I picked up Burnout Crash this weekend and could not put it down. I’m serious, I downloaded it at about 10:00am and at 9:00 at night Kara and I were still playing it. We needed to get the house cleaned that day so we played in shifts. While she did a couple levels I would vacuum the family room. Then I would play a few levels and she cleaned up the kitchen. Gabe was out at a birthday party all afternoon so we only had to neglect the baby. By the end of the day we had racked up 192 stars.
The next day was my birthday and I had some friends over. Everyone who tried a level said the same thing: “just let me do one more!” The controller got passed around the couch all night and then they went home and I saw them pop up on on XBL playing it! The game is crack.
I don’t usually read reviews but when I started telling Tycho about Burnout he told me that they were very mixed. It looks like some people don’t like the announcer. An option to turn it off would be cool but it didn’t detract from my experience obviously. The other complaint I saw is that the game is too random. That your skill does not automatically equal a high score. I’m not sure this one is as fair. It is true that the game has a lot of random elements but that’s what makes it fun. This is not a puzzle game like Tetris where you you are trying to play skillfully so as to avoid chaos. This game is chaos and you are trying to play skillfully so as to manage it. There is no question that each one of these intersections is a cluster fuck. The trick is being fast enough and skilled enough to ride that mess to victory.
What really keeps you coming back is the way it is constantly showing you how your friends are doing on given levels. The “Crash Wall” is a list of your buddies along with their scores and the desire to beat a friends high score is a fucking animal instinct. Even during a level you can see your friends high score with a bar building up that represents your score and how close you are to beating them.
If you were put off by the reviews I suggest you give it a try. At least grab the trial and see what you think. Burnout Crash is easily one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played . If you give it a shot I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
-Gabe out
