Burnout Revenge

Burnout Revenge pushed the series of arcade racing games built on risky, aggressive driving another step further, adding a mechanic that let the player ram slower traffic vehicles from behind and literally blast them off the road, fundamentally changing the dynamics of races and rewarding players for bold, aggressive driving through heavy traffic instead of merely dodging it. This change split the series' fanbase: for some it was a liberating acceleration, for others a loss of the tension that in previous installments came from every car in the lane posing a deadly danger.

The series' signature Takedown system, the destructive elimination of opponents through violent collisions, remained the core of the gameplay and was supplemented with improved crash physics, making vehicle collisions even more spectacular and visually satisfying, with emphasis on slow-motion shots of the destruction from several camera angles. The game expanded its selection of game modes with new variants of races focused specifically on destruction and scoring for damage inflicted on opponents and traffic, matching the series' philosophy of favoring chaos and adrenaline over realistic simulation. Even after their own crash, the player stays in the game: the wreck can still be blasted, sending an opponent into the barriers as one last act.

Track design offered denser traffic and more alternate shortcuts than previous installments, requiring players to make split-second decisions while driving at high speed, and motion blur at full boost gave the sense of speed an almost uncomfortable urgency. Critics especially praised the excellent sense of speed and the unrivaled vehicle destruction system. Burnout Revenge is still ranked among the peak entries of the series and one of the best arcade racing titles of the entire PlayStation 2 generation. The game was released on Xbox 360 a year later, making it one of the series' first titles on the new console generation.