Burnout has become such a well loved franchise to gamers that the mere mention of Burnout lights up people's faces. So needless to say, I was pretty damn excited to hear that a new Burnout game was in the works. That is up until EA actually showed off what Burnout Crash! is.
I got some hands-on time with Burnout Crash! at EA's Summer Showcase yesterday and even a day later, I'm still not sure if I actually liked or hated what I played.
Burnout Crash! (PlayStation Network, Xbox Live Arcade [Previewed] Developer: Criterion Games Publisher: Electronic Arts To be released: Fall 2011
If there was one flaw with Burnout Paradise, it was that it didn't have the beloved Crash mode that people adored in previous Burnout games. Burnout Crash! focuses on just the Crash mode and it's all presented from a top-down perspective. A small team developed Crash! through XNA with the main focus being on the easy to pick up gameplay above everything else.
Crash! is definitely easy in that the controls are just steering and blowing up. That's it. Each mode starts off with you racing into the map until you've hit a car. After which you'll begin to blow yourself up with the A button (on the Xbox 360 controller) in whatever direction your holding the analog stick.
The goal is to score as much points possible so you want to hit cars, buildings, and any other objects you can find in the levels. Exploding is limited based on a meter that fills up over time but causing damage fills this meter up quicker. Special vehicles will come along that offer more points and causing chain reactions will get you more points too. It all has a very pinball feel to it, right down to the sound effects and different music that plays.
I tried out Burnout Crash! with the Kinect as well and it's like a very retarded game of hopscotch. You'll hold your hands up in front of you at first to steer. Once you've crashed, you'll jump in different directions in order to blow your vehicle up. For instance, jump forward and your car will explode upwards on the screen. Overall I think the Kinect feature is very forgettable. You'll maybe try it once, feel stupid jumping around like a kangaroo that's been hit upside the head and then go back to standard controls.
While all 18 levels are pretty simple in terms of visuals, they are actually all based or inspired by levels in past Burnout games. As for the cars, there are five cars based on Burnout Paradise vehicles plus two new ones like the new garbage truck.
There are also three game modes, the main one being Road Trip. This is the mode you'll want to play to unlock everything in the game and the main objective is to keep the crashes going as long as possible. You'll lose if you've let five cars escape. In Rush Hour mode, you have 90 seconds of free-for-all action. Once the time ends, everything blows up. In Pileup mode, the goal is to keep things on fire otherwise the challenge ends.
Autolog will be part of Crash! and will feature a new addition called Autolog Challenges. There's no actual multiplayer so instead you'll be sending head-to-head challenges to people on your friends list in order to beat or maintain your high-scores on stages. The one good thing that Crash! has going for it is this Autolog feature. Having leaderboards against just your friends is a good motivation factor to keep on replaying games over multiple times.
I think the name Burnout is what's throwing me off on Crash! Just hearing the name Burnout presents such high expectations that part of me thinks Criterion would have been better off simply calling this Crash! When you think of the name of a well established racing title, you expect an awesome racing game, right? What's next? A racing franchise that introduces on foot sections? Oh wait ...
Actually, now that I've gotten this far in my preview, I know exactly what I didn't like about Crash! It's way too slow. Cars are coming in slow and the time it takes to explode takes to long. I have horrible patience when it comes to games as it is, but Crash! just felt like it was too slow. When I think cars exploding I think Michael Bay explosions everywhere hitting you hard and fast. That's what I want from Crash! Offer an ADHD mode and I'll be all about Crash!
One last thing to add: I asked about a Wii version of the game and it doesn't look like Criterion is all that interested. It's a different story on the mobile side though as Criterion wouldn't out right deny the possibility. Crash! feels like it would fit perfectly on the iPad, no?
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I just can't get over my distaste for this perspective. I mean, I'm fine with top-down driving games -- I used to love Death Rally, and the original GTA games are still my favorite of the series -- but for some reason I just don't feel like it works for this one.
As excited as I get about anything Burnout related, I'd rather they take the Crash mode, and release it as it is in the games as a downloadable title. Then layer a bunch of features on top to flesh it out.
As it is right now, I'll probably just demo it as a distraction.
@ vicryixiv: Show Time was a sort of in-game Crash mode that you activated at will while free-roaming. Vanilla Crash, as a separate mode, gave you more freedom to fuck shit up than Show Time.
Huge fan of the burnout series, but I think without that sense of speed into an intersection causing millions of dollars of damage, this will merely be a footnote in an otherwise amazing series
I really don't like this as a Burnout game the same way I didn't like the Twisted Metal RC game. They take away the concepts that make the series what it is and just sell the name. Not cool in my book!
i would pay a dollar for this, but no higher. how could it possibly be entertaining for more than five minutes. i see this as nothing more than Criterion asking, "how could we make burnout more like angry birds?"
This is what burnout is supposed to be, in my opinion. Unadulterated full-frontal vehicular explosion porn. A top-down view over something that looks like frogger with vehicle physics? If I'm not right in the middle of the explosion I might as well not be there. Seriously, I don't think many people want to watch an action movie (or porn, to keep the metaphor going) from a helicopter.
I was excited about another Burnout game until I read this. Sounds like this is one of those games that might be fun for about an hour, but not worth much beyond that. Whoever decided to take the franchise in this direction should be fired.
I actually think this looks pretty cool. Very arcadey. I agree that it's quite a departure from previous burnout titles but is as this as an addition rather than a replacement. I am a sucker for high score based games tho.
nope, that perspective ruins it for me. The whole point of Burnout's Crash mode has always been about the spectacle of the crash, of going in with a view close to (or even inside) your car and hurtling towards a busy main street. This looks like the early GTA games and those were not fun largely because of the view/visual style.
Yeah, if it was a standalone Crash mode like in Burnout that would be lovely. You could even introduce ridiculous scenarios as DLC. Zombie Apocalypse. Unicorn Mating Season. Endless possibilities.
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Contest:
5:15 PM on 07.08.2011 | 
I'll definitely be demoing it before purchase.
In this perspective, in this graphical style, it sort of loses the point entirely.
As it is right now, I'll probably just demo it as a distraction.
YES. That's what ruins it for me!
Thanks for putting that into words, because I really couldn't figure out WHY I didn't like this, just that I DIDN'T.
Yeah! At the time Burnout 3 was top notch graphics, so Crash Mode was insane eye candy.
you nailed it.
that and the speed are just wrong. burnout has always been a super fast paced game.
This is what burnout is supposed to be, in my opinion. Unadulterated full-frontal vehicular explosion porn. A top-down view over something that looks like frogger with vehicle physics? If I'm not right in the middle of the explosion I might as well not be there. Seriously, I don't think many people want to watch an action movie (or porn, to keep the metaphor going) from a helicopter.
And I'll point it out again. Burnout Paradise is on PSN for $8 right now and it comes with some of the DLC too.