Burnout was once one of the biggest racing video game franchises in the world. So what went wrong, and why do we need Burnout to return to the racing scene?
From the carnage of Burnout to the underground street racing culture of Midnight Club, Nexus Hub explores five racing game franchises that are in need of a revival today.
I agree absolutely with Ridge Racer, but would prefer what Namco did with Ridge Racers on the PSP. Basically pull Ridge Racer 1-5 together, make it all about drifting and create new tracks with the same oldskool Arcade Feel. Wipeout however? Redout and Ballistic NG replaced it for me. I miss Rock N Roll Racing in this list
RR 6 & 7 were both good on the 7th gen but it is surprising there wasnt an 8th gen RR8. Ace Combat got a release on 8th gen but not RR of all things (unless you count the stripped down vita version).
I'd love to see the return of PGR and Tokyo Extreme Racer.
I would love to see Rockstar put another Midnight Club out. I remember that game fondly, the customization was top notch at the time. It had a nice arcady feel to the driving, but looking at the cars was the main point.
Criterion Games made a name for itself with its blisteringly fast racing series, Burnout.
Starting off as a small team with a small project, the original game was a modest but thrilling arcade racer all about rocketing your way through traffic.
With each new game, Criterion added more and more to the experience, and with Burnout 3: Takedown, the franchise finally reached its full potential.
A peerless arcade racing title, the third entry was published by EA, and saw the series balloon in popularity. Not only was Criterion able to reach a wider audience with this increased funding, it had created a bit of a monster
I would certainly be interested in a new Burnout, but since it's made by EA it would probably be full of service elements and microtransactions nowadays.
Onrush has been scratching my burnout itch, but i get the lack of a place based (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc) race mode doesn't sit well with everyone. Still if you were a fan of Burnout's takedown mode i urge you to give it a try.
I really wanted to like Onrush but it gets boring pretty fast. The tricks that you can do on the bikes are a nice touch though. I was drawn in by the takedowns but they're underwhelming. If you want more Burnout and takedowns, you should go back and play Ridge Racer: Unbounded. Very underrated - it is a terrible Ridge Racer game (not a franchise that I care much about) but a really fun racing game.
Burnout is better with tracks but Paradise is still a lot of fun. Exploring the open world (particularly Big Surf Island) is great but the races could use more direction and a bump in difficulty.
I just bought Burnout Paradise for $5 and it reminded me of how great arcade racers are.
Paradise was my favourite burnout experience. . The setting, music, gameplay, flexibility, great
It's unfortunate, but arcade racers have largely fell off of the map this generation.
It's horrible that they have! Not everyone wants to be mindlessly bored, racing around realistic tracks we've raced around for decades, tuning every little diteail and giving cares unresponsive controls because its a sim... I just want to race around, smashing though things, wrecking others, doing stunts and having police chases. Its disgusting the state of arcade racers this generation.
If backwards compatiblity is on PS5, one of the first games I'm putting in is Split Second.
I've heard that Wreckfest is quite good but I haven't tried it yet. The selection of arcade racers this generation has been dreadful overall though.
@Lucas Wreckfest is a blast!! Well worth the money. The take downs are less statisfying in the absence of slow motion but the destruction and physics are on another level. Plus the game makes really good use of destruction in every single game mode. Loads of fun! Honestly can't remember having this much fun with a racing game for a long time.
Zach from WellPlayed writes about seven IPs that Xbox should turn to solve its exclusive problem
I’ll take a new Streets of Rage, Dino Crisis and Crysis from that list. TimeSplitters would be cool but can’t see it happening
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I think a big new, must play, ip would help.
Original Xbox had halo.
Xbox360 had Gears.
X1 hasnt got one so far.
Sequel to Alan wake, sequel to Ryse, sequel to sunset overdrive, find a way to release scalebound that game looked insane, release Fable 4. A new Up or two to mix things up and boom, you can revitalize the system. Naturally these games have to be of high quality
The worst part is that they paid for both those exclusives... Wasn't even in house. Not even sure what Xbox has brought to the game besides new age online on console...
They need a bunch, at least one across every major genre that can provide differences to established multiplats and their competitors franchises.
Something with logical thought out systems, that make for a believable and solid experience, genre defining, made by teams people trust would be great.
They haven't earned their place in the market, they've been riding on the back of people they've bought with money, instead of supporting the industry and giving back to the gamers with what makes this hobby fun, good experiences that take people somewhere in their imagination.
Sony and Nintendo do that, as do multiple devs outside of those companies.
MS should remove Phil Spencer from leadership, hire someone who knows videogames and can actually do something with the resources available at Microsoft.
Someone with a backbone, who will fight to build Microsoft Studios into a truly respected game maker, not a spoilt child, riding around the industry with their Parent's hard earned money.
I personally Consider QB and Ryse and Halo 5 to be must play games.
And Ori and the Blind Forest.
Whether or not these some of these games are on PC or not is irrelevant, since you Listed OG Halo, which was on PC, and OG gears, which was on PC. (with added content no less)
As Far as "New" is Concerned. Yeah I think QB's ending was underwhelming, but other than that, it was a Fantastic game that deserves more love than Hate.
