Burnout has gone through a lot of changes since it made a splash in late 2001, back when Acclaim was publishing Criterion's legend-in-the-making series, a series that has evolved from being about crashing and narrowly escaping oncoming traffic to having a much bigger focus on shoving your opponents into this traffic. The introduction of Electronic Arts as publisher with Burnout 3: Takedown saw the game take on huge new production values and a presentation that easily outdid the previous versions, but the title also had a heavy focus on taking down your enemy, hence the name, turning the series into more of a battle racing game than ever before.

The newest version, Burnout: Revenge, doesn't make a drastic leap forwards like the series made from Point of Impact to Takedown (understandably so, it has barely been a year since Takedown), perhaps this could be the reasoning for dropping the number from the title as well. Though it plays identically to how it did last year, the game does make some surprising changes to the formula, almost all of which are arguably for the best.

The first thing any fan will notice is the new ability to rear end pedestrian vehicles and not crash as a result. This is the change that most contributes to the game's shift of focus from crashes to battling, as hitting the cars is almost only good for using them as makeshift weapons to ram into other vehicles. Another change made to the racing is a separate game type known as Crashbreaker Race. If you're a fan of Burnout 3 then you know what that means; when you wreck your car, you have the ability to instantly detonate in a glorious explosion that can easily take out any nearby racers.

One area Criterion focused heavily on upgrades was the graphics. They're a lot less bright and don't have that Outrun vibe that Criterion has admitted they were going for. Or does it? The locations may look a lot more industrial and grungy for the most part, but the tracks now have so many alternate paths and huge jumps that it doesn't have to look like a Sega game to capture their vibe - it plays just like a classic racer straight out of your local arcade. When you hit a huge jump and go soaring through the air, landing on cars below, you can't help but feel like you're back at an arcade machine playing Outrun, San Francisco Rush or Cruisin'... unless, of course, you never did play those.

What I'm getting at, though, is the quality of the amazing new track designs. The addition of multiple heights throughout the tracks is something that on paper doesn't seem like much, but once you get into the game and play them, you'll wonder how Burnout was so good without it. Vertical Takedowns are now a common attack technique and a joy to actually pull off: imagine driving along a raised platform and noticing another racer driving on a road below you, then carefully timing a drop off so that you land right on top of them and the words "VERTICAL TAKEDOWN!" flash across the screen, letting you know just how awesome you are. It's a great feeling, just like making a hard left at the last minute to catch a shortcut that sends you soaring through the air and over a cliff, barely making the land onto the crumbling road ahead. I honestly cannot imagine playing Burnout any other way now - sure, the focus may have dropped from the crashes and avoiding miles and miles of traffic, but it was time. Burnout needed to evolve further and the inclusion of huge air and multiple paths for each track is something that is most definitely welcome.

That's not to say that crashing isn't a danger anymore, as narrow shortcuts are full of nasty edges that hit you out of nowhere, huge jumps may throw you right off the road and out of the racing area, and enemies routinely send other cars directly into your path and rear end you constantly. Don't forget that hitting any oncoming traffic or any large vehicle, no matter the direction, also results in a frustrating but oh so sweet wreck.

The multiple height layers aren't just for the race tracks either; expect to see a huge selection of new Crash courses for the once again redefined crash mode. Okay, so Criterion heard all the complaints about the inclusion of modifiers in Burnout 3 and has completely removed every single one of them. Winning a Crash mode is once again based on causing the biggest wreck and you can do that in a variety of ways.

You now start off with a sliding vertical bar that works just like golf swing metres in classic golf titles, but hit it in the wrong spots and you can potentially blow your engine or stall your vehicle. Most intersections, as they're now called, come with a separate area located below the first. This means that you can cause a huge wreck and then have your car careen off a motorway and into a group of parked cars below. Each course also has a specific Target Car that is worth a little bonus if you take it out, and the Crashbreaker has also been revamped.

As more cars crash into your wreck, a boost metre fills up a certain percentage until it reaches the top, at which point you hit the B button as rapidly as possible to keep it from decreasing. You have five seconds to make it hit the top once again and explode instantly, but each vehicle comes with a certain crashbreaker difficulty. For instance, Level 1 Crashbreaker vehicles can easily be detonated, but the higher levels are very difficult to actually max out once the percentage goes all the way up and you'll more than likely be struggling just to keep it within the 90% range. It really is a great system that works well and adds a little bit of extra challenge to the mode.

Yet another new mode has been added as well, although I can't say that it's a very worthwhile addition like Road Rage was last year. Traffic Attack simply challenges you to run into as many vehicles from the rear as you can while going around a track. Sounds fun, but the problem is that it's just too easy to do well! Each time you hit one your time goes up by a small amount, which quickly adds up to a large amount. Almost every single time I played this mode I found myself pulling over and letting it end because it just went on too long after I got the gold medal target.

The entire career mode is structured a bit differently now. For starters, you have a rank that begins with the insulting Harmless and moves up to the overused Elite. You rank up by winning stars, a certain amount for each rank, and each competition in the Career mode can give you up to five stars. Depending on how well you perform, you usually get five for a Gold medal, four for a silver and so on, however it is possible to simply play badly and only get four stars, yet win a gold medal. There is still a narrator, or DJ if you will, but she is nowhere near as frequent as Striker is and to be honest... I'm bummed about it. Sure, most people hated him [Not me, I think the guy was hilarious! Ed] but like SSX3's DJ he gave the game a "live" feeling. Hearing him come on and make announcements during races was refreshing, while having him tell you where the new events were unlocked and what events were happening in town was a cool feature that made the game seem to be updated in real time, even if you heard the same things occasionally.

