With this week’s PlayStation Store update Sony seems to have gone out of their way to provide gamers with far more content than anyone who has a job and doesn’t suffer from insomnia can handle.  Including several highly anticipated titles, this weeks PSN store update may just (but hopefully won’t) prove to be the biggest week that the service will enjoy.  Now, let’s make with the mind-boggling, thumb-destroying list.

• WipEout HD:  After what seems like a metric eternity,  SCE Studio Liverpool has unleashed their much awaited futuristic racing title for the appealing price point of $19.99.
• Burnout Paradise:  Not to be contented with one robust racing title on PSN this week, developer Criterion has turned their disc-based title into a fully featured PSN title that carries a $29.99 price tag.
• Megaman 9:  Capcom brings back Inafune’s titular little blue manservant for another round of stealing skills from the various and sundry bosses that have co-opted the Brady Bunch’s opening title.  Get down with Rockman for the moderate price of $9.99.  (Or just play the demo repeatedly and imagine the enemies being different for free.  And your parents said that your imagination would get you nowhere…)
• GEON Emotions:  “Bliss, rage, envy or fear … use the power of your 8 emotions to” purchase and play the title that XBL has had for the last year and a month.  You can get in on some GEON for $9.99.
• Various Rock Band songs:  Rock out like Geddy Lee and Neil Peart with Rush’s Moving Pictures.  There are a few other songs too, maybe you’re into them.  If you’re at all interested in this sort of thing you likely already know the pricing.

       There are also a few demos this week including NBA Live 09 and, on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, NBA 09.  As one could likely guess there are some videos that have been posted as well; Resistance 2 and Tomb Raider Underworld top the list.  Backgrounds and such also make an appearance along with a few PSP games that made the cut this week: Untold Legends and Puzzle Quest.  In a shocker to literally no one, there are still no PS1 classics worth writing home about.

       So that’s this week’s PSN Store update.  Please be delighted, and if you don’t mind give us a yell about what you’re picking up.  You’ll likely catch me on WipEout HD.

Criterion Games is releasing the demo for the newest installment in the Burnout series, Burnout Paradise. They have recently announced that the game's exact release date will be on January 22nd. The new game boasts a free roaming world with better graphics than ever. It has new modes, new cars, and new tracks but will that be enough to offer a new interest in the series?

The game is scheduled for a 2007 release. Screenshots are not available as of yet.

A full unveiling is expected at this years E3 in May. Be sure to bookmark Gaming Horizon for all your E3 needs.

At the annual CES show here in Las Vegas, Electronic Arts and Dolby had a great surprise for us when we entered the Dolby booth. Once entering the booth, you’ll see various stations showing off many of the fantastic surround sound speakers that Dolby manufactures. Well, positioned on the far left is a station with an Xbox 360 featuring Burnout Revenge. This is the very first showing of the game and it seems to be shaping up quite well.

The demo features two levels and about a dozen vehicles to crash your way through the course. To say right off the bat, the graphical improvement from the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions is just jaw-dropping. You can tell Electronic Arts redid all of the textures and made them much sexier especially on an HDTV. One thing that also made a difference was the fact that the game was running at 720p widescreen and Dolby 5.1.

If you have played Burnout in the past, you should know all about the time change and burnout explosions. Well, going 150mph down the track and hitting a wall will result in a rich clear explosion that will blow you away. Unlike past versions, the draw distances are much better here. You can actually see much farther into the distance and have an idea on where the next turn is.

Throughout all the courses there are many opportunities for you to jump into several sub sections which will cut off a little bit of your time. For example, you could hit your nitrous and drive up on an angle plane then fly into the air where you will crash through a building, making you end up on the other side. This is something that isn’t new, but the level of detail and experience on the 360 makes you feel like you’re really there.

One thing that I did notice was the fact there isn’t much traffic on the roads to hinder your performance in the race. If there is, you could still do the traffic checking which enables you to hit the back bumper of an opponent’s vehicle and push him aside. Sliding around corners and hitting the crash-breaker button is what Burnout is all about.

Overall, Electronic Arts is doing an exceptional job here. I’m looking forward to the final product and also checking out what the online component has to offer.]]> Fri, 06 Jan 2006 13:06:09 -0600 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/burnout_legends_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/burnout_legends_announced http://www.gamebump.com/go/burnout_legends_announced# Electronic Arts has announced Burnout Legends for the PSP handheld.

The concept of the game is a combination of updated versions of Burnout 1, 2 and 3 to the handheld. Legends will include the same music from the first two games along with the same race tracks just updated.

