Those who know my tastes in games, know very well I usually don't deviate from a certain few genres and franchises. Racing games hardly ever spend time in my consoles, that is, until I was introduced to Burnout: Revenge. This game was originally released on the Xbox and was later ported over to the Xbox 360.

Unlike many traditional racing games I've ever seen or read about, it isn't always enough to be the first one to the finish line in this game. Burnout: Revenge boasts several different modes of play which really offer a great deal of variety to the player. There are races that encourage, nay, demand that you to ram other drivers off the road or into oncoming traffic in an effort to gain position on them as well as gain speed boosts. Traffic is kept light for the the more traditional time trial races in which you race only the clock.

One of my favorite events that doesn't really involve racing is the Crash Events. In this superbly fun game mode, you control a heavier car and it is your responsibility to launch it, slam it, or flip it into intersections and highways to cause the biggest and most elaborate fifty car pile up ever. You almost want to lose at this event because you just don't mind replaying it. These game modes, and several others, turn a racing game into a potpourri of fun times that keep this game fresh, and consistently fun to play.

Graphically this game looks good. The cars all have much more reflective surfaces than their Xbox counterparts. When cars slam together, you don't end up with the same pristine vehicle that racing games of old once sported. In Burnout: Revenge a car might start out shiny and red, but because of all the traffic, debris, and other competitors you crash into, I can all but guarantee that your car will be almost devoid of its original color. Explosions and twisted metal are also visual feasts for the eyes. When the camera isn't whizzing by at impossible speeds, it slows down to look at the amazing wreckage you have caused or were a part of. However, for as nice as this game looks, it was essentially a port of the Xbox version of it. The 360 version doesn't fully utilize the power of the system. The game still looks great, but it just doesn't look as good as it could.

The sounds in Burnout: Revenge are also very tight as well. The fanfare of each event is a mix of fiery explosions, breaking glass, and cracking metal. During all of this there actually is a pretty decent mix of punk and techno-style music that really help add to the mood of pure speed and destruction. Now, if I made this music into a mix tape and gave it to a girl, I doubt I would get much action as a result of it, but the music from Burnout: Revenge is far from annoying.

For me, the replay value of this game was very high. I played the Xbox version nearly to completion, traded it in, and got the 360 version just as an excuse to go back and complete the events all over again because they were just so fun. Games sometimes have the problem of being extremely easy all the way through and suddenly becoming impossibly hard almost out of nowhere. I kept coming back to Burnout: Revenge because it was one of the few titles I've played in recent years to gradually increase the difficulty with each new stage. I truly felt like I was ready for level 8 because I had mastered level 7. The same could also be said of the achievements for this game. They range from incredibly easy to impossibly hard, but I kept coming back because I thought I might be able to attain them.

Overall, I loved Burnout: Revenge. If you love racing games and you look for a certain amount of realism from them, this is not the title for you. It has racing elements to it, but there is much more destruction and unrealistic physics to it than there is anything else. I think that may be why I liked it so much. So if you're like me and you like a somewhat quirky racing game of a different pace, Burnout: Revenge is definitely worth picking up.

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