Burnout (series)
Burnout (series)
Burnout is a series of high-speed racing games for the PlayStation Two, GameCube, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Three, and Xbox three hundred sixty game consoles. A Microsoft Windows version of the latest installment in the series Burnout Paradise, was also released. [1] The game series was developed by Criterion Games and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the very first two games and later Electronic Arts from the third game onwards. Burnout and Burnout Two: Point of Influence received critical acclaim and a large fanbase in Europe, as well as an underground following in the US. It was not until the release of Burnout Trio: Takedown that the series gained mass appeal to US players. In April 2013, Alex Ward said that Criterion was steering away from the racing genre, placing the future of the series into question. [Two]
- Acclaim Entertainment(2001–2002)
- Electronic Arts(2004–2011)
one November 2001
twenty September 2011
Contents
Main series Edit
Spin-offs Edit
The most notable feature that the series is known for is its crash modes. This series is well known for its emphasis on aggressive driving and high speed. In-race prizes are given to a player if they take risks such as driving towards oncoming traffic or deliberately attempting to make their opponents crash. In Burnout Three: Takedown the latter act, referred to in-game as a “takedown”, was showcased extensively and gave prizes such as points and boost when successfully performed.
It was not the racing element of the game but the slow mobility replays of crashes that display the cars being deformed realistically that brought Burnout to the attention of the public. Criterion picked up on this and introduced a special “Crash Mode” as part of Burnout Two: Point of Influence. In this mode players are instructed to cause as much harm as possible by crashing their vehicle into traffic in a specially designed level featuring “crash junctions”, areas where a large amount of vehicles are passing by (such as a highway). During these events, traffic is permanently the same, utilizing a trial-and-error method to succeed. The mode was excluded from Burnout Paradise due to the arrival of Burnout Crash!. [Trio] Instead, it is substituted with a “Showtime” mode, which permits the player to crash “anywhere, anytime”. [Four] Point of Influence also introduced a Pursuit mode, where the player drives a special police car and must pursue down a speeding racer and stop them before the race course finishes. This mode was discontinued, but it was featured in Burnout Legends and has reappeared as an available upgrade for purchase in Burnout Paradise known as Cops And Robbers. [Five]
The takedown element of Burnout Trio: Takedown is what differentiates it from other racing games. It is an essential strategy for winning races, especially in single player. There is also a “road rage” mode in which the object is to takedown as many opponents as possible.
Burnout Vengeance was released on thirteen September two thousand five for Xbox and PlayStation Two, and later for the Xbox 360. This game introduced the “traffic check” feature, which made it possible for the player to hit smaller traffic vehicles without crashing and to use them to attempt to take down rivals. Burnout Dominator was announced on five December 2006, only to be released for the PlayStation two and the PlayStation Portable and without the inclusion of the crash mode from the previous games. Dominator mainly concentrates on the original game’s “Burnout”, which is using up the entire boost meter non stop and attempting to chain boosts as long as possible.
Burnout Paradise was announced on twenty nine August 2006, for the Xbox three hundred sixty and PlayStation Trio. This Burnout game added fresh features such as its open world gameplay where players could explore Paradise City at their leisure and race whenever they want once they get to race-starting areas called “intersections”. It also introduced a feature called “mugshot” where, using the Xbox Live Vision camera or PlayStation Eye, it takes a “mugshot” of their opponent once the player took them down. [6]
Burnout originally featured a petite collection of cars, including the puny Compact, the Saloon (as well as a sports-modified GT version), the Pickup and the Muscle. This collection grew in Burnout two to include cars such as the Oval racer, the Cop Car, the Classic, The Gangster and the Hot Rod. Once Burnout Three: Takedown was released, the original cars were no longer used, with the exception of the Custom-made Coupe Ultimate, a lime green Coupe that was one of the “Custom-made” cars in Burnout Two (this car also reappears in Burnout Legends, Burnout Dominator, and Burnout Paradise (The Paradise version is called the Hydros Techno). The same happened in Burnout Vengeance where the car collection was entirely fresh. For the most part, Burnout Paradise’s car collection is all fresh but there are some vehicles (such as the aforementioned “Custom-made Coupe Ultimate” and the Custom-built Roadster from Burnout Two or the Vengeance Racer from Burnout Vengeance) that are models from previous Burnout games. Paradise is also the very first Burnout game to designate manufacturers and realistic car model names for its vehicles (such as the “Carson Annihilator” or “Nakamura Ikusa GT”).
Another thing to note is how many of the cars could be based on their real-life counterparts, especially the vehicles from Burnout Vengeance and Burnout Paradise. An example is the “Carson GT Concept” from Paradise, which resembles a fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro.
Certain games in the series also have compatibility with other games, such as in Vengeance, where players can unlock the Madden Challenge Bus by having a save file from Madden NFL 06, [7] and a Burnout Trio: Takedown save file unlocks the Dominator Assassin.
