EA Games’ latest offering, Burnout Legends, is more than your ordinary arcade racer...
Graphics were a little disappointing when I first picked up the game, the cars were a little pixilated and surroundings were definitely not as good as they could have been and compared to Ridge Racers this game lacks quite a bit, but apart from this the visuals were good providing a steady frame rate and only a few pauses and sometimes the tracks would not draw until you drove over it making it look like you were driving through the sky but these problems quickly correct themselves, depending if you are going around a corner of taking down a car when this happens this can cause you to crash but in my experience this mostly happens going down a straight so you don’t loose to much control due to these slight glitches, the game gives a really good sense of speed and when driving fast you don’t notice the graphics problems as you are too busy trying to dodge traffic. When in ‘aftertouch’ mode and the takedown slow motion camera modes the detail is great with body parts of the cars falling off and glass shards hitting the ground. Overall the graphics while still a little pixilated are still descent, with a good frame rate the game play definitely makes up for the graphics.
Sound quality in the game is unbelievable, you couldn’t ask for any better, from tyre screeching to the petrol guzzling engine roars of the mussel cars the sound it top notch, the sound track is filled with 21 top quality tunes, they may not be everyone’s type of music (I know they are not my type) and unfortunately there is no option to use your own music from the memory stick. If there is a tune you really don’t like you can remove it from the play list using the EA TRAX™ menu in the options on the game, once you get into the game just turn down the music volume a little and you will get used to it and get so involved in the game play you will only want to hear the crashes. Again in the ‘aftertouch’ mode and the takedown slow motion camera modes the detail is great, you can hear each shard of glass hit the ground and hear body parts bounce off nearby cars and then the big bang from the crash breaker is really crisp, if you have a pair of headphones I recommend using them with this game as there are so many sound effect you miss when using the PSP’s built in speakers.
Over all this game is probably the best racing game on the PSP, it has a arcade racer feel to it and is by no means realistic there are quite a few, with pretty fast load times and fast races this is a great game to pickup and just play for a few minutes between bus stops but don’t let that fool you there is a good few hours worth of game play here and plenty of replay value with many tracks and 82 vehicles then the adhoc wifi support for multiplayer gaming and game sharing which you can use to upload a demo of the game to a friend to try to convince them to buy a copy of Burnout Legends with. While it does have its glitches here and there this is definitely worth buying if you are a fan of the burnout series, looking for a new racing game or looking for a first racing game to get into the genre.