How do you make a sequel to the best arcade racer of this console generation? One good way would be to take everything that made that game great and just make the whole thing a whole lot bigger, a whole lot faster, and a whole lot meaner. That's what developer Criterion Games is shooting for with Burnout Revenge, the follow-up to last year's smash (pun very much intended) hit, Burnout 3 for the PS2 and Xbox. We'd be lying if we said that Revenge wasn't one of our most anticipated games at this year's E3, and we were more than a smidge excited to get an early look at the demo EA plans to show off at the event. Though only one track was playable, it was more than enough to give us a solid example of how Criterion plans to up the ante this time around.

　　The focus of Burnout Revenge is on the sorts of mean-spirited, dirty tricks you could pull on other racers in Burnout 3. One way this is exemplified is through the game's revenge takedowns. As you race, you'll want to fight dirty with your opponents, specifically rival cars, to build up your car's revenge meter. Once you do, you can pull a revenge takedown, which is like a normal takedown only much, much more satisfying. All the same methods for messing with your opponents from Burnout 3 are here, but Criterion will be adding a number of new methods of mayhem.

　　For example, there's traffic checking, perhaps the most impressive new feature we saw. Basically, CPU-controlled traffic is now your best friend, and depending on your car type, you can now slam into these cars and launch them at opponents, almost like a game of golf, but instead of a golf ball, it's a family sedan you're sending airborne. There's even a whole mode dedicated to trying to obliterate as many cars in traffic as you can, which earns you cash as you wreck. If you try to slam into too big of a car, you'll just wreck--but even wrecking won't prevent you from taking down your opponents. On top of using the excellent after-touch mechanic from the last game, you'll now be able to use crashbreakers during any race. Now, not only can you steer your wrecked husk of a car into other cars, but you can also blow them up. If that sounds awesome, that's because it is.

　　The tracks in Burnout Revenge are going to be a little grittier this time around. The one track we saw, loosely modeled after the city of Detroit, had an urban feel to it, with lots of tightly packed buildings and trash and other bric-a-brac littering the streets and with all sorts of crazy jumps and platforms to leap off. There's nothing quite like performing an airborne takedown, if we do say so ourselves.

　　While this all sounds good on paper, it wasn't until we picked up the controller that we understood how cool a lot of this stuff really is. When you first pick up the controller, you might be taken aback at the game's seemingly inherent sameness, when compared to Burnout 3. Admittedly, the game handles almost exactly like its predecessor controlwise, and the feel of the racing is definitely just like Burnout 3. But once you start launching helpless pickup trucks into your opponents and blowing them sky high in the middle of a race, it becomes abundantly clear that this time, the action is even crazier, if that can be believed. And even better, despite all the mayhem onscreen, never once did we see any slowdown or frame-rate issues. The game was running at a wonderfully brisk clip and featured all the excellent little visual touches found in Burnout 3. We were playing the PS2 version of the game, and were it not for the controller in our hands, we'd have figured we were playing the Xbox version. It just looked that good.

　　On top of all these new modes and features, there will of course be online play for both versions of the game. Every mode and feature found in the offline game will be available online--though regrettably, EA won't be showing off the online play at E3. It will, however, have the single-player game up and running, including the Detroit track we got to try. We came away from our time with Burnout Revenge very impressed. We won't yet go so far as to make any claims about this being the best Burnout, but if our time spent playing the game is any indication, there is certainly that possibility. Criterion seems to be doing its part to crank up the crazy in this one, and we greatly look forward to trying out more of the game. You'll be able to find Burnout Revenge on store shelves this September. We'll bring you more on the game as it becomes available.