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11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
 Wishing for a cheat code to make the checkpoints go away...Jul 19, 2002
By iansomniak
My feelings on BURNOUT are very mixed. On one hand, it offers a lightning-fast racing experience that is absolutely thrilling. At the same time, it suffers from some serious flaws. The game is unique in that it allows you to race through busy streets rather than on a racetrack, so you get to weave in and out of traffic at insane speeds in a realistic looking environment. The graphics are terrific and the inevitable crashes are impressive...although the three consecutive crash replays may be two too many. The sound is uneven, with engine noises being too loud and horns too quiet. The crashes are very loud, as you'd expect. The MIDI music is monotonous, but you can't really hear it over the constant drone of your car's engine anyway. The car selection is extremely limited, with only FIVE generic choices available at the start of the game. They include: "Supermini," "Sports Coupe," "Saloon," "Pickup," and "Muscle." The best of these is the Muscle car, which looks a lot like a Viper. You can at least change the color of your car, but this feature is also very limited: The Burnout paint shop stocks only red, black, white, silver and blue (yellow is exclusive to the Pickup truck). I remember playing Test Drive 6 on the PlayStation 1 and having a whole SLEW of awesome authentic automobiles to choose from. Not so with Burnout, and it's a crying shame. Furthermore, the game provides only TWO camera views: an external (or `chase') view, and an interior view. Select the latter, and you'll see nothing more than the road -- no dashboard, no steering wheel...not even the hood of your car (kind of disorienting). But by far the most unfortunate aspect of the game is, of course, those vexatious and unnecessary CHECKPOINTS. It is completely unreasonable to expect the average player to race for 10 to 15 minute stretches while consistently maintaining a level of concentration intense enough to enable said player to avoid all crashes, perfectly execute all turns, pass all AI opponents, AND make every ridiculous checkpoint just to finish the race! In so doing, Burnout's developers have taken a good chunk of the fun out of the game and replaced it with frustration, anger and disappointment. You can be mere seconds away from a checkpoint, in 3rd place, when the time runs out and you see the dreaded GAME OVER message as the guy behind you in 4th place zooms on by. I was ahead of that guy! Why didn't HIS checkpoint timer run out?! It's enough to make you throw your WaveBird right through the TV screen! (NO! DON'T DO IT!) Remove the checkpoints, triple the number of playable cars, redo the music and you'd have an exhilarating racing game worthy of a perfect 10. As it is, though, I give Burnout a less than enthusiastic 7. The GameCube library needs more auto racing titles; this one is not bad but it could've been a lot better.
8 of 9 found the following review helpful:
This game comes to a screaching halt faster than the Viper.Aug 25, 2002
By David Kauffman
The game is called Burnout. The object is simple, drive around everyday cities, it everyday cars. Sounds simple right? EXACTLY. That's the problem, the game is just TOO simple. You go an get turbo points for literally "taking chances" driving into oncoming traffic, swirving around cars, nearly hitting it. After a while, it gets boring. By the second lap, you going "I keep in doing this! What's so fun about this?"The gameplay is any basic racing game. You go when it says go, and you try to make it to first place. The game contains checkpoints. I think every racing game, by law, should need an option to turn those annoying things off! When you crash, you get seriously behind. 2 crashes, and you'll need to speed up to get to the next one. 3 crashed, and you're pretty much out of the game. You also must build up your turbo meter, as I said before, by taking chances. Hitting a car will go and take away 50 out of 100 turbo points. So if you have 99, and you crash, you now have 49 and must do it all over again to reach Turbo. Once turbo is reached, you press L and you go REEEEALY fast. The problem is, you crash even easier that way! The varieties are 1P time trail or race againts the computer, or the Championship races, and 2P involves head to head. You can race againts someone else and 0, 1 or 2 computer cars. The cars themselves have no real variety to them. A minivan is under "Easy" so anything else is very hard. Younger gamers will have a difficult time making it to checkpoints and making impossible turns, so gameplay gets a lousy 6.5/10 Gamecube graphics are pretty great, and it lives up to it in Burnout. You can't go all out cool with the graphics in a racing game, but this is pretty nice. The cars have sleek designs that shine and glisten, and I love crash cams. You see perfect physics with glass flying and fender benders. Sometimes your car does a flip. The graphics are real nice, even for a racing game. With no hesitation, I think i'll lay down a nice 10/10 for the graphics. Now, bare with me. You cannot have a lot of sound in racing games. Music in the backround, cars crashing and tires squeeling. I made a promise that when I rate racing games, I go easy on the sound. For this game, I don't even have to. It's sweet how you can hear horns blazing, and the sound of air swooshing past your cars. The crashes are nice, they have good sound effects for them. Everything else is pretty standard for a racing game. However, it is the racing-in-a-normal-city type game, so I would of likes to hear some angry hecklers from passing