Burnout Legends
Legendary? Nope. Burnout? Oh hell yes.
Published: September 27, 2005
The other obvious reason why the game doesn't quite feel speedy is just simply that it doesn't move speedily. The framerate is nearly always below 30 fps, and often rests in the teens or low 20s, making for a slightly choppy experience. It's in stark contrast to the console versions of the game, which have always been a stunning showcase for what the RenderWare platform was capable of doing.
The games were also quite good at creating visuals that seemingly couldn't be culled from the aging PlayStation 2 hardware, something that Legends doesn't really do either. Sure, it's a pretty racer, but without the smoothness, some of the things that would normally be excused, like the low-poly backgrounds and uneven texture quality become even more apparent. A lack of explosions, reduced particle effects (and on a system touted for its handling of particles, no less), and most importantly no real blurring remove the sheen that the console games deliver so well.
It's not necessarily that the game looks bad, and really the fact that we're making the comparison to the full-size console version speaks volumes about what was squeezed out of the PSP hardware, but it is something that needs to be said: this is not a silky smooth experience like fans of the series have come to expect.
Then again, neither was the first Burnout and the strides made there are infamous now, so there's certainly hope. It's just that for now, the bar has been set so high by smoother, faster feeling games like Ridge Racer and WipEout Pure that it's impossible not to compare.
If the gameplay is classic Burnout 3, the soundtrack is a carbon copy. Lots of pop-punk tracks, a few keepers like OK Go and Junkie XL and many more sound-alikes mean you'll probably tire of the 21 track list pretty early into the game. EA must've picked up on this, because the default audio mix is pretty effects-heavy. Toning down the effects a bit gives a smoother overall feel to things (especially with headphones on, which is really the only way to play the game).
Should you kill the music, you'll find that the audio is certainly fair, but nothing that's quite on the level of what the series has gotten to recently. The crashes feel a bit flat, the effects slightly wimpy and the little touches like shattering glass and scraping metal don't really come through as much. It isn't for a lack of a low end; I tried things out with some booming Sennheiser cans and there is some oomph to the effects, it's just an especially high fidelity mix.
Slightly rough graphics and so-so sound aside, this is still Burnout and there is an evil sort of addiction that snares you like few games can. The translation to a handheld hasn't dispelled any of the allure that causing vehicular carnage offers, and despite not having the kind of oh-God-I'm-gonna-die speed that the console games have, it's still a damn fine racer. Perhaps not the best on the system (which has, admittedly gotten two of the best entries to some long-running franchises, so it's tough competition), but certainly worthy of a look.
