Old Games: Encyclopedia Bombastica: Burnout 2: Point of Impact

I replayed this recently on Gamecube. Probably still my all-time favourite racing game.

One of my favorite PS2 games.

custom soundtracks were a HUGE selling point for me on the original Xbox.

All dem playlists.

I have really fond memories of playing Burnout 2 with my family at Christmas. The Crash mode was something that everyone could take part in. Competing for the highest score was great fun.

The first game that thought me how to drift was need for speed: underground which came out the same year as burnout 2 but a couple of months later.

As someone who started playing Burnout with 3, this is a very interesting look back. I don't think I would have gotten into it without the takedowns though, but then again I'm not really a fan of racing games outside of karts or Burnout.

I'll never not be bummed that there aren't Burnout games being made anymore. I would love for Criteron to make another game in the vein of 3 or Revenge at some point.

Definetly my favorite in the series. Brings back so many good memories. Love these nostalgia trips we are getting lately with these bombasticas !

I came to the series with Revenge on 360. This is making me wonder if I should go back and play 2 and 3 or if you can't go home again.

Best Burnout.

I would argue that GTA 3 rewarded that driving style. It wasn't direct but it could be damn near impossible to lose the cops unless you drove weaving in and out of oncoming traffic and taking corners in very specific ways.

Burnout 3 is still my favorite in the series, but I absolutely remember the jump from 1 to 2 being revolutionary.

My God, I played so much Crash mode. I loved how every level was like a little puzzle. And you are absolutely right, it was really easy for anyone to get into.

Jeff reviewed this game it got an 8.3

This is a Quick Look Throwback, and I won't complain about those.

@hassun: Preach it brother

They know that traffic checking was only a Revenge thing, right?

This game is probably my favourite game ever.

2 probably won't do anything for you, but 3 is perhaps still the best game in the series.

I remember ripping a bunch of songs off my CDs for custom soundtracks. Now all my music lives on multiple hard drives. I don't think I could find the CDs I used for those soundtracks. Between that and hearing Jeff on the podcast refer to old Nintendo games as "Nintendo tapes", Giant bomb has fully reminded me I'm old as sin.

Man, Burnout 2... First racing game I ever bought and it led to a ton of fun nights with friends and family. Some of my most fond memories of last generation is solely thanks to Burnout 2.

Hearing that title song made me nostalgic again. I didn't like Burnout Paradise, but I'll give them credit for including the Burnout 2 soundtrack in there.

Loved this game. Still play it from time to time. Loved it when the music got more instrumental when you boost.

I remember Burnout having considerably more traffic than any other racing game I'd played before, Need for Speed had some cars on the road but Burnout had straight up traffic and it was real nerve wracking when you had fractions of a second to thread the needle going through intersections.

I liked this crash mode more than the later ones that gave you after-touch control, the whole run hinged on how you made that first contact. I liked the crash modes from later games too (exploding car mechanic was really satisfying) but the endless after-touch in Paradise killed it. When you got a long high scoring wreck in earlier crash modes it was rare and exciting but in Paradise you could crash indefinitely in a busy area. That's about the only thing I didn't like about Paradise and despite that it's still my favorite racing game of this generation.

I want Criterion to make Burnout again, Need for Speed has been a step backwards for a team that pioneered the art of disintegrating a car at 200MPH and a solid 60FPS. Say what you want about RenderWare but these games ran double the frame rate of today's AAA racing games, games that claim to have realistic handling and damage modeling, yet the cars can never flip, never get more than a few scratches, and you can rear-end the AI at top speed going into corners if you don't feel like braking.

@ruggles: And the reason I said "forever will be" is because they won't make another one...

My first Burnout was Revenge, so I never played this one, but it looks like it's got same awesome gameplay core.

Also, the Xbox 360's backwards compatibility can be pretty shitty at times.

I pretty much agree. Need for Speed lives and dies by its roster of licensed cars, but along with that comes terms that say they can't wreck up the cars so much. For the life of me, I don't know why the car manufacturers demand those terms. Maybe they think it would make their cars seem less safe, or something. In any case, it really hurts the games.

