MEMBER PROFILE FOR Viper87227
Average Overall Score Given: 8.00000 / 10
Total Forum Posts: 2670
Reviews
Burnout 3: Takedown
Overall: The burnout series is one of the biggest sleeper hits in existance. The first game was appriciated by a very small audiance, and the second hadn't released to much greater affection. It wasn't because the games were bad. They were infact exellent, it is just that for some reason, no one baught them. Then EA came in. They saw the potential the series had, and then shot past it at 150mph. Gameplay: Anyone who has played another Burnout game should feel right at home. If you havn't played the first, shame on you, but your in for a treat. When I first got into a raca, the game imeadilty felt differnt. The first thing that game to my mind was not burnout, but Need For Speed. The outdoor envirments, wide open streets, track design, hud, ect. all reminded me of NFS: Hot Pursiut 2. Not sayings that is a bad thing, but not what I expected. As soon as I got moving however, things quickly changed. The fast paced arcade style racing was back, and done better than ever. Controls were smooth, tracks were challenging, as was AI. Everything just felt so right. The biggest thing that stood out about the game is its pure magnatude. The career mode offers different cities, each filled with tons of stuff to do. Racing, time trial, elimation, and crash courses. And once you beat something in career, you coudl go bacl and play it over and over again. Also, for sylish racing and causing a !&%$@#* load of damage to opponents, you earned points which unlocked new cars. The only real dissapointent here was the Live play. One of the most promising aspects of the game was the worste. Bugs galore, lagging, disconnens plauged the online experiance. TO top it off, nothing was executed very well, making online play feel like more of an afterthought than anything else. It was more tedious than it was fun. I understand it was one of EA's for forreys into Xbox Live, but that is no excuse. EA knows what they are doing, and they could have done better.
Graphics: This my friends, is where the game gets its marks. This is without a doubt the BEST looking racing game there is. Period. Everthing is here: detailed cars, beautifle and realistic open enviroments, traffic that doesnt look like crap, crashes to die for. The chrashes is this game are like art. They are stunning. When two cars colide, cars crunch, parts fly, sparks shoot everywhere, and smoke pours from the tires grinding over the asphault. The stellar physics combined with the exellent graphics make the crashes very believable, and all the more fun. The sence of speed is also exellent in this game. When you get really fast, your screen starts to blur and shake, turning your knuckles white as you watch the speedo climb. Higher and higher, you wonder how long you can hang on like this. Blurrier the screen gets, everything is so beautiful. Then, as a result of just going to !&%$@#* fast, you hit another car. Ay first you may think this is a bad thing, but as soon as one of those wonderfully cinimatic crashes starts unrolling out before your eyes, you will quickly loose intrest in what place you are in.
Audio: Sound is a mixed bag in Burnout 3. In one hand, we have the in game sounds. Engine sounds, tire screaching, and cars crunching are all very believable. The in game sound effects are just as awesome as the graphics, which really helps when it comes to creating a belieavle and realistic situation. The game definatly shines here. What hurts the sound score then? The other hand... EA Trax. Most of the songs that come wiht the game just suck. You can use your own soundtracks, but its a pain in the ass. In the EA Trax menu, you can set each song on the game to play when you want. Menu, race, menu + race, or not at all. The problem is, you can't do this for your soudntracks. The only way you will be hearing your music in the game is to go thought the poor options menu and set a custom soundtrack every time you load the game. Want to change the soundtrack? You have to exit the race, game mode, ect, go back tot main menu, throuhg options, and change it. This definatly is not exceptable, and coudl have been done MUCH better.
Suggestions: Don't focus so much on one area. The single player rocks and the graphics are phenominal. In game sound effects kick ass. I just with the same enthusiam was put into layout, execeution, and online play. Maybe in Burnout 4 (wink wink)
Overall Score: 9.0 / 10
Blood Wake
Overall: I was nerveous about getting this game. It had alot of hype and looked good, but I heard it got old fast. I found out thats exactly what its like. Gameplay: When I got it I loved it. But the more I played the less I wanted to play. Now I have just about given up at the missions and I just have little 15 minute deathmatches when I am bored.
Graphics: On a posative side the game looks very nice. While its no competition to splashdown, the water effects look very nice and I have yet to notice any slowdown in the heat of battle.
Audio: This is hard to judge mainly because I just dont pay attention to sound much. There is no custom soundtrack support which would have been nice but the boats sound like boats and hte guns sound like guns so there isnt much to complain about.
Suggestions: More varied missions but still keeping plenty of missions instead of stealth garbage. Also it would be nice to have more deathmatch modes instead of just having 10 different types of LMS.
Overall Score: 7.0 / 10
