If you were to pit the two Burnout games in a face off race, Burnout 2 would leave the mangled wreck of its predecessor lying under a fifteen vehicle pile-up as it speeds off into the beautifully realised sunset, the scene of carnage behind reflected perfectly in its gleaming paint work.

Burnout 2: Point of Impact improves upon the excellent original in absolutely every way. There is nothing that has not been enhanced, tweaked or refined. Burnout 2 is a racing game with a difference. In each race, you and three other maniacs speed around busy roads at breakneck speed where dangerous driving is rewarded with a speed boost bonus. Burnout was acclaimed in particular for its crash sequences. Whenever you had a collision, you would get to see it replayed from two or three angles before the race continues. But as fun as these crashes were, you would be penalised by losing half of your boost bar and a few seconds in the race and so no matter how much you liked crashing, if you wanted to win the races you had to avoid it as much as possible. This time things are a little different.

Visually, Burnout 2 far surpasses the original in every respect. The cars are shinier, more detailed and the reflections of light and scenery are very realistic. The scenery is incredibly detailed; the buildings look three-dimensional and their design ranges greatly. There are dustbins, road cones, road works and other objects you can smash through without losing any speed. In the countryside the horizon line can stretch for miles, with individually constructed trees flying past you on the roadside behind a range of bushes, barriers and fences. There is more variety in the theme and look of the different tracks as well. Locations include busy cities and streets, winding country lanes, airport terminals (where you periodically see planes flying overhead), snow-capped hills, lakes, coastal roads and dusty desert tracks. There are also more kinds of vehicles on the road, including taxis, several different models of cars, vans, buses, trucks and lorries carrying timber, making it feel more realistic and well populated. There are also excellent new weather effects. The rain is superb and the wet, reflective road is one of the most convincing I have ever seen. The way the sun reflects in your eyes is just right, the reduced light on overcast days is spot on and the night driving levels with a clear sky and big full moon are very atmospheric. The snow effect is the best though, as it actually starts and stops snowing during the race, getting thicker and then thinning off again.

The graphical piece de resistance however is the crashes. They are so much more smooth, fast and detailed than before. Pieces of your car including at least one tyre, the bonnet and bumpers fly off in all directions and the inertia and physics of the car crashes is greatly improved. When you hit a car head on you go flying and the car you hit spins off at an angle into more traffic, whereas with a truck you come to an immediate stop. If you crash at speed, you will invariably go spinning, twirling and crashing down the road, smashing into other cars or flying off into buildings and trees, bits of your car falling and flying with each impact. Best of all is the aftermath of your crashes. Now the traffic around you responds more realistically, the cars speeding towards a crash site will slam on their brakes and you see the smoke and hear the noise as their brakes lock and they screech towards an inevitable impact. Also cars going the other way will often be affected, instinctively braking and causing a separate accident all of their own! Truly, the crashes are masterfully done. It's just such a shame you get penalised for them. If only there was a mode where the sole object was to cause the biggest pile-up possible. A Crash Mode, say.

The Crash Mode is without doubt the finest new addition. There are five sets of three Crash Zones, where you begin each zone just seconds away from a queue of traffic, a busy highway or a fast-moving crossroads. You also have a full boost bar, so you can super speed your way down the road before plowing into a busy stream of traffic at well over 100mph. These scenes are staggering in their scale and so satisfying to perform and watch. As soon as you hit the first vehicle, everything slows down and you get to watch your car go flying into the air. Invariably the car you hit goes spinning into a bus or lorry, bringing them screeching to a halt. That's when all of the other traffic behind starts braking in a vain attempt to avoid the pile-up. Whilst all this is happening, you get to watch your car from multiple angles as it carries on flying, spinning or bouncing along, switching between this and the several areas where cars, vans and lorries are smashing into each other. When all of the traffic has come to a halt, you get a helicopter flyover of the whole scene, where the damage caused to each vehicle flashes up! It's pure genius and endless, tremendous fun. You will laugh so hard at the carnage; it really is some of the very best entertainment money can buy. The total amount of damage is multiplied by the number of vehicles involved to give you a final damage sum in the millions. Each level has an amount you must reach to win a Bronze, Silver and Gold medal and after you've won a Bronze or higher in all three zones, the next set of three is unlocked.

