Obviously, the gameplay hasn't changed a bit in this next-gen port. Burnout Revenge fully revolves around agressive and insanely satisfying racing action in a vast number of different race types (Elimination, Road Rage, Race, Traffic Attack,...). Ramming your opponents into a wall, oncoming traffic or pillars gains you boost and raises your rank (ranging from ok to awesome). If you finish a race with the 'awesome' rank and also manage to win a gold medal, you'll get a 'perfect' rank, which gains you unlockable cars and trophies (and for the X360: extra achievements) The game rewards your road rage even more than the previous game, since you can now 'check' traffic that is moving in the same direction as you. You still have to watch out for large trucks and buses though, since ramming them results in a crash.

Traffic checking brings a noticeable change in gameplay. You can now focus more on battering your opponents, in stead of continuously looking out for traffic. Another important change with Burnout 3: Takedown are the so-called Revenge Takedowns. If another car takes you out, he's immediately marked as a rival. Settling the score with that rival fills your rank meter very quickly. Furthermore, you can now do Vertical Takedowns (death from above!) and use Crashbreakers during race events to wipe out several other drivers at once. Burnout Revenge is even more brutal than before.

The well-known Crash Mode from the previous game was a love-it-or-hate-it fair. I personally loved it to death, but many others didn't. That's why Criterion made significant changes to the concept. There are no more cash bonuses and multipliers, so success depends heavily on your skills (and some luck). While the crash events in B3:T were slightly altered race levels, the ones in Revenge have been designed as crash junctions from the ground up and in general they are indeed better suited for the job. The X360 version also benefits from another gameplay tweak. In both the Xbox and PS2 games, you had to press a button at exactly the right time to launch your car with optimal speed. This caused a lot of trial and error, so the developers decided to ditch this in the X360 port. Your car will have the right speed from the start.

Even with the many changes, Burnout Revenge still plays mostly like its marvellous predecessor and in most aspects, that's a good thing (the Burnout games are without a doubt the kings of the arcade racing genre), but I couldn't help but experience a feeling of repetition at times. While Burnout 3: Takedown more than once kept me glued to my PS2 till daybreak (I kid you not), Burnout Revenge hasn't succeeded in doing so (not yet, anyway). Still, that's probably more due to the fact that Burnout 3 revolutionized arcade racing (and my obsessive-compulsive addiction to that game), than it is a flaw in Revenge's design.

Graphically, this Xbox 360 version doesn't improve all that much upon the other versions. Sure, the lighting is more natural because of all that HDR goodness and yes, the damage modelling looks even better than before, but it's not a huge step forward. That's certainly not a bad thing though, since Burnout Revenge made the Xbox and PS2 do things that no-one deemed possible. It just shows how far Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge were ahead of their time. Unfortunately, all this beauty comes at a cost, since this game also features pretty substantial loading times. They're shorter than on the current-gen consoles, but they're still a bit too lengthy. Still, this is a problem that most other Xbox 360 games seem to suffer from.

It might be my imagination, but it's almost as if Burnout Revenge's sound effects are even more impressive on the Xbox 360 than on the other consoles. The sound of a checked SUV flying centimeters over your hood is breathtaking. Squeeking tires and twisted metal have sounded this good. The EA Trax soundtrack is without a doubt the greatest and most fitting I've heard over the last couple of months. With songs from Junkie XL, Franz Ferdinand, Apocalyptica, The Chemical Brothers, Pennywise, Asian Dub Foundation and many others, there's something in there for everyone. You've got to hand it to them: EA Trax nearly always succeeds in delivering kick-ass ingame music.

Burnout Revenge is also one of the lengthiest racing games out there and offers incredible value for money. There are just so many things to unlock and races to complete in this game, you can easily spend your entire summer on this game alone. I won't even guess how long it will take you to reach 100% completed status. And than there's still the excellent multiplayer section of the game. All of the different game types are available for you to play with a friend or with up to 6 players over Xbox Live. Six players might not seem that big of a deal, but rest assured you'll already have your hands full with them. The game keeps track of your online rivalries and even lets you exchange recorded video clips! And of course, there are a ton of achievements to win online.