cars. Overall, the sound gets an 9/10, a nice score for a racing game. Speed? No, no, i'm not talking about the cars, Im talking loading time. Nintendo has always stayed true to cartdrige style, but you can't have graphics like these or mass produce them either. So, alas, CD's were made. The loading time isn't so great. You do need to wait a while for races to load, about 3/4 of the time it takes for madden to load. (I always compare my loading time to madden 2002. If you've played it before, you guys know what I'm talking about.) The loading gets a 6.75/10, not the best, but it's OK. Racing controls are never hard. A to go, B to stop, thats all. The game has L for turbo and R for beep your horn. It can't get easier than than. 10/10 for controls. You NEVER, and I mean NEVER buy a racing game if it has no replay value. Burnout gets more fun after you play it longer, because you can unlock new cars and roads. However, with it only 2-player, the replay value only gets an 7/10 Before you buy Burnout, wait a while until you see if a different racing game catches your eye. If not, that's fine. Burnout doesn't stink that bad, but it is not the best racing game I've ever played. Let's review:
Gameplay: 6.5/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Speed: 6.75/10
Controls: 10/10
Replay value: 7/10
Total: 49.25/60 giving Burnout an 82.03 No cheats in this game, but there are secrets in it though. You can unlock new cars and tracks, so I'll add an extra point in there. Burnouts new total is now 50.25, coming out to be an 83.75
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Fun racing game but too short.Jun 10, 2002
By Brett Johnson
I would give this game a dual rating if I could. 2 stars for advanced video game players and 4 stars for everyone else. "Burnout" is actually one of the better racers that I have played. The controls are excellent and sometimes the racing gets quite hectic. There are several lengthy courses and three modes of play. You can also race a friend in 2 player mode. Those are the good things. However, the bad characteristics of this game end up weighing it down for the more experienced players. One major flaw is that it is way too easy. My friend and I beat this game in only half a day. That doesn't exactly leave you feeling like you got your money's worth. Another problem is the crash element of the game. Every time you crash, you are forced to sit through 3(!!) replays of the crash. To say the least, it irritatingly interrupts the flow of the race. A much better idea would be to simply have given the player the option to watch the crash replays AFTER the race is over. Some of the crashes are pretty cool and I can understand why some people would like to view them. Given the good car control and thoughtfully planned courses, I would recommend this title to racing game fans. However, a rental would be the best bet for most since this game can be beaten rather quickly.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 Jaded - Get Burnout 2 InsteadOct 09, 2003
By Randy Given
I have to admit that I am probably jaded. I got Burnout 2 (B2) before getting Burnout 1 (B1) and there is a world of difference. Now, if I had gotten B1 when it first came out, I might have been impressed. But, now, there is no way I would trade them. B2 has much better graphics, better sound, slightly better control. B1 takes too long for many races. It forces you to see crashes way more often than you want to. I did not find B1 any "harder" than B2, just more annoying. The jaggies on B1 make it hard to see detail, so that makes B2 so much more impressive (it runs on the same hardware). Only get B1 if you want the "full" Burnout experience and/or are trying to be records (the latter is my perspective, obsessive-compulsive person that I am).
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
 One of my favorite racing games.May 10, 2003
By Richard
Burnout is the type of game that I really wanted for quite a while; an arcade type racing game with huge detailed crashes. Burnout delivered most everything I was expecting. Some people have complained about the fact that none of the cars are licensed reproductions of real cars. This doesn't bother me at all. The cars do lack detail but that still doesn't bother me. The tracks are pretty long (especially the Marathon tracks) but that just gives you more time to put the pedal down and smash into oncoming traffic. The opposition drivers are pretty smart. They'll try to run you into cars and they don't crash very often. You don't really want to crash into other cars, but the amazing crash visuals make you want to make a huge wreck. There are several different cars available, and then two special cars (a city bus and a big-rig tow truck). All of them handle differently and have different speeds. For racing I like the roadster. For causing huge wrecks I like the bus. A big plus is the large number of tracks you can race on. Granted, several are just reversed version of other tracks, but there are different traffic patterns, weather changes, and some tracks are at night (really neat). You can save your best replays, but each one takes up 15 blocks on a Gamecube memory card. I was kind of sad that the dents and things don't stay on your car after a wreck. They somehow get fixed when you start to race again. I was also wishing it had a "demolition derby" mode where you had to try to smash up as many opponents as you could. No such luck. These little things don't really make me that upset though. Last Word: Burnout is a very fun racing game that is an excellent time-killer. If you want to see some of the best crash visuals ever, do check out Burnout.
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based on 48 reviews