"Burnout Legends will deliver the best of the Burnout series. We are re-inventing it specifically for the PSP...with new Pursuit and Legend modes," said producer Nick Channon. As mentioned the modes include Legends Face-off, Grand Prix and Pursuit Rage which combines pursuit and road rage. All of the games will be available through WiFi as well.

Burnout Legends will also make use of the Game Sharing feature as you can share a demo level with friends. Few other details are known about the option at this time. Burnout will include about 25 new cars including at least six police cars. There will be five unlockable games in single-player and the rest you'll be able to unlock through multiplayer.

Renderware will be utilized for the game and Channon went on to say about it, "Our challenge has been to create the sense of speed that any Burnout game has yet to have, and yet create a product that looks like PS2 on a handheld."

The game will also include the slow-motion crash scenes from Burnout 3 along with a slew of crash junctions. The count right now is approximately 70 or 80 junctions. Channon finished by saying, "Burnout is perfect for the PSP platform, by bringing all the best elements of the series and some incredible new features for PSP, this game is a great addition to the Burnout series, as well as being the fastest and most intense racing experience to hit the platform."

Hopefully there will be more on Burnout Legends at E3 this mnoth on May 18-20th. Check back for more on this and other games at Gaming Horizon.

You've just released a game that's praised by critics and fans alike across the board, hailed for breathing an invigorating new breath into the at-times stale genre of the arcade racer, what do you do next? If you're anything like Criterion, you develop a sequel that tops its predecessor, followed by another... and another, each tweaking and enhancing the formula for the must-have arcade racer until it's all but perfect, which the release of Burnout 3: Takedown, the crown jewel of the franchise, managed to achieve. Now that you've got a virtually perfect arcade racer on your hands, you ask the same question again: what do you do next? Criterion's answer is Burnout: Revenge, the ambitious new title which will attempt to do what previous games in the series have and kick it up a notch.



The basic concept of the Burnout series is incredibly simple: risk equals reward. Which means speeding into oncoming traffic fills your "boost meter" (read: nitro), slamming opponents or traffic off the road gains you cash, and detonating your once multi-million dollar exotic car into a heap of scrap metal via a "crash breaker" in the middle of a busy intersection during rush hour gives you a spot on the rich list that would make Donald Trump blush.

Such is the premise of Burnout; race, destroy, get rewarded, and all at blindingly fast speeds resulting in frequent crashes of your own vehicle and others; rendered with a hot plate full of painstaking realism from the physics of the actual crash animations to the detail of the pieces flying off of your car, scratches on the paint, cracks in the windshield, unhinged doors and after-market parts, with a heaping helping of dazzling spark effects as garnishing.

To start off, the single player game known as World Tour sends you globe trotting through 169 different events. Each event features one of a few different race modes, some of which have been in previous Burnout games and a few new additions: there's race, in which you try to place first against AI opponents; eliminator, where the vehicle trailing the pack gets cut every 30 seconds until the winner is left on the road; road rage, the fan favorite in which you smash a never-ending barrage of opponents out of the race with takedown maneuvers; traffic attack, a new addition wherein you must barrel through traffic destroying as much as fast as possible before the timer runs out, the more you destroy the more the timer refills; burning lap, where you try to beat the best time for a certain course; and crash, where you set out to destroy as much dollars worth of traffic as you can by launching into a crowded street. The better your perform on each level, the better the medal you score and the higher your completion percent gets, unlocking more.

Visually, Burnout Revenge appears quite similar to Burnout 3 Ð and believe me, that ain't bad. The textures are crisp and varied in the environments, and the range of effects interacting with them further enhance the look. On levels with a low-lying sun, the sunlight reflects off the ground ahead of you with almost the same intensity as the sun in the sky, creating a dazzling shimmering effect that could be a driving hazard if you don't pay enough attention. Sides of buildings facing the sun glow from the sunlight and wash out the texture a little but, much like reality. The high-polished bodies of the cars create some excellent reflections and sharp looking highlights from surrounding light sources. After effects like a shaking camera and blurred vision when you reach top speeds enhance the sense of speed, and the sparks flying from every collision makes for sweet eye candy.

Once again, these cars are not licensed, but many are very closely "inspired" by the real thing,  while others are too cool for school, the caliber of what you'd expect at something like the Detroit Auto Show. And speaking of Detroit, the locations are also inspired by real cities, including Detroit, dubbed "Motor City." Miami, Rome, Los Angeles and Tokyo are some of the other locations. The realism of the tracks are increased by a bit more gritty details this time around, and more branching areas and short cuts to either get a head up on the competition or wind up at the back of the pack, depending if you can handle some the turns or obstacles in some of the hidden paths.