This game is all about the Supercar!

The music getting boosted as you hit the boost was so awesome when it was this song. Actually the only song I remember from the game, probably because yeah, the soundtrack generally wasn't that great. Loved this one though, made you happy.

Burnout 3 was great in its own way, but that's where Burnout started losing that winding, drifty, arcade racing style feel, which I thought was sad.

First game that taught me how to drift in videogames was Mario Kart on SNES. It predated even Ridge Racer.

I'd be a bit surprised if Ryan didn't also play Mario Kart and drift in it (to advantage) before he played this.

Europeans don't care about MT!

I take it you haven't played any of Criterion's Need for Speed games. Those are by far the worst examples of rubber banding I've ever experienced.

Also, you mention Split-Screen as something Burnout 2 has over Burnout 3... They both had Split Screen.

Not entirely true. If you were using one of the heavy vehicles in Paradise, you could also check traffic.

@loktarogar: Yes. Really shocked they didnt mention this.

I'm not a fan of cut-price easy rock but it's still one of the only games that has reactive music. It's a dynamic mix instead of the more common technique of playing a different loop when someone starts shooting.

The custom soundtrack option is great. I remember taking most of the music from F-Zero GX and putting it in Burnout 3. Racing with that music while driving the F-1 car was terrifying.

Drew with the callback to "Orpheus" that song made Burnout 3 for me.

Speaking of main menu attract music that gets ya.

It was very difficult not to navigate through menus in time with the beat.

Wonder where my copy went to? Hope I didn't sell it. That game was pretty neat. Why I knew those who were poopooing Arkham Asylum when it was first announced would end up eating crow.

I suspect Ryan hasn't seen an episode of Encyclopedia Bombastica before...

I played the absolute hell out of Burnout 3. Never played this though.

@ianhamlett: It's a shame as well because it may well have been one of the last to have its own soundtrack. I can't imagine a release of this type coming out today without a licensed soundtrack - other then a budget title on iOS/Android. Which I find makes them struggle for their own identity, as well as dates them prematurely.

In fact part of the appeal for me with this game was to try and keep the burnout chain going simply to keep the soundtrack maxed out.

Oh my god yes, the memories are flooding back.

Time to play every single Burnout game this weekend. (Burnout on Burnout?)

i stumbled across urban chaos when they included the demo in blood money and it is one heck of a game!!!

Oh yeah the memories. It was really too bad they dropped the crash mode in Paradise, pretty much stopped my from playing it after a very short time unlike B2 and B3 which I still play.

Fuck you Ryan, Criterion's music is the best. In Burnout Paradise I turned off all the music except for the Criterion originals.

oh COME ON, how is this a Burnout 2 look and not a look of the superior Burnout 3

Burnout changed the landscape though. Devs would make it a talking point when showing off their games hyping up the fact they got the manufacturers to agree to small amounts of cosmetic damage. They couldn't ignore what Criterion was doing because it was mind blowing and light years beyond what they were allowed to do. Ten years ago a game like Forza wouldn't have spoilers and fenders flying off licensed cars but they do thanks to Burnout. I just don't like when devs say they've got realistic damage and vehicle physics when they know they don't.

What's Rocksteady actually doing now that they're off Batman? This game needs a remake that will never happen.

@mcmax3000: After having just personally checked it, I stand corrected on the split-screen thing. I must just have never played it I guess.

This is the best racing game ever made. EVER. EVEEEEEER. Hyperbole aside, I think the pure simplicity of this game is what made it so fun. As much fun as the addition of takedowns in Burnout 3 was, it shifted the focus of the series from uberfast racing to aggressive driving, which made it into a completely different game.

Also the dynamic soundtrack was perfectly fitting for this kind of game, shame since all the following Burnout games had only licensed garbage.

Why is all the game audio panned to the left? I had to force mono so it didn't drive me totally crazy.

Nostalgia.

Crash mode was ruined after this game. All that aftertouch and exploding rubbish made it too stupidly easy.