Burnout Revenge, Feeding Frenzy, and Jewel Quest

In my last post, I mentioned Burnout Revenge. I have the 360 version, and I must say it is the best version I've played yet. The damage models, features, and online play totally sell the game. In my opinion, this serious is the best in the racing genre, because you don't just try not to crash and drive in circles most of the time (like in PGR, Grand Turismo, and Forza). Here, crashing and wrecking are the highlights.

Playing the game after playing Full Auto makes a gamer want to rip the "most destructive racing game ever" subtitle from Full Auto. The physics, graphics, and especially sound throttle BR way beyond FA, and that's without artillery, just driving skills. Not to mention that most of the cars in BR are hot.

Being able to record any part of the events played is an excellent feature as well. Then a gamer can share his/her most destructive moments with their XBL pals. I'm hoping my amazing catapult off a semi trailer will be seen by someone! It was also interesting to see what other "burners" around the world recorded. Nice feature!

Overall, the only thing that disappoints me about BR is that after a crash, the damage is no longer tallied with "expense" baloons on the post-crash overview. That gave the crasher a sense of personal accomplishment, but the focus now seems to be on the physical resulting damage. Still, crash mode is the most amusing, especially with friends.

To me, Burnout Revenge is near perfect. Definitely a must for anyone that likes cars and destruction.

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I also tried out Feeding Frenzy and Jewel Quest on XBLA. Jewel Quest is more of the same-old Hexic/Bejeweled style games. FF on the other hand, is a completely new style for XBLA (at the moment). Essentially, the player portrays a fish that has to keep eating in order to grow and move up the food chain (to the top). One thumbstick and two buttons are all that is required, and the game's main idea is just to avoid getting eaten by a bigger predator until the player's fish becomes big enough to eat the predators. There's not much to it really.

I can't really say either of these games is a must-buy. Play the demos, and if you think you'll get your money's worth out of it, go ahead and buy.