This new female voice rarely shows up, mostly to introduce each mode the first time you play them, then vanishing for the rest of the game. Her and the overall switch to a grunge-theme menu presentation are probably two of my largest letdowns with the title. The menus work fine, but the colour scheme and overall look doesn't quite say Burnout to me, at least compared to the last three games. But hey, there is still something exciting to watch in the background of the menus at all times, even online like before, which is a nice touch.

I digress though... the career mode is now set up in leagues, with each league holding about four or five smaller leagues of events, all varying in type. There is still a map display, but it doesn't look as appealing and inviting as the Takedown's and you also don't select challenges directly, it just shows you the route on the map as you pick an event from the menu below. As you progress, the events obviously get harder, but they also become a lot more fun, as the new modes and really thrilling vehicles start to come into play. The career mode is incredibly addictive, in fact I was absolutely shocked when I discovered I had 10 hours of play racked up already! I should have known though, seeing as how I was almost finished with what seemed like a short career mode.

The online play that was riddled with problems last year seems to be fixed for the most part. Time is the true factor with this, but during my extensive online play I never encountered any of the frustrating disconnects and odd messages that Takedown displayed on a regular basis. The online user interface feels familiar but different at the same time and also features an intriguing party system to stay in touch with your friends. The online game types are basically the same, with the exception of the crash modes, which now comes in three flavours. The most noteworthy is a mode that pits players one against in a room full of six and lasts until each player has squared off against everyone at least once.

Online games can now be played back-to-back as well in a Grand Prix style, where to win you have to perform well in every event. The host can choose the amount of events and in games like Road Rage where there are teams, the players are automatically switched after each round without going back to a menu. Speaking of the menu, players no longer have to wait for others to select a car in the lobby before hitting the ready button. I'm not sure if this is the reason for it, but Criterion has moved the car selection screen so that it displays after the game loads and right before the actual event begins. Players have about twenty seconds to pick a vehicle and then wait for the rest to select theirs before the game automatically begins, and yes, you can see what vehicles the other players are selecting as well.

Finally, the online races are littered with what most people would call screen trash, but I'm actually a huge fan of the new bombardment of messages displayed. If somebody pulls off a boost at the start of a race, you're informed. If somebody goes into first place, or last place, you're informed. If two players are battling nowhere near you, you'll know, and if somebody crashes you'll know that too. Think of a first person shooter and how text is always coming up at the top letting you know what's going on within the battlefield, such as players killing other players, then apply it to a racing game and you'll get the idea. And I must say, this is a great idea and makes races that much more fun.

As I mentioned, the graphics have changed a bit but still definitely retain that Burnout feel. Best of all, the game constantly runs at an amazing frame rate and looks so smooth that you'll be dying to see what it's going to be like on the Xbox 360 early next year. The brightness has been toned down a bit to give it a bit of a grungy feel, but the intense motion blur and sense of speed has never been more impressive, especially when other vehicles are crashing, flying overhead and causing huge clouds of smoke in front of you. It's one of those games that makes you say, "Wow, I forgot how great this game looks and feels," every time you pick it up.

The sound is mostly similar to last year's sound as well, with some modifications. I won't judge the sound based on the soundtrack, as that is all just a matter of taste (though I would have given it extra points for a completely original soundtrack, like Forza Motorsport's excellent selection), but if you hated it last year then be prepared to stick on your own music instead, as custom soundtrack is fully supported. For some reason Criterion also felt that they should add an audience to the crash mode, which I desperately struggled to turn off, only to weep when I realised I couldn't. They made up for that though by making Crashbreaker explosions that much better: the sound now quickly fades out right before the boom and then hits you hard with one of the best explosions a videogame will ever make your speakers produce.

A 10 out of 10 would make sense for Burnout: Revenge; after all at the time Burnout 2: Point of Impact was reviewed it was also worth a 10 and the same goes for Burnout 3: Takedown. However, even though I very highly consider this game to be superior to the previous version in every way, times and standards change and the incredibly easy career mode, matched with the total lack of any personality to the cars (and the inability to give them one) knocks the game back a bit, especially when the absolutely superb Midnight Club 3: DUB Edition has a hard, long career mode and in-depth customisation. That's not to say that MC3 is a better game, as each one-ups the other in specific departments in a big way, but when it comes to the overall package, Revenge falls shorter in a few areas and ultimately most likely will not have the lasting appeal of other racers out there. But man, is it a thrilling ride!

Burnout: Revenge isn't a huge leap forward for the series compared to the evolution between Point of Impact and Takedown, but it is definitely an evolution for the franchise and once you play it you'll have a hard time going back to the old track designs. The focus on battle racing is even more emphasised here than it was in Takedown, hence the phrase "Battle Racing Ignited" on the cover and it might well alienate some die-hard fans of the series thus far. However, once you adjust, it will be hard to resist the addictiveness and pure fun that is Burnout: Revenge. Like Takedown before it, if you have a pulse and any sense of excitement at all then you need to own this game.

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).