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One of the challenges faced by all developers who have been blessed or cursed with a long-running franchise is how to keep said franchise fresh and appealing with each successive installment. No matter how good a developer or how rich a premise a game has, there's always going to be a point when what comes next looms over the next installment in a series like a giant Monty Python-esque foot primed to stomp the appeal out of a franchise. The recent announcement of Burnout Revenge, with its crazy talk of new modes and an emphasis on revenge, left us wondering what the latest entry in the series would hold.

Burnout Revenge will serve up more of the series' trademark furious highway action later this year.
By all rights, developer Criterion Studios will have its work cut out for it in topping the brilliant Burnout 3: Takedown. The game offered up jaw-dropping visuals and online play for the PS2 and Xbox that had all the addictive qualities of crack (but next to none of the side effects). How on earth do you go about topping something like that? Anxious to find out how Criterion Studios' UK house of ideas is going to do that, we interrogated Alex Ward, mastermind (or creative director, depending on your preferred moniker), on what to expect from the upcoming game.

Gamespot: Were you pleased with the success of Burnout 3?

Alex Ward: Absolutely. We were very pleased with what we did development-wise. It wasn't an easy project. We all worked exceptionally hard. This sounds like a cliché, as all developers say stuff like this...but Burnout 3 was tough. Plus, we had so many people freaking out over the game it almost was added pressure to deliver the game and also to deliver the goods. It was the most successful game we've put out. With numerous Game of the Year awards and something like 43 global awards, I think we'd be insane if we weren't pleased--really, really pleased--with what we all achieved last year.

GS: Did you expect such a positive response to the game?

AW: It's hard to answer that really. I think we were pretty much getting on with what we had to do. We took time out to attend E3 and I think there was another Electronic Arts event in America that we went to, so we met most of the press guys and knew they were excited. But it's never over until it's over.

Whatever software you show, at any event anywhere in the world is obviously not the finished game...it's the latest version. The only place you can play the latest Burnout code is right here at Criterion, and I think that's always in the back of your mind. What's tough as a developer is not pointing out to everyone what you know is broken, or what has changed. You just want to say "ignore that and this," and "we've fixed that now," but in reality, very few people notice, so it's best to shut up and let them enjoy the game.

But when it's all done and complete, then it's out of the door. You know, I can't even remember last September. It's a total blank. I think the success part of the game only started to sink in to us as a team in November and December. By that time, we were all working on new projects, so the previous game instantly becomes "the past"--it becomes history for us. As developers, we're always looking forward.

GS: What do you think worked well? What do you wish you could have done better?



You'll be able to check every vehicle on the road--even the civilians'--in Revenge.
AW: Aggressive driving, which we added into the Burnout mix, worked really well, better than any of us expected. I can remember it first going in and people wondering what exactly it was. Now you can hit your rivals. Getting the AI to attack you and really put you into a high-speed battle worked pretty well, as did the whole speed rush you get from the game. Game progression worked well, and the concept of flying around the world doing different types of races paid off. The presentation team worked really hard right up to the wire, so it was fun to see all the reward sequences go in the game. We still play it pretty regularly online. Sometimes we get beaten pretty badly. Even if we tell people who we are, they never believe us! Retrospectively, what could we have done better? There were a couple of corners on a couple of tracks that we could have tweaked to make it flow better. And I think we all agree that we could have tweaked the handling on the F1 and Indy-type cars we put in. They were a little too crazy for a lot of players, and you really need to understand how drift works in the game to be able to escape with your life in those cars.

But those are minor quibbles really...stuff that only affected a few players who got right to the end of the game, which to us is a good thing. How many games can you honestly say that you play right to the end these days? Most games are so horrible, you're lucky if you can play for more than two hours.