Burnout: Eulogy

Have to echo your thoughts, the friends I made through Burnout are some of the best I've had.

It started for me with Thrill Drive in the arcades late 90's, then I read in a magazine about 'Shiny Red Car' that was getting made and looked to be a console version. I didn't have a console at the time and never heard any more about that game.

Then a couple of years later I was at a friend's who had this game called Burnout 2 and I started up the Crash Mode. Well that went all night. Couldn't stop until I'd gotten through them all with a Gold medal. Then the next morning we watched someone else get hooked in a similar fashion.

Burnout 3 was a lot of people's first taste of online gaming with voice chat. I think that helped, it wasn't all trash talking and insults (until you got to know them better) ;) There wasn't a real player vs player, even in road rage. The idea of 'griefing' by shoving someone into a wall was the integral gameplay element so there was accepted battling and enough violence on track for the chat to be fun and light hearted.

The general gaming community now seems a lot more aggressive and less friendly to new people. Burnout 3 online was a perfect storm of many circumstancial factors in development as well as the community that built up around it. the only real way to get more of it is with a time machine. Remember all those lobby rooms with the same name that crashed your xbox when you tried to join? Those are the people who figured out time travel and went back to play some more.

Then Revenge and Paradise came out. The End. ;)

Is there any way to request that the Revenge server be offered as a subscription to the gamers?

As there is NO substitute for Revenge, what alternatives do we have? Ridge Racer Unbounded ( ok, but drifting is to heavy and boost is one time hit), Split second (poor drifting, weak track layout), Blur (possibly the best of a poor bunch), NFS anything (nuff said).

How is it, that Criterion have disregarded the format of Revenge and the earlier Burnout games in favour of newer handling systems and sandbox environments that do not compare to the control offered by the previous? I understand the need to move forward, but if it isnt broke, why fix it?  I know I am not the first or last to say it, but updated the graphics and give us new tracks. I would gladly pay for it, as I know others would. How many more games are we to lose because developers think they know what is best for us. Surely as paying customers, we should have some input into the new games. I cannot recall any research format that asked about desires and wishlists for new titles. I do not want to base my xbox usage on one game, but in reality, Revenge was really the only reason I had an xbox. I do not know if I can say the same about it now. Too many tangents to go down in order to continually fund Microsoft and its partners. Online access codes, avatar bullshit, poor map packs, etc.

Also, its not just the game, the community and ability to sit in a lobby and chat and berate others was a massive part of being involved in the game. Its not just the online playability that drew us there.

This pay to play stuff it rubbish, concept is ok for second hand game market, charge a 5'er, but to kill the best online racer is just a shitty move by EA.

Here in Norway we pay £54.99 for Xbox Live Gold and on average £49.99 for the games. I really do not want to pay a one off or a monthly subscription per game on top of this. I think the furthest I would be willing to stretch is if the games came with 12 months free online play pr. gamertag and after that it could probably be acceptable to pay a small yearly fee for the AAA+ titles.