The sound is once again used extremely effectively to simulate that overwhelming sense of speed and danger that can only be experienced when barreling down a busy highway in the wrong direction at top speed. As you pick up speed the sound of the wind pelting your car and flying by gets louder and louder, you hear your engine at a high pitch whine, the sounds of other cars and distractions street-side quickly come and go as fast as you pass them, the rattling of all the parts of the car straining to stay together in such extreme conditions, and in an instant it all culminates in a satisfying smash as you collide with a pillar or cross-traffic and left with the twinkling sound of glass landing on the concrete.

The music has definitely been improved. With Burnout 3's soundtrack line up was pretty much comprised solely of alterna-rockers, punk, crying emo kids, and a few rock classics, Revenge broadens its predecessor's narrow sonic range with the addition of some high-tempo electronic tracks to the rock foray. Artists include Fall Out Boy, Junkie XL, MxPx, Thrice, The Chemical Brothers, The All-American Rejects, Timo Maas,Yellowcard and over 2 dozen more which round out a soundtrack of roughly 40 tracks worthy enough to road rage with.

Online play was a fun diversion in Burnout 3, but like the majority of titles that don't have a huge cult online following, it was sometimes hard to pop in the game and have some online competition at any moment. Revenge's online mode will give you that competition that you may of been starting to miss in Burnout 3's later months, and breathes some new life into the experience with the single player game's new modes.



Though the addition of new modes and features have always been a great thing in the Burnout series, continually evolving the franchise further and further, the major addition of Burnout: Revenge, the traffic check, is somewhat of a mixed bag. The traffic attack mode which was crafted solely around this new feature is fun at first, rear-ending cars and sending them flying across the road, trying to accumulate as much damage as possible when you start slowing down on the damage tally the clock starts to run out, only to be replenished by creating more havoc, until you reach the highest quota to get the gold medal or run out of time; whichever comes first. The first time I played traffic attack the novelty wore off after about a minute; it's simply too easy to just ram traffic, and after reaching triple the amount of damage for a gold medal I ended up just putting the control down for the time to run out because it simply wasn't challenging enough to fail at. Later traffic check levels are a bit more challenging but I don't think there's enough there to merit a whole mode of gameplay, as whenever traffic check is next on the World Tour event list it's more often than not greeted with a sigh.

What's a bigger issue in my opinion, however, is when traffic checking is implemented into the core gameplay of all modes. It used to be such a rush to weave between traffic squeezing between narrow openings between cars, nearly crashing into the rear of a slow Sunday driver, or having that sigh of relief when you've just nudged a car in front of you instead of completely colliding with it. Now that you can check all traffic that's traveling in the same direction as you, it kind of kills the thrill of racing with traffic on the street. How fun would an action game be if all the enemies were deaf and always had their back turned to you? The Burnout series definitely lost a little something with the inclusion of traffic check, though it's not a total loss if you learn to use it in new strategies against enemies, checking traffic into opponent cars and so forth.

With the street racing videogame market booming and expanding with new games wherever you look, one feature seems to be consistent in most of the better titles: the ability to modify your car with after-market parts, custom decals, and so on. It doesn't really add that much to gameplay, but it's a cool feature nonetheless that boosts the fun factor considerably for creative gamers. Even games that aren't strictly racing, like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas feature such customization, so it's a shame the latest incarnation of Burnout's only offering of customization is a handful of pre-selected colors per car model.

Thankfully Criterion heard my prayers and got rid of the radio DJ announcing each new area or event like a skateboarding vert competion; in his place is a female voice who gives a tutorial at the beginning of some levels on topics such as bonus pickups, after touch, takedowns, etc. This is informative, but not to-the-point enough. Veterans to the Burnout series will be hearing a lot of what they already know and will be tempted to skip the whole intro to the level, when there's usually a gem or two of new information that pertains to brand new features that they don't want to miss. A quick, wham, bam, just the facts ma'am approach would have been more of my cup of tea instead of this, which slows things down between some early levels.

Finally, getting online can be a major drag. I'd like to be able to start an online game just as fast as I start a single player game, much like how things are done on the PC. So far nothing on the PS2 throws you into the game quite as fast as you experience on the PC, verifying DNAS data and the like, but Burnout: Revenge can take especially long for some reason, and the various connection screens can last for almost four minutes at times. I'm not sure if this is a problem on my end, but Revenge is the only title that takes this long on my PS2. A fast login experience is undoubtedly a determining factor of how often people decide to play online and populate the rooms, and this isn't helping.