Regardless of what Critics say.
Critics Loved the Movie: "it Follows" and "Get out" and I despised every second of those Films.
A Critic's POV is only half the equation.
Sometimes you gotta just see for your self.
@Combatcash
Microsoft needs NEW IPS, rehqshing old ones ad nauseum is part of the problem! Also...
-Sequel to Alan Wake: There already was one, didn't make much of a blip.
-Sequel to Ryse: I don't see how a sequel to a mediocre game can help Microsoft any.
-Sequel to Sunset Overdrive: Microsoft didn't give SO the marketing it deserved and the game suffered as a result. I don't see Insomniac risking making another one unless MS paid them MASSIVE amounts of money. Also, Insomniac is making PS4 Spider-Man, and that's gonna be one of Sony's tentpole games this year, so Insomniac doesn't need to work for MS.
-Find a way to release Scalebound that game looked insane: MS CANCELED Scalebound, so that is dead on the water, and I seriously doubt Platinum is very eager to work on a MS exclusive anymore.
-Release Fable 4: I don't trust Peter Molyneux no make me a sandwich, let alone a new game. Face it, the Fable franchise became more mediocre with every game, and Western role playing games have advanced way beyond Fable's concept. Fable 4 would just seem like a crappy unimaginative clone of The Witcher 3 at this point.
Seriously, MS needs innovation, not dipping into the well again and again expecting players not to get bored of the same ol' same ol'.
None of these games have anything to do with the xbox brand. Making these kind of exclusive deals wont help MS but would be the case of TR exclusivity Again. XBOX Needs to make its oen identity with new ip and good sequels to games they have under their belt.. Not just throw cash at any random franchise and make it hostage to their console!
it's so simple. just do a banjo and kazooie remake along the lines of the recent crash games that would be a guaranteed success. do whatever it takes to make a kotor 3 or kotor remake another guaranteed success
Save Xbox from what?
A platform that just reported growth . .
. . that just made MS billions in its last financial report?
oh you mean you'd like to see more exclusives games. .
Fix your headline then?
I'd like to see an increased volume of varied and diverse content coming to the box. They don't necessarily have to from First Party only. A few collaborations here and there.
Smart investments in both SP and MP content.
No yea the Xbox is doing great! No MS got into this business to sell half of what the competitors sell, yes they prefer it that way actually. Denile is strong like bull.
Okay
So we are trying to save Xbox from the competition?
If they released as many AAA games as their rival and still didn't sell as many consoles
Would they still need saving?
Xbox is its own benchmark - they've done 80 mill in the past and had even more AAA games than XO
They just need to match or outdo themselves again
Also the current gen is a wrap.
@Heelix
Your avatar is very fitting. In the hardware business you need to see growth, in order to get returns on the money you're spending. The reason MS is starting to move over into these paid subscriptions is cause the return is very great. MS lost billions trying to compete in the console market and due to the fact that just recently starting to see a profit. If MS can not sell you a xbox, then no paid subscriptions. You bring up 80 million 360 sold, but how many was multiple's to the same person? I mean a 56% failure rate is a lot. So that coincides with only 40+ million xbox live "members" at the time of the 360. That's "members" and not subscribers. So if you made multiple accounts on console that counted as a "member".
So unfortunately as much as you try to downplay. Technically they need to see a growth and not in the red like they have been most of MS console life.
Who cares how much money they made. What are they doing with it?!
Okay, I guess you can stuff hundred dollar bills in an XB1 and games will miraculously show up on the screen then.
How much does Microsoft pay you for nonsense talk?
Exactly. Why should any gamer care if a Company makes money in a way it doesn't do service to us? Is all that money beeing reinvested in new IPs? No, in MS's case they imvest that money on more services which are solely created to extract even more money from us with minal effort and resources on their part.
Thats what MS is doing at the moment.
Actually that $100 bill would pay for almost a year of GamePass so they gave you 150 games for a year. Or you could buy a game or two from the marketplace. I'd like them to bundle it with a $100
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But when your closest competitor is outselling you over a 2:1 ratio, it's still a problem. If Sony were only ahead by 10-15 million units I might agree with you, but consumer perception is a big deal and has legs. Bad news travels fast and this kills brands.
Xbox one won't get no where near Xbox 360 sales which were inflated due to RROD anyway. They are compared against playstation and Nintendo
Releasing more games will never ever hurt so stop the nonsense. Yall are so pathetic instead of asking for more yall are settling for far less and asking others to expect less
The only reason ms and Xbox team so quite is because they are more than 40 million behind the best console in gaming today
Again stop this nonsense demand more don't settle for less
"Xbox one won't get no where near Xbox 360 sales which were inflated due to RROD anyway"
Years later people still perpetuate this falsehood. The RROD boxes were replaced under the 3 year warranty and did not count towards sales.
boba
maybe check your facts early on MS didn't' admit to having these issues it was until later when MS gave the 3 years warranty. There are many gamers who had to buy the xbox360 more than once. All this so they can say they got to the market first and had a early start
I think some of you are slow or maybe you just see what you want to see. Did you miss this part:
"I'd like to see an increased volume of varied and diverse content coming to the box. They don't necessarily have to from First Party only. A few collaborations here and there.
