You have to seek out the right place to do so, pop open a menu and pick a new car, then maybe you'll need to hit up a repair shop somewhere else. The one major hiccup with the gameplay, which is quite shocking given the above, is how it addresses changing vehicles. Your car is hurting? Cool, drive through the repair shop with triple digits on the speedometer and keep on having fun without stopping. You're on to ( Cincinnati?) whatever you want to tackle next.Īhead-of-its-time gameplay elements don't stop there. Want to stop a race? Literally just stop-the game detects it, says OK, ends the event without a peep. Weaving through the various game modes within the map is a breeze, and it's flabbergasting other racing games haven't figured this next point out. opponents take a wrong path.Ī fun example-I took a train track over a body of water instead of looping to the bridge like my opponents, flung myself off the tracks near the finish line and demolished the entire field while they were still crossing the bridge. This creates interesting replayability, and it isn't uncommon to see A.I. Once a race begins, players are left to fend for themselves as to how they reach the finish line, given nothing but a compass and a mini-map as a guide. The seemingly endless numbers of shortcuts and jumps are still there. The developers haven't changed anything, which is nothing but a good thing. Ripping through a tight-cornered city bleeds into mountainous terrain and huge jumps quickly.

Regardless of vehicle, this game flies, and the core idea remains: reach a turbo burnout phase and string those along for as long as you dare, weaving through varied environments that dramatically change gameplay. The first thing players-returning or new to the game-will notice when starting out is how fast the game still feels, even today.

Games like burnout paradise for pc