in a constant pattern, so learning the traffic patterns was an easy/cheap way to learn the tracks and win. This time around, things are different, with a promise of 3 different kinds of driver behavior. I'm assuming that the 3 different kinds of behavior are: 1 Ц drive off screaming like the GTA 3 traffic weenies; 2 Ц ramming your ass back and trying to hurt you; and 3 Ц flipping you off and shooting your ass dead with a .45 in a display of road rage. Well, okay, that 3rd one isn't going to be there, but I'm sure the first 2 will make their way into the game.

Graphically, Burnout 2: PoE is definitely improved over the pretty looking original. The biggest enhancement is in the weather Ц now you'll encounter natural racing hazards like fog, rain, and snow. Hopefully Criterion really set it up so that these bad weather conditions affect your ability to drive the cars Ц but since it is an arcade racer, hopefully they didn't overdo it either.

Burnout's trademark is definitely the crashes Ц so the crashes here are back, and drastically improved. Now you can create an entire disaster on the streets, with parts flying and cars getting damaged, finally. At least now you can get into a million crashes and it actually looks like your car has been messed up from it all.

Plus for you HDTV owners, Burnout 2 will feature Progressive Scan output, joining only a handful of PlayStation 2 games that support it. It also supports Dolby Pro Logic II for the audiophiles, though not much is known in terms of game soundtrack Ц hopefully no more John Deere farmer music.