Product Description

Burnout is a high-risk, high-energy arcade-style street racer. No learning curve is required; just pick up and play. The game monitors your driver's heart rate, as you're rewarded for near misses. Civilians steer clear! There's only one way to drive in Burnout: dangerously. Force traffic into your opponents' paths and risk a head-on collision to secure a win. Slide, cut close and drive into oncoming traffic and you'll be rewarded for your risk taking. Crashes are based on actual crash and damage physics for extra realism.

Instant replays allow you to relive your handiwork from multiple angles in all its cringe-inducing, metal-bashing glory. The advanced traffic AI means civilians try to avoid and warn you while opponents try to slam you off the road. Cruise the US and Europe on 14 awesome, traffic-filled courses through cities and into the countryside. More than 300 vehicles fill the streets and highways, making reckless racing and wild demolition a certainty. Dolby Digital surround sound brings the roar of screeching tires and twisting metal to life, and the analogue controls mean you can feel every turn, skid and crash.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5454 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Acclaim
• Released on: 2002-05-03
• Platform: GameCube

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like your racing games fast, furious and full of spectacular smashes? You're in luck. With Burnout, Acclaim remove all pretence of going for a serious simulation and instead serve up a delicious dish of pure arcade fun. There are two key selling points to the game--the speed the action runs at and the spectacular crashes. To facilitate these, the set-up couldn't be more straightforward, with the simple aim to be first past the post. You can increase your chances of this by driving more dangerously, although that comes with obvious pitfalls in the shape of those aforementioned smashes. Suffice to say, though, to get through the game you're going to have to take your chances.

Contrary to the serious approach of racing simulators like the PS2's Gran Turismo 3, this is foot-to-the-pedal stuff, and tremendously good fun to play. And when you do put your proverbial foot down, get ready to move, for this is a blisteringly fast title that deceptively requires more concentration than it would first appear. The downside is that it won't appeal to those who like their racing games nice and serious, nor to those looking for anything particularly innovative. For Burnout has few qualms about marrying the power of the GameCube to a game engine that forsakes bells and whistles for speed, destruction and sheer good fun. Fortunately, in this case, it's all the better for it, making it a real four-wheel treat. --Simon Brew

Manufacturer's Description
Burnout reinvents intense racing with the most brutal, realistic and pulse-pounding driving experience available any video game system. It's the most high-risk, high-energy arcade-style street racer available. No learning curve required, just pick up and play. The most spectacular crashes ever--period. Burnout's action will leave you sweating, short of breath and totally in shock. Hyperventilating is part of the fun. Burnout monitors your driver's heart rate: you're rewarded for near-misses and the more risks you take. Civilians steer clear!

Customer Reviews

Stunning visuals with great gameplay!
Wow, this game is intense!

Burnout is one of my favourite games to date. If you like realistic racers, that dive into reality, then Burnout is a must. Better than todays latest titles like need for speed and other racers, due to the fact that it is based on speed, and crashes.
Hit a car and watch the stunning replay show your crash. Many people do complain about the time it takes, but it holds you up for a little, but so it should if you have just crashed, then you restart a bit further along the course. I think the punishment for crashing is great. You usually get restarted just infront of the second place driver, but they just overtake you as you restart. Trying to defend your position by looking in your rear-view mirror, trying to block their path, while petrol tankers storm towards you is one of the best experiences I get!

It is the speed and realism that hits me most. I can never turn down a race on Burnout, with the 'front of car' camera angle that gives you the best sensation of speed and 'on-the-limits' driving. Admittedly the cars are in the same places every time you race, but you only remember a few key ones, and even then you have to work magic to avoid them whilst skidding round a blind corner hairpin.

there is also the small matter of "burnout". This is where the name quite obviously originates from. You obtain it by driving on the wrong side of the road, getting 'near misses' which is where you just avoid a crash, and for pulling off massive power slides. The meter gradually builds up, and once you get the meter full you can hit the burnout button and you speed up (the screen blurs abit to add to the effect). You can build up your burnout meter while burning out, so if you are burning out, and are also driving on the wrong side, you will get refreshed with another burnout when your current one finishes.
Maybe the burnout is a bit overly exaggerated, but none the less, its an advantage worth risking a crash for.

The graphics are great I think. Even for a dated game the graphics give shadows and reflections that would make todays game makes proud. Watch the dirt kick up as you drive through a rough European track, before turning onto a busy carriageway with a school bus thundering towards you.
Its the pure skill and quick reactions that make this game so intense.

There are lots of different game modes. A championship that sees you race in championships that you unlock, 2 player (no 4 player which is a bit of a let down), faceoff (Where you earn new cars by winning another expert racer), time trials, and a mode that sees you try to complete the course against your friend without crashing once.

One small niggling annoyance is that even if you burnout, or don't crash at all for a whole lap or so, the opponents will still be just behind you, or if you are doing terribly, they will be just ahead. It can get annoying, but then again, it keeps the pressure on, and keeps the mid-race battles going on.

I seriously recommend this game, if only for the adrenelin you get flying past minivans, on the wrong side of a motorway while trying to build your burnout meter. Sheer brilliance!

Where did that car come from?
Burnout is a must! There is no way else to say it!.. If you like speed, you are sure to get it it Burnout, because that's what Burnout is all about!.. And unlike the most other racing games, this game has easy control, and holding the car on the road is the last of you concerns. Racing down the freeway in high speed, and avoiding other traffic, needs all the attention it can get. 1 sec. not focusing on the game, and your car is sky born!.. The crashes in this game are very cool and VERY realistic, and viewed from multiple camera angels. They can be at bit annoying though, course you just can't wait to get behind the wheels, and reach the next checkpoint before times up..
The graphics is awesome, and very fast. And the music is great to.. If you have time to notice it..

!!!Burnout Baby Burnout!!!
This is the driving game for the cube. Fancy racing around main roads with 3 other race competitors and hundreds of inteligent computer cars. For years now I've been wanting a driving game with super slick graphics, excelent cars with subtle handling, full 3D courses that don't have pop-up, exciting gameplay, and of course realistic speed. You are only doing 100mph or so but it seems like you are tanking it along like in Wipeout or ExtremeG. Maybe it has something to do with the oncoming traffic or refresh rate of 60 hertz (for all you with posh tvs). Then of course stick it in the proper widesreen mode and you have more course, used in conjunction with the Dolby creates a wicked game that will have you (me) coming back for more and more. The crash replays are little weak but the full replay at the end of a race you are rewarded with more than shows the supersweet gameplay and graphics. The courses that are opened up obviously get harder as the game progresses, but the one that had me was Rush Hour. When you get to race around a city's highways in oncoming traffic at, yes you guessed it, rush hour. Cutting across to make it to the slip roads gets very interesting, allowing you to get excellent crash bonuses.
I would say that this is the best game ever released. But the two player is diabolical, slow down, jerky and the graphics are no way near as good. It looks like a Playstation 1 game! Now that's pants.
But overall I love this game, worth every penny. I'm off to get lost in this game for a couple of weeks.