All in all, if you're a fan of Burnout 3, you're going to want to check out what Burnout: Revenge has to offer. It's the same tried and tested gameplay with some cool new cars and levels, and a few new features that may or may not be your cup of tea. Some people may find the ability to check traffic a great new addition, but Burnout purists will more than likely see it as taking an edge off the thrill of all those near-misses and traffic weaving that added so much tension to the earlier games. Burnout 3 will, for now, be the pinnacle of the Burnout series in my opinion, but Revenge is still an absolutely solid grade-A title that's worth your time and coin.

Feels like Burnout with the traditional mayhem for money and dazzling graphics.

Absolutely beautiful as usual for the series, excellent textures and lighting effects.

The audio really makes you feel like your going 120mph on your couch. Great soundtrack.

You can never get tired of battling opponent cars and traffic, the more destruction the merrier

A slew of medals to compete for and unlockables, and an online mode.

]]> Fri, 30 Sep 2005 14:48:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_burnout_legends_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_burnout_legends_psp http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_review_burnout_legends_psp# This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

The Burnout series has been around for a while, but it didn’t take off until Burnout 3: Takedown came out and blew away everyone with its intense “drive and destroy” gameplay. Now, for those of you who may have missed out on the previous Burnout entries, EA gives you the chance by stuffing all of their content into Burnout Legends for the PSP. Does it make the smooth transition from consoles to handheld? Read on to find out.

Burnout Legends brings the stages and cars from the first three iterations of the Burnout franchise though it doesn’t come right out and tell you that. Of course, it also brings along all the modes as well: race, road rage, pursuit, and crash. Race is a typical race except that you’ll want to drive like a maniac all while trying to take out your rivals. You don’t necessarily have to do that and could just drive like a normal racing game trying to reach the finish line, but where’s the fun in that? But, there is also an incentive to drive wild and take out others. The boost meter plays a vital role in where you’ll finish and the only way to build it is to drive dangerously, like weaving through oncoming traffic. A more effective way to build boost while trying to gain a lead is to cause a rival to crash, or to initiate a “takedown”. Not only does it build the boost meter up quickly, but it’ll also add a section to the bar, extending it to insane proportions.

Takedowns vary from simply crushing another car against the wall to you actually crashing and then controlling yourself in mid-air, or what the game dubs as “aftertouching”, to land on top of another racer. Performing one of these aftertouch takedowns not only slows your rivals down, but it also allows you to keep your boost meter filled, as crashing will reset your meter’s length and completely drain it. There is a huge variety of takedowns in the game, and there are some called “signature takedowns” that can only be done in certain stages.

Two of the other modes are road rage and pursuit. Road rage is regarded by many as the best mode in the Burnout games and who can blame them. This mode is the perfect remedy for those for you sick of other drivers since your goal in here is to takedown as many racers as possible in a given time limit. It’s easy at first but as you progress further, the harder it becomes and you’ll have to think of new creative ways to eliminate them. Pursuit puts you in the role of the cop and you must eliminate a single target in either a set time limit or within a set distance.

The last mode is crash, which I personally loved the most because it’s like a racing puzzler, if you can imagine that. In crash, you’ll be given a set up of cars, intersections, etc. and it is up to you to wreck the most havoc possible in a quick single run. Scores are recorded in dollars, so you’ll know how much damage you’re inflicting. To help you out there are cash bonus icons as well as a crashbreaker icon. Hitting the crashbreaker icon will cause you to explode the instant you touch it, causing damage around you, but you’ll also be able to aftertouch onto nearby icons or other cars. You can also initiate the crashbreaker without touching the icon. After a number of wrecks, you can hit triangle to initiate the crashbreaker.

Unlocking new cars and tracks requires progressing through World Tour. By beating races and such you’ll unlock new tracks. To unlock new cars, you need to accrue takedowns points which are earned with every takedown you perform. The heavyweight division is a little different though as those are unlocked at set monetary values in crash mode (all the money you’ve incurred from “damages” is cumulative in crash mode).

On the technical side of things, Burnout Legends does it all quite well. The graphics look nice with well-detailed environments – buildings aren’t flat globs of color, but are vibrant 3D giants. The cars may not be real, but their models definitely take a lot of cues from some real life counterparts and they look fantastic. The fact that they aren’t real is a blessing since that allows the developers to go wild in creating mangled pieces of metal flying through the air and sliding across the pavement. Best of all, even with the high-quality graphics, the frame rate is consistently high.

To go along with the graphics, the sound effects are spot on. Screeching tires, explosions, and the sound of metal on metal added with the visual effects will bring a smile to your face as it adds to creating that sense of being in the middle of a huge pileup. Staying in the sound department, the soundtrack is a variety of rock and techno. It’s not the best in the world, but most of the time you’ll be so focused on the racing and destruction that you won’t even notice that there is music playing.

