Street Racing. The pinnacle of the amateur racer, so here we have the secondcoming of the classic Burnout series that Acclaim have offered us. Originally not scheduled for an Xbox release after it was originally released, but after the popularity of the Fast and the Furious films that have been out in recent years the street racing scene has grown with popularity and so have the games that have accompanied them.

Gameplay:
Burnout 2: Point of Impact could be said to be the exact game of the Fast and the Furious, with similar looking cars this time with customised versions too along with Burnout 2?s very own ?Burn Meter? which could be said is the games NOS meter. Burnout 2 sticks you in a car of your choice be it roadster, muscle car or whatever, aim of the game is to race around circuits or from point to point, depending, beating all your opponents on various circuits. Burnout 2 has been so much of an improvement over the original for so many reasons, firstly the sheer speed you are going at feels much faster and realistic giving you near enough a small adrenaline rush as you head through oncming traffic at 100mph+ especially when you have the ability to let your Burn meter kick in. You can initiate your burn meter by going through oncoming traffic, drifting and many other ways provided you have the skill. Many more circuits have been added to the rosters this time round allowing a diverse range of tracks to speed around, this time when you crash in the game you don?t have to sit around whilst you watch 30 seconds of replay footage - this time Burnout 2 only features a single crash with a well executed camera angle allowing you to see how badly you managed to total your car!

The game has also had many features added to it allowing for much longer playing hours, firstly a ?drivers ed? mode allows you to learn the Burnout basics as it were and gather your mad driving skills for use in the game, on completion you have access to the learner car (just brings back those memorys of first learning to drive doesn?t it!), a pursuit mode where you have to pursue other cars by ramming them of the road, making them crash or by whatever means within a time limit, a ?crash? mode has been added which literally means get your car up to speed and crash and get the best score, quite measly you might think but after you have a few goes the destructive feel and sound of crashing cars is quite satisfying and makes for many hours of entertainment. Acclaim also adding 15 crash junctions for us xbox owners this time ? yay! When you first start playing you have access to basic cars and earn more cars though playing a pursuit or a face off which have to be unlocked by winning all golds in races. This can be frustrating but adds to the longetivity of the game quite nicely I feel, the custom chamionship did tend to be a small let down once unlocked I expected to be greeted with a wealth of options availble to tune cars such as Sega GT style but all I got were tuned up versions of existing cars with some different paint jobs, although they are faster I would have preffered if the mode were fully customisable.

Controlling the cars in Burnout 2 is pure delight there are no flaws whatsoever allowing free movement of cars, drifting is easy but each car has it?s own differences, so much then have the customised muscle I prefer the super car as it?s a good all rounder. Multiplayer allows only a 2 player split screen unfortunately but with the ability to have a 4 player crash mode(Turn by turn) it sort of makes up for it and is great fun street racing with a friend as the other modes will rarely attract you in multiplayer. This time around Burnout has offered more cars all with clear cut differences, more tracks rather than different routes and a much better car control and boost system, overall a lot of effort has been put in to correct the mistakes in the first Burnout and allows it?s players to enjoy the full £40 that they pay.

Graphics:
The graphics in Burnout 2 are pure magic and although not the best of it’s kind they suit an arcade style racer and it’s clearly apparent that no straight port has been done as far as graphics are concerned with high detail on cars. The ability to rip so many pieces off your car is like no other game bonnets, bumpers and wheels fly off all over the place. I’m sure that the Acclaim team are very happy with themselves as a fine effort has been done here to use Xboxe’s capabilty well, but we have seen better.

Sound:
Sound in the game is very nice and focus around guitar samples mainly but lots of different in house pieces have been created specifically for each track, a nice feature is that if you don’t have the original game the music from it has been carried over into the second game so you can listen to it in game – marvellous! The ability to have your own music in game has been implemted here so you can never get tired of the music in game and can also give you the extra edge, so much that player 1 can change music in car if you will – buttons Y and B change discs and tracks accordingly so you never need to pause and change although just in real life it effects your driving.

Longevity:
Burnout 2 unfortunately suffers from being just that little bit too short like the last game, as only 8 grand prixs occur in the whole game but total 30 tracks, a small fragment of what should have been a fully customisable mode in my opinion shortens the game. The other modes the game offers a short return to the game but offers little else. Multiplayer mode will also keep you going for a while but this game will not last you longer than a month because with some sheer patience the game is easily beatable for experienced racers. The fact that Xbox live has been implemented is good and allows you to challenge times with other people from across the world but with Rockstars similar game Midnight Club 2 offering full online play Burnout 2 looks a little unsupported here. This game will have you coming back for more and more but only for that first month really if that.

Round Up:
Burnout 2: Point of Impact offers a good serving of arcade street racing and with a good dolop of an adrenaline rush too, but flaws unfortunately on the longetivity it offers. It is truly a great game in every aspect – gameplay, graphics and sound but it needs longer chamionships and a better challenge to keep the average gamer going for longer. It gets my thumbs up as the whole game is a briliant hair raising experience whilst it lasts.

Pros:

• Nearest to street racing you’ll get without passing your test
  
• Quality graphics
  
• Fully customisable sound
  
• Additional Xbox levels and modes
  

  Cons:
  

  • Doesn’t last long enough – what’s with the lack of customisable championship?
    
  • Multiplayer mode lacks 4-player mode that it should have