Smart investments in both SP and MP content."
The part where we all agree they need to do more?
so what do they need saving from? They're the only ones who can improve their situation.
In trouble they definitely aren't which is why I mentioned their growth in the gaming division.
Their mission is to profit the most out of one single individual person over many.
You pump out services and microtransactions. Soon, you'll see it become multi tiered. They'll maybe even help you rent out DLCs in the future for a higher premium.
What do exclusives need to become successful? A large amount of consoles sold so they're opting in on stacking multiple layers of money with the lowest number ratio aka the least people.
They're hush hush with a dead end trail, but I got it figured out. This is why you'll never see the same amount of new first party IPs compared to the rest.
The Xbox you knew is done. Jump ship for any of the much better alternatives.
@Heelix
Diverse content is a blanket statement. Yay, more subscription based things....Yay for me. Xbox division has been in trouble since the beginning. They have lost billions upon billions over the course of the original xbox and xbox 360. Investors was wanting MS to sell the Xbox division and move on. MS is betting the house on selling everyone on subscription based services. Minimal cost for them and huge returns. But in order to do that, they need more people buying xbox's and subscribing to their services.
Maybe you need to read closely yourself.
Real, diversifying games is what will save the XBox brand from dying. Multiplats and games like Sea of Thieves won't cut it.
That's what the article is referring to.
MS can report growth is because of microtransactions and subscriptions.. The xbox division is losing consumer confidence BIG TIME.. You think they came up with game pass because they like us? Look at how well sea of theives sold btw.. Thats sad because of how thirsty their customers were for a new game only to get stabbed in the back with another one of their schemes. Keeping people paying into that game as they make more DLC to sell you.. Whats even more sad is when they see the sales data, theyre going to think customers want that kind of stuff.. A sequel or more games with that structure will follow..
If I am not mistaken the growth they reported is year over year for the month of March, not annual growth and not profit. As far as I know the only company to have reported profit for their console is Sony.
Shhh, you can’t say such things here. You’ll get attacked by the Sony fanboys swimming around in these waters.
'I'd like to see an increased volume of varied and diverse content coming to the box. They don't necessarily have to from First Party only. A few collaborations here and there'
I can agree with that bit. They should be doing better for such a cash rich player. This is their 3rd gen. . . They're not rookies anymore.
lol c'mon are you for real? do you really believe that? you guys barely got any new IP on the xbox 360 and if they were they were lackluster. same goes for xbox one. can't believe people will still have hope and will continue to show support for this paperweight console and this garbage corporation.
@zackeroniii, mass effect, gears of war, Alan wake, lost oddissey, blue dragon and mass effect are a few I can think of, and they were all high quality. Not all of them sold well, but IMO they were great fucking games
Mass Effect also came out on PS3 and a majority of those IPs were left behind a very long time ago.
Xbox has so few "main line" franchises or IPs that have that power to bring a successful sequel while PlayStation is building and growing like recent God of War and soon Last of Us 2. Even expect that Spiderman game to have a trilogy.
That's why PS4 is selling like hot cakes consistently because gamers know they're getting hardware that is properly backed and not shallow.
Microsoft tends to front-load their consoles at the start of a gen, it's just that they dwindle significantly as the years go by.
I don't know why you think they won't have a decent start.
What makes you think, especially after this gen, that they even have any "big guns"?
Nice list, I'm still surprised Timesplitters hasn't been brought back in some form (remake or sequel).
My 7 would be:
Old IPs:
1) PGR5
2) Conker's Bad Fur Day 2
3) Fable 4
4) Perfect Dark 3
New IPs
5) Killer Instinct Vs Mortal Kombat
6) A new action game by Itagaki-san ( the guy who made Ninja Gaiden)
7) A new cinematic AAA action adventure game.
Apart from Fable 4 - I doubt any of the others will happen , but still it'd be nice to see something like this happen at E3.
Yeah I did think of Perfect Dark and Battletoads. But as both are Rare games I didn't include them. Would love both though.
Conkers is a good call. I didn't even think of that one!
Yeah I'd kill for a new TimeSplitters
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Im with you on PGR5 100%, been waiting for that game since Microsoft bought the IP after Bizarre went bye bye.
I dont understand one thing.. Need good exclusive level games that a step above mist third party games? Why not just get a Ps4?
I have a PS4 ( and Xbox, PC + Wii U)
MS does have a lot of decent IPs that could be great IPs - unfortunately most of them never get sequels.
I really want to see them invest more in their first party games and studios.
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I want Burnout and Need For Speed to return to their former glory, but this will never happened the way EA is operating now. It's a long gone idea, unfortunately.
Only way we're getting anything similar is if a company does a spiritual successor with a large budget/publisher.
I'd love to see a Burnout Paradise 2
And Motorstorm, and Midnight Club and Jet Moto and Rush etc
I loved Burnout last gen, but Asphalt pretty much took it's place.
Tell that to EA