Burnout’s gameplay is set up perfectly for some multiplayer action. Co-op crash mode is fun beyond words, but so is trying to ram your buddy off the road or into an oncoming bus. Unfortunately, it only supports ad-hoc communications, so those looking to play it with someone across the country are out of luck. However, it does support Game Sharing, although you’ll only be able to play race mode on a single track, and the download times will vary from 30 seconds to five whole minutes.

There is no doubt that Burnout Legends is an awesome game, but there are a few issues with it. First of all, while the graphics are great there are some instances where the game can get ugly. Throughout the game you’ll see a number of blue dots along the road. These dots match the color of the sky, so it looks like you’re looking through the road at times which detracts greatly from the 3D illusion. It’s not a enormous problem, but it does get distracting sometimes and is a bit of a disappointment considering how well built the rest of the game is.

Also, in crash mode, the game suffers from what I call “moving ground syndrome”. After the crash, the camera stays stationary focusing in on the last crash. Sometimes, a couple of the polygons on the ground will shake, as if that portion of the road is still in motion – in other words, it’s what the road would look like if you were driving at a high speed. Again, this doesn’t kill the gameplay at all since it occurs after you’re done crash, but it is still a blemish on an otherwise great game.

Progressing through crash mode is rather easy since all you need is a bronze medal to unlock new events. Those who want to achieve all golds, however, will need a lot of patience as some of the stages require not only a lot of skill, but also a tad bit of luck. The best advice I can give to those stuck on a crash stage is to persevere and you will eventually get that gold.

The controls are rather good, but only when you use the D-pad. The analog nub feels way too sensitive. However, this could just be personal preference as I’ve yet to really adjust to playing with the analog nub.

Two last nitpicks is that when the game changes tracks in the middle of a race, the game will skip a bit. It won’t mess you up – most of the time. And when it does you’ll want to throw your PSP across the room, or at least think about it. The second is the load times – they aren’t overly long but my goodness there are a ton of them, which definitely adds up. It seems like there’s a load screen every time you go to a different menu.

Though it has been shrunk, Burnout Legends still retains all of the elements that made the other ones great even in a smaller form. The graphics are top-notch, despite some problems here and there, and the gameplay is still tight and fun as ever. Burnout Legends is the best racer available for the PSP and may be one of the top five best games for Sony's handheld. If you’re a fan of the series, this is a must-buy; even if you aren’t and you have a PSP, with the drought of new PSP games over the summer, this is as good a place as any to start with the Burnout series.

The balance between racing and destruction is almost perfect.

Some glitches here and there are a little bothersome, but otherwise the game looks great.

Soundtrack is hit-or-miss, mostly hit. Sound effects are excellent.

Causing crashes worth half a million dollars is fun as hell – and that’s just one mode.

Plenty of cars to unlock and records to set.

]]> Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:22:00 -0500 The Gaming Horizon Archive http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_burnout_revenge_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_burnout_revenge_xbox1 http://www.gamebump.com/go/gh_preview_burnout_revenge_xbox1# This preview was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Eric Dayday.

Burnout Legends looks to bring players the high intensity racing experience on the go. The game is approximately 70% complete and it shows as graphically it looks to be on the same level as the PlayStation 2. The game includes modes of play including pursuit, road rage, crash, time attack and race. The only new one to the Burnout world is Pursuit which allows you to chase or be chased by the police, think Need for Speed. In this mode, players have a distance meter and a health meter that help determine the outcome of the game.

As previously noted, the graphics in Burnout Legends are top notch and really standout on the impressive PSP screen. The graphics are true to the Burnout series and even the crashes although not quite as detailed as their console counterparts still show incredible destruction and mayhem.

Just based on the short demo available at the show, the only question marks for Burnout Legends are that the game can get a little choppy and slow to take in all that is going on when crashes happen, particularly in crash mode. This isn't terrible, but a slight annoyance. The only other drawback is that when the game shows crashes in slow motion, that screen pulls you away from the action way too long. Timing it, it was up to approximately eight to ten seconds and at least from our experience in the demo there's no way to press a button to pass through it.

Finally, the controls for Burnout are still very easy to pick up and play. If you've played the game on the PlayStation 2 before, you'll easily be able to pickup and play this one too.

Burnout Legends is shaping up to be one of the best Fall releases for the handheld. The game really translates the courses, cars and full experience from the consoles to the PSP. Burnout Legends will easily be one of the more popular UMDs in my PSP upon its release.]]> Thu, 19 May 2005 23:29:00 -0500