Number 41: Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Acclaim 2003 (Gamecube)
Intro:
In a safe move, the opening pre-rendered video is cars crashing and generally having game-appropriate fun. Nothing shocking or noteworthy. The menus are mostly oriented up-and-down, with further options lined up along the bottom, which are navigated left-and-right, making getting through them with a joystick a little tricky.
Getting Going:
A few mandatory training missions come up, teaching the basics and setting a few tiered goals for players to aim for, giving a player a sense of how much practice he or she would need in one area or another. These missions were pretty easy, but I ran into a bug where crashing near the finish line would respawn me after the finish, and all I could do was drive around until the timer ran down. The controls are very simple, so learning was quick.
Fun:
The racing portions were fun, though they were so much like a normal racing game that the crashes and boost-producing stunts seemed very unimportant. Screaming through traffic with the boost on was a little more fun, but the general lack of detail made everything melt together very quickly. The crash junctions are a lot of fun, though the lack of detail made the environment seem very fake.
Visuals:
While the frame rate was great and the lighting was pretty, the overall lack of finer detail made the game look very boring and typical. The portrayl of speed was very poor, as well, as I never felt like I was going ungodly speeds.
Intelligence:
The enemy drivers seem pretty wrapped up in their own world. The interactivity with the competition is pretty limited, as well, making trying to nudge them into traffic or a wall very difficult, and infact tends to make the player slow down while the computer surges ahead.
Immersion:
The music is pretty unremarkable, and the spartan surroundings don't make for a great pull. The game does succede in holding my attention pretty well thanks to the speed high demand on reaction time.
Cameras:
Very standard angles for driving games, none of which seemed broken. Functional chase-cams and a bumper-cam.
Controls:
Dead. Simple. There's go, stop, steer, and boost. The various cars don't have a dramatic impact on the game, just the speed.
Ideas:
The crash juntions were a great idea, forcing players to be creative and observant about each stage to maximize the mayhem. Unfortunately, there is often a 'right way' to approach each junction, which limits creativity. Boosting is a great feature, but it's a bummer that it runs out so quickly and can only be used once it's full, so tapping it to enchance a drift is inadvisable. This is conteracted by how a skilled player can chain boosts by driving dangerously during a boost, which rewards skill and daring enormously.
Memory:
Despite the crash junctions, the game really boils down to a racing game with an oversized minigame. While fun, the game doesn't have the spice to make it really addictive and exciting due to the plain environments and poor variation in the tracks and cars.
In a safe move, the opening pre-rendered video is cars crashing and generally having game-appropriate fun. Nothing shocking or noteworthy. The menus are mostly oriented up-and-down, with further options lined up along the bottom, which are navigated left-and-right, making getting through them with a joystick a little tricky.
Getting Going:
A few mandatory training missions come up, teaching the basics and setting a few tiered goals for players to aim for, giving a player a sense of how much practice he or she would need in one area or another. These missions were pretty easy, but I ran into a bug where crashing near the finish line would respawn me after the finish, and all I could do was drive around until the timer ran down. The controls are very simple, so learning was quick.
Fun:
The racing portions were fun, though they were so much like a normal racing game that the crashes and boost-producing stunts seemed very unimportant. Screaming through traffic with the boost on was a little more fun, but the general lack of detail made everything melt together very quickly. The crash junctions are a lot of fun, though the lack of detail made the environment seem very fake.
Visuals:
While the frame rate was great and the lighting was pretty, the overall lack of finer detail made the game look very boring and typical. The portrayl of speed was very poor, as well, as I never felt like I was going ungodly speeds.
Intelligence:
The enemy drivers seem pretty wrapped up in their own world. The interactivity with the competition is pretty limited, as well, making trying to nudge them into traffic or a wall very difficult, and infact tends to make the player slow down while the computer surges ahead.
Immersion:
The music is pretty unremarkable, and the spartan surroundings don't make for a great pull. The game does succede in holding my attention pretty well thanks to the speed high demand on reaction time.
Cameras:
Very standard angles for driving games, none of which seemed broken. Functional chase-cams and a bumper-cam.
Controls:
Dead. Simple. There's go, stop, steer, and boost. The various cars don't have a dramatic impact on the game, just the speed.
Ideas:
The crash juntions were a great idea, forcing players to be creative and observant about each stage to maximize the mayhem. Unfortunately, there is often a 'right way' to approach each junction, which limits creativity. Boosting is a great feature, but it's a bummer that it runs out so quickly and can only be used once it's full, so tapping it to enchance a drift is inadvisable. This is conteracted by how a skilled player can chain boosts by driving dangerously during a boost, which rewards skill and daring enormously.
Memory:
Despite the crash junctions, the game really boils down to a racing game with an oversized minigame. While fun, the game doesn't have the spice to make it really addictive and exciting due to the plain environments and poor variation in the tracks and cars.