The Burnout series is synonymous with fun for me. Being a PS2 owner from way back when I was a cursey teen instead of a cursey adult (or someone in their cursey early 20's) as I am now, it's like a Pokémon evolution except not cool and really just learning about controlling my emotions and maturity and all that lame stuff. Included in that evolution was getting a PS3, and eventually being excited about the release of Burnout Paradise. I actually owned a PSP at one point and playing Burnout Dominator was bliss for me. Long bus rides filled with angsty or beat-punching music as I swerved corners and took badasses down whilst everyone just kinda looked at the weird fat kid and wondered where his guardian was.

Burnout Paradise was a personal low in the series. Despite, friends having the initial pre-release, I convinced myself that a free-roaming city was actually "really cool" and that it totally wouldn't be "lame" and you'd have a lot more freedom. I was wrong. Really wrong. I don't know about you but being in a free-roaming cityscape and having no sense of direction, as well as a poorly intuitative, linear map design really doesn't bode well with someone thinking in free-roaming mode. So burned by that Burnout experience, the announcement of another Burnout game spurred the pessimist in me and I was excited once again, but when I saw the first video's for it, I wasn't too pleased. I was less than pleased and the optimist inside me died...just a little...not too much, I hope.

I did go into Burnout Crash with less than a positive aspiration for what the game actually might be. I know people don't like people who waffle on, so let's just say Burnout Crash is good and there is a demo you can play, it's free, it'll give you a good indication of what it's like except for some modes but let's also say that Burnout Crash is initially underwhelming. 

The 2D opening is cutesy to say the least but so mediocre it doesn't really register on my mental spectrum as being a video game. It reminds me of the animated sequence in Catch Me If You Can and I'm half expecting the little ute (or pick up truck for our US readers) to hit a tiny Leonardo DiCaprio and send him flying against a 2D wall...but yes, it's underwhelming and my memories of Burnout begin to fade, like the opening screen does. I left the opening on too long to start writing the opening paragraph, the visuals humming away in the background with my PS3 and then a song begins.

This is where my opinions change by a simple video and musical manipulation. The song by The Primitives, aptly titled - at least for this game - Crash and I'm brought back to a simpler time in my childhood called the 90's, when this song was not written. It's an 80's New Wave pop song and whilst I became a fan of New Wave some time in my late teens, the song still resonates and I'm back to apart of what makes the Burnout series amazing, the mind numbing, heart racing music. When I say mind numbing, I don't necessarily mean it in a bad way, it's just beautiful background fodder. Much like the Clair De Lune in Burnout Paradise or Shotgun by The Outline in Burnout Revenge, it brings you into a different element when it comes to the game. 

One of my fondest memories of Burnout Paradise is watching the sun slowly set just as Clair De Lune began and I started a Takedown Race and watched the shadows stretch and pull the landscape of the city as I raced from night into day and won with 12 Takedowns when I only needed 5. I get weird when it comes to games and music. Most pieces just wash over me and I just shrug my shoulders, but when there's a piece that's memorable, it really sticks. Whether it's the beautifully whimsical music from Legend of Zelda, a series I've barely played or the block rocking minimal piano and beats of Minecraft - it all sticks in my mind like Tetris tessalated musical blocks.

Of course, the Burnout series is just more than music and so I actually start playing Burnout Crash and stop listening to the Primitives for the 12th time....and I press start and the song actually starts to play in full, kicking off with a lovely little animated explosion of the pick-up. The menu kicks in after a failur to login to the PSN/Autolog network and a voice gives me a warm douchey welcome, sadly often associated with Burnout games. No one I really know is a frat kind of person and I feel EA keeps those voice over guys for that reason, I kinda liked it when it was the chick running Crash FM, but meh, that was then, this is now.

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