Burnout Revenge is the ultimate catharsis for those pent up feelings of road rage. After spending an hour getting home when it should have taken fifteen minutes and narrowly avoiding a half dozen or so near accidents, pop in Burnout Revenge and drive like you want to drive, not how you have to drive. Drive on the wrong side of the road, push slower cars out of the way, slam your rival into a concrete column, and more, and do it all while screaming along at two hundred miles per hour. Revenge is a dish that Burnout serves up hot, and you’ll savor every bite.

Burnout Revenge is almost like two games in one: an action-packed high speed racer and a destructively satisfying mass wreck simulator. These two sides to the game are interspersed throughout the single player mode as you work your way up through the game’s race classes. Winning races and completing challenges will earn you a medal, but to really score enough stars to quickly advance to the next class you need to perform at the silver or gold medal level and earn extra stars by driving dangerously. Moving up to the next class opens up new races, new cities, and gives you access to additional cars, and there are eleven classes in all with a grand total of 169 different events to compete in.

The cars pile up in crash mode.

Some of the races in Burnout Revenge have you on your own, trying to race through traffic and beat the clock to the finish line. However, most of the races will be against a small group of AI controlled drivers and this is where the mayhem really begins. The other drivers are not shy against bumping you or downright forcing you into a spectacular fireball of a wreck, but you are free to do the same to them. In fact, racing in Burnout Revenge is more about taking out the competition than it is about out-sprinting them. In fact, the game will “rubber band” the other cars so that the races stay neck and neck until the end and so that you’re always trying to score or avoid takedowns. You’ll score points for particularly brutal takedowns such as running your opponent into a wall or landing on top of him after hitting a jump. The “Revenge” in the game’s title comes from the fact that you can also earn points by taking out a car that has just taken you out. Burnout Revenge also lets you play a little bumper pool or ice hockey by “checking” traffic into your rivals. Any car that’s traveling the same direction as you is fair game, and you can bump traffic into your opponents or set up a mass wreck of a roadblock to set a nice little trap for a car on your tail.

The races are an absolute blast to play. Sure the physics model defies the laws of our universe and no car in existence drives like these, but you’ll be having too much fun to notice or care. The game does a remarkable job of conveying a sense of flat out speed that will put your nerves on edge as you race through city streets or mountain highways. You’ll have just a split second to react to obstacles, dodge oncoming cars, or spot an alternate route or ramp which really gets your adrenaline going. Even when you make a mistake you’re rewarded in the form of a spectacular crash that Hollywood action movies can only dream about pulling off. And unlike real-life, after the burned-out shell of your car comes to a rest you’re back on the road in a grand spanking new one none the worse for wear.

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