There are loads of features and vehicles to unlock. Each vehicle has a top speed, handling and acceleration combo and the generically named vehicles include the pickup, sport car, roadster, muscle car and compact, with more flashy numbers such as the hot rod, classic, gangster, oval racer and police car to be unlocked. You can choose from a range of colours for most of these too. When you begin only Offensive Driving 101 is available, forcing you to complete a series of brief training sections. These are quick to get through and serve as very effective training for the newbie whilst refreshing Burnout fans and allowing them to get used to the new handling. The control of the cars is even better than before, allowing you to develop a serious amount of skill in your driving style. Once through this, Championship, Single Race, Time Attack and Crash modes become available.

The Championship is a series of races with some other stuff thrown in for fun. After you win the first championship of three races, you unlock a Face Off race (you versus one other driver). Win this and you unlock a new car as well as the next championship. Get all Golds in the championship and you also unlock a Pursuit race, where you drive a police car and must repeatedly ram a speeding car until it stops. This is great fun and a welcome change of pace, plus it allows you to unlock another vehicle. Pursuit Mode becomes unlocked as you progress, meaning you can chase any car with any other on any unlocked course. The range of courses is greater this time with six distinct areas used to generate a large variation of routes and areas. When you eventually finish the Championship, a Custom Championship and Custom Car are unlocked where you get to race against very sporty custom cars in a much harder series of races.

At the end of each standard race a scoreboard is shown with the best lap time, best total time, best score, highest score, biggest combo, biggest crash and best crash total. You can also set records on longest Big Air, Drift and Oncoming as well as your burnout total. For those of you unfamiliar with Burnout, you have a boost bar that gradually fills up as you drive dangerously. Near misses with other vehicles, driving into oncoming traffic, drifting around corners by tapping the brake button as you turn and making jumps into the air all give you boost. The controls are such that all of these skills are easy to learn but take time to master. Once your boost bar is full, you can press the boost button and the whole screen blurs for a moment as you thrust forward at incredible speeds.

In Burnout, if you crashed you'd lose half your boost bar, but Burnout 2 is a little kinder and only takes about a quarter away. Also, you could sustain your boost bar as you speed by pulling off more dangerous driving. Burnout 2 works differently and it's for the better. Now, your boost bar drains steadily as you drive, but if you have pulled off enough dangerous moves when it empties, you will get a burnout combo and the boost bar will refill itself without stopping. You can pull off a great chain of these, my record being 5. To achieve this you must drive headlong through oncoming traffic at ridiculous speeds and drift around corners at 100mph+ so by the time the combo ends your nerves are shredded and the adrenaline is pumping. Much audible whooping, shouting and occasionally girlie screaming can be heard from my room during these sequences where you go from a near miss collision to an exhilarating super speed run to an overly fast bit that feels beyond your control, all in a heartbeat. Of course, you can take your finger off the boost bar at any time (you chicken) but if you do you won't get that burnout or burnout combo. The fact that you can't tell whether or not you've got the combo until the boost bar empties encourages more dangerous driving. In my experience the best way to drive is by keeping your finger on the boost button the whole race, so it is used the moment it becomes available. The speed that the graphics and scenery race past at is truly mind-blowing, I don't know what kind of a frame rate they've got but it's without doubt the fastest game on PS2 and I daresay any other platform. There is never (I repeat never) any slowdown of any description. Again, this is a great achievement. It is also worth mentioning that it is now much harder to crash by hitting the side of the road, generally you just scrape along the barriers and sparks fly - this is a big improvement as it allows you to drive a little more recklessly without losing momentum.

The sound effects are perfect. The revving engines, the screeching brakes, the sound of smashing glass, crumpling metal and collisions are outstanding and the echo effect in the tunnels is awesome, particularly with the police siren. The music sits in the background at a fairly quiet level whilst you drive, but as soon as you go into boost mode the volume level doubles and heavier guitar riffs and drum beats kick in, making the tune far meatier during the super-speed sequences. An all-new selection of pumping tunes is here and each one is excellent.

There is no possible way I could understate how totally awesome Burnout 2: Point of Impact is. No matter how many superlatives I use (brilliant, inspired, a work of genius, incredible and so on) there is no way I could over-hype the experience. This game is an essential purchase for every PS2 owner, I don't care if you hate racing games, you'll still love Burnout 2.

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).