After removing a large chunk of my middle finger last night using only glass bottle and an opener, I took the night off and vented my frustrations through Burnout: Revenge. My high school nostalgia was at an all-time high as I tried to remember the twisting streets and proper intersection crash patterns. This got me thinking: what happened to the Burnout franchise? I know the 3rd installment received high ratings all around, as did Revenge. While I wasn't a big fan of how Paradise brought the franchise into "open-world", it too was well received. So what the hell?
Here's a recap on Burnout for those of you not in the know. Burnout is a racing game. An adrenaline-fueled, high-octane, violent and explosive racing game. But it's more than that. Burnout breaks all the rules. Slamming into traffic and rival racers isn't just fun and strategic, it's fucking encouraged. Ram into opposing vehicles enough and you can even get them to crash, getting credited for a "Takedown". Takedowns add fuel to your boost meter, which can accelerate your vehicle well above 150 mph, in addition to making it longer.
Sure, Burnout has the traditional "be the first to cross the finish line" race mode, along with a few different time trials called "Burning Lap"s, but the fun really starts in it's unique Road Rage and Traffic Attack modes. Road Rage isn't about reaching the end. It's about slamming and shunting as many rival cars as possible to achieve a certain number of Takedowns. Traffic Attack is all about taking out your gridlock frustrations in a digital world. The streets are lined with rush hour traffic and it's your job to speed through and crush as many vehicles as possible.
In addition to the high-octane "racing styles", Burnout also instituted a "crash" mode, where players are given a larger, more destructive vehicle, an intersection, and instructions to cause several million dollars in damages. This may sound simple. It isn't. Timing your starts, picking the right cars to hit to obstruct the most amount of traffic, and navigating your car's burnt husk around post-explosion is as challenging as it is fun.
So with all this excitement balled up into a single disk, I can't help but wonder what happened? Why was the franchise practically left to die after Paradise in 2008? Let's assume that despite it's high ratings, that the open-world concept never really caught on. There's still a tried-and-true game to return to. When you try something new in a series and it doesn't pan out, what do you do? You fucking go back to the way things were when they worked. Driver levels, pre-built crash zones, Traffic Attack, takedowns - these things are not only what made Burnout so wonderful, but so cathartic as well. That asshole that cut you off in traffic on your way home from work? Fire up Burnout and put him and everyone else into the wall! 20 minutes late because of traffic? Cruise through the streets at 180 mph smashing everything in your way.
Now, sadly, I already know the answer to why. Or at least part of it. Instead of raking in money with the unique, destructive style of Burnout, EA has been too busy annualizing and farming up Need For Speed titles. They've largely tasked developers Criterion and Black Box with spamming the market with a new NFS every year, which has lead to a disappointing LACK of more Burnout. If NFS is to be EA's premier arcade-style racer, they can't have competition within their own line of games.
This means that, unfortunately, all I can do is sit back and cross my fingers that someday, Electronic Arts raises it's head up out of it's own asshole and realizes the financial potential in releasing another Burnout.
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