Thursday, February 21, 2008

Drive, Repeat. Drive, Repeat.

Looks like XboxLive Nation agrees with me, Burnout Paradise has no replay value. I try to get into doing the same thing over and over again, but this Highly Repetitive game just bores me. I should have gone with my gut instinct and not bought it. I have spent more time playing a year-old racing game (Forza 2) than a brand new game.

Forza 2 is a great racin game. The fact that the car selection is so wide is a plus and the authenticity is great (especially with the force feedback wheel i bought just for that game). Even though I've played the game a lot (according to my standards), I can't get enough of it. A lot better than some games I have which is almost a chore to play. I don't get giddy for any of my games (except for a little for Forza 2); it's just a way to keep from being bored when I have nothing else to do (which, these past few weeks, I haven't been very bored).

It (Burnout Paradise) was getting great reviews. Whoever the reviewers were of this game must not have played it more than 6 hours. I don't think I have even logged that much time into it yet and I know the thing just repeats and repeats.

The games are the same, over and over again. Nothing different. The same stuff. No change. No variety. Move on. Do something different. Don't just re-hash the same stuff I did earlier. Get something new. It was a good idea, but Burnout just didn't push the envelope.

4 comments:

B Town Chump said...

Thank you for the review. I was seriously considering going out and buying Burnout Paradise, simply for the reasons:

1. I don't yet own a racing game
2. Most of the BTBz own it.

When it first came out, T talked this game up, and I thought it might not be a bad idea. I told him that I played a previous Burnout (I think Revenge, or something like that) and that I quickly got bored with it. I know Burnout's imo is the awesome crash sequences, but frankly, I could care less. I want to play a racing game to race, not crash. I know the game has more debth than just that, but I was afraid it'd lose its replay value quickly.

Now, I too agree that I'm a big fan of the Forza franchise. In fact, I got the original Forza when I bought my original XBox and soon convinced everyone else to get it. Not dissimilar from Gran Turismo for PS, I liked the fact that you could race so many different manufacturers with various modifications in a handful of classes. Forza makes your racing choices just short of infinite. And since it's a simulation-type game, the physics are accurate, and you can definitely feel the handling of the cars (even w/o force feedback.)

So I guess for my money, rather than buy Burnout Paradise, I should probably go out and pick up Forza. My only concern is that it's an "old" game that is still selling for a new price. I've looked for it used a few times, but could never find it. And I'm sure as soon as I do buy it, XBox will release Forza 3 a week later.

B Town Big C said...

I have played A LOT of Burnout Paradise. I was easily amused by it at first but I am quickly coming off of it. Yes, a large part of it is lather, rinse, repeat. In fact, each time you level up, you can replay the same events you won in the previous level. However, doing stunt run events between races/marked man/road rage events really broke it up for me. Once that gets old though, it's easy to get in a rut.

I don't really think you can compare Forza 2 and Burnout Paradise apples to apples. Forza is simply the best racing simulation out there. If you liked Forza, you'll like Forza 2. It's basically the same game. If you want your racing serious, no question Forza is the better choice. If you want Need For Speed style racing and a little fantasy car wrecking super stunts, then Burnout Paradise is your choice. I have both and enjoy each for its own reasons. Forza = serious fun. Burnout = juvenile fun.

My own opinion here - Forza is almost as repetitive as Burnout, but on its own level. Tune car, test, race, repeat, although you normally can use the same car and setup at least a few times. Having said that, Forza 2 is probably your choice to buy. I'd rent/borrow Burnout though just to give it a chance. It can be fun just to bust super jumps and flat spins in the quarry or airfield.

J Ho said...

forza for 50. or forza and the wireless force feedback racing wheel for 100.

J Ho said...

or wait for grand theft auto 4 april 27, or get ninja gaidan 2 in april (two ORIGINAL games).