Monthly Archives: October 2002

Burnout 2 : Point of Impact

Wednesday October 16th 2002

This game will quite deservedly sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Off of the back of that, Criterion will then be able to offload crates full of the Renderware development package to third party developers the world over.

And if people still need convincing after Burnout 2, Grand Theft Auto : Vice City will follow hot on the tyre tracks of this adrenaline fueled arcade racer to deliver a very merry and graphically enhanced xmas for gamers the world over, all courtesy of Renderware and a little imagination.

Could I be wrong?

Yes I could, but the quality of Burnout 2 defies the sub-year development time. Considering the world had been on a couple of trips round the Sun in the time it took the Codies to churn out TOCA and it’s bland renderer, it might be worth their while to invest in Renderware before they start work on yet another sequel.

This game is everything TOCA Race Driver failed to be. It’s a very decent racing experience, the graphics are sublime, and even when you get it all wrong the physics and particle effects make for a heart stopping, eyeball grabbing one way ticket to Carnageville before you’re off on your merry way again.

If it has any faults it’s that once you’re ahead, the AI cars don’t use boost if you don’t. So once you’re ahead there’s really no reason to take the risk and have it all end in tears on the final corner.

But where would the fun be in that?

Burnout 2 just begs you to see how fast you can go. It’s not quite up there with Wipeout Fusion’s Zone Mode, but considering your wheels are on the tarmac and the roads are filled with traffic it goes plenty fast enough!

New for the sequel; when you hit the boost the music fades in instead of fading out to a heartbeat, as in the previous game. It’s weird at first, but pretty cool after a while. Also new are the various game modes such as pursuit, obviously borrowed from the Need For Speed series, and Crash mode, which just involves having as big a crash as you possibly can from various set pieces. Sounds fun, and it is.

Seven days in the cold…

Wednesday October 16th 2002

How long does it take to get a water boiler fixed?!

Seven days it took my estate agent to get their shit together and get a company round to fix it. I’ve ended up with the worst cold I’ve had for ages and spent three days sitting in the house waiting for a guy to come and fix it.

When that guy finally showed up it was a half hour job. Seven days to do a half hour job – what the heck is that all about?!

And the thing about waiting in all day – that drives me nuts. It’s almost certain that with the telephone company, gas company, electricity company or given repair man you can wait in for day after day and then you pop out for three minutes because you’ve run out of stuff to live on. And when you get back you find a note saying “Sorry, we called while you were out…” Aaaaarrghh!

To me it’s obvious that a decent reliable service from these people – so that they turn up during the hour they said they would, or at least give a call to keep you informed, would be invaluable and build a great reputation.

Maybe being reliable and prompt would get in the way of sand-bagging and stringing jobs out for more of a pay cheque, though. Wow, am I getting cynical…

Anything can happen

Tuesday October 8th 2002

Monday started out the way most Mondays do – into the office, check the mail, have a coffee, pick around for simple things to do until I’m fully awake; that kind of thing.

Lunchtime came and went as usual before the studio manager asked if I’d do a mercy dash to the London studio to deliver a package. Since I knew where the studio was, and I knew London well, I became the top candidate for the job.

With a couple of minutes to decide whether I wanted to go or not, I hardly had time to think before I was delivered to the station and sitting in first class, bound for London Euston! Mental stuff if you ask me – kind of wicked too, with all the recent turmoil I needed something a bit unusual to happen.

I spent Monday night in O’Neills just off Leicester Square with my cousin Iain and good friend Ian “The Bin Man” Binnie. It wasn’t what I thought I’d be doing on that particular Monday night, but it sure beat moping around the house feeling miserable and unwanted.

Sadly Fliss had some bad news the same day – one of the directors of her company died of a heart attack at the weekend. He was a nice guy and had been the type that goes for a drink after work rather than slinking off to a country retreat somewhere – that kind of thing.

From the phone conversation I could tell she was upset about it and even after recent events I really wanted to be there to comfort her at the time. Not sure what I could have said or done, but although I was having fun with good company I would have been there for her in an instant if I could have been.