It’s been a tense, realistic year in the world of videogames. I have escaped possessed Spanish villagers in Resident Evil 4, I have raced around the real race tracks in real cars hundreds of times in the scarily accurate Gran Turismo 4, I have once again played Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, this time working out in the jungle, with a semi-realistic food and health system, and most recently I have been part of the Ghost Recon squad, getting shot at (and normally killed) from all directions in a super realistic world.

It’s now September, and I want something to entertain me before the onslaught of the Xmas releases are upon us. Luckily for us, there is an all-new Burnout game. Last year we had Burnout 3: Takedown, which was incredibly good... So good in fact, that when I heard that Burnout Revenge was coming exactly twelve months after ‘Takedown, I wondered exactly what they could do with the game to make it better. After all, it could have been just another EA-style yearly update…

The main part of the single player mode is the World Tour. It’s had an overhaul, but the main objective of course is to enter events and win Gold, Silver, or Bronze medals. You now also get rated on the aggressiveness of your racing, with a 1-4 star system ranked as 'OK, Good, Great', and 'Awesome'. Get an 'Awesome', and a Gold medal, and you will be upgraded to 'Perfect' Rating. This goes towards your overall ranking from 1-10, which again is named with such things as 'Dangerous', 'Maniac', and 'Dominator', 'Elite' being the final goal.

All the game modes from the previous Burnouts are here too, and some have had a makeover. Eliminator now has a countdown timer of about 30 seconds or so, which when it runs out, the last place car gets eliminated. Crash mode has lots of changes. The pickups like multipliers have been removed, and replaced with a Target car you have to hit or at least get involved to boost up your score. You also have a golf game-style swing-o-meter which you have to press ‘A’ at the right times. The bar first rises up, which determines your engine revs (too high and it will explode!), and then the bar drops down and determines your launch quality (too low and you’ll stall the car). It’s an interesting addition to the game, and seems to split opinion with some people liking it, and others hating it. Personally I thought it was a worthy addition, and adds a bit more skill to the mode. You now have a crash meter too, and the more vehicles that crash, the more the bar fills up. When it maxes out, you have to press ‘B’ quickly to increase the explosive power of the Crashbreaker. Crash Mode was great in Takedown, and could have been more of the same and I would have been happy, but Criterion have gone the extra mile and overhauled it. There are dozens of Crash mode maps, and some really cunning layouts and traffic patterns that will have you scratching your head trying to figure out how to get that elusive Gold.

You now have Crashbreaker options within certain racing events too, so if you crash, you can press ‘B’ to blow your car up. Time it right and detonate when rival cars are near you, and you’ll get 'Payback' awards. There is nothing better than crashing into a wall, and taking out multiple rival cars in one go! Later in the game Crashbreaker becomes available in more modes, like Eliminator Crashbreaker, and my personal favourite, Road Rage Crashbreaker.

For the most part, the online quality is very good, especially considering the speed that the game runs at, with up to six players, but it isn’t without problems. There are still some issues with collisions, and you’ll get "Taken Down"by opponents when you shouldn’t have, and you will be robbed of takedowns yourself. It’s not a constant issue, but it does happen on occasion and can be frustrating. Overall though it's a superb setup, and it works well. You can even talk through the entire experience, without it breaking for the game loading etc – this in itself is a fantastic addition. You can even “join” your friends when they are on the main Xbox Live lobby screen, and talk to each other before you even set up a game. I have never seen another game do this before, and again it's great to see a feature like this, it just adds to the whole experience.

There is now a better choice of music too, including tracks from The Chemical Brothers and Adam Freeland, which pleased me greatly, and there are of course the American nu-rock tracks too. It’s much improved over Burnout 3, and I still haven’t switched to Custom Soundtracks, so it must be doing something right.

Niggles? There are honestly only a few. The main issue for me is the lack of replays and a stubbornly unhelpful crash mode camera. I can only presume there's a technical reason why Criterion don’t give us replays, as they would be an utterly brilliant addition to the game, especially if you could save them and show the to your mates, or even share them online. I have had some epic races, and they are lost forever – I would love to watch a replay of them! My only other gripe would be having to select bumper cam at the start of every race because the game doesn’t remember what you have chosen, and there is still no configurable controls like using face buttons instead of the triggers, but again this is no biggie. I should also mention an occasional glitch where during large impacts the car gets smashed clean through the floor of the tracks, but this hasn't happened very often.