Burnout Revenge - XBox Live Observations

Like many of you, I have a love/hate relationship with XBox Live. I love the idea of being able to play online with people all over the world. Very neat. I love being able to download new content to keep a title fresh. I love being able to hook up with friends and family and play games while chatting.

But... as with all technology there are downsides. First and foremost for me is the fact that you can master the single-player campaign of a game but when you go online you usually get your ass handed to you. Bot behaviour is much different from human interaction. Okay, I can live with that - and welcome the challenge. And there is "Optimatch" to help match you up with other players of your same skill level. Problem is, there are many people who are better than their stats. I'm guessing this is due to them creating new fresh profiles and staring over. It's not fun to buy a game - go online - and get completely creamed by 2 friends who know exactly where to camp out in each map. Lame. Most XBL matches have this environment of 2-3 players who own the match and everyone else trying to just survive. And for the record - snipers are P&ssies.

On the upside, you can usually find someone who sucks equally in the list of victims and invite them to play a match or add to "friends" list. Maybe I'm just whining like a baby. Who likes to lose?

Another hazard on XBox Live is the more than occasional angry potty-mouth, racist and douche-bag playing his favorite song, comic routine or television show. No, we don't care about what is going on with your friends in the next room. Lame.

What does all this have to do with Burnout Revenge??? Well, for whatever reason the people I have run into the past 2 nights playing Burnout Revenge have been... well... pleasant. Calm. Mature. Fun. No little kids with high pitch voices yelling into the mic. No distorted Domo Arigato XB Live Robotos.

After getting frustrated with Delta Force: Black Hawk Down saturation of lame-o knife fights (who enjoys this? Give me a F*#!ing rifle) Burnout Revenge has been the most fun on XBox Live since the Battlefield 2 Demo.

Oh, and the game kicks ass offline as well. Its hard to believe they could improve so much after playing Burnout 3. The graphics are beautiful. Reflections off the cars are amazing. Smooth framerate and once again perfect presentation. GOTY candidate.