History VideoGame / Burnout

* '''''Burnout'' (2001):''' The original. An innovative racer at the time, ''Burnout'' placed a focus on stunts and extreme driving (much like ''Project Gotham Racing'', which was released around the same time), and became known for its high speed and its spectacular crashes. The name came from the game's system of NitroBoost -- you can only use boost when your boost bar is filled, and you can chain boost bars together by performing stunts while boosting. Released on [[PlayStationTwo PlayStation 2]], {{Xbox}}, and {{Gamecube}}, and published by Acclaim Entertainment.

* '''''Burnout 3: Takedown'' (2004):''' This game saw the introduction of the Takedown, which allows you to check other racers into walls or traffic to earn boost and get them out of your way. Along with Takedowns came Road Rage mode, where you have to wreck as many opposing cars as possible before a) the time ran out, or b) you took too much damage. Crash mode was also improved, adding power ups that increased (or decrease) money gained, and added Crashbreakers, which allowed you to blow up your car to do some extra damage. This game was originally planned to be released in 2003, but it was delayed for a year when Acclaim went bankrupt, finally getting picked up by Creator/ElectronicArts in 2004. EA would eventually buy Criterion outright, making ''Burnout'' a permanent staple of EA for the future. It was a smart move on their part -- this game won widespread praise from critics, and it became a major hit, turning ''Burnout'' into a CashCowFranchise for EA and Criterion into their premier developer of racing games, including at least two installments in the ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed'' series.[[note]]As an aside, Criterion's ''Need for Speed: Most Wanted'' in 2012 was [[FanNickname affectionately referred to]] by some as ''[[SpiritualLicensee Need for Speed: Burnout]]'' due to its similarities to this series.[[/note]] Released on [[PlayStationTwo PlayStation 2]] and {{Xbox}} ({{Gamecube}} owners weren't so lucky this time around).

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Crash/Showtime and traffic checking.

* DrivesLikeCrazy: [[InvokedTrope Invoked:]] The whole point of the series is to drive like a god damn maniac on public roadways.

''Burnout'' is a car RacingGame series by Creator/CriterionGames with "full contact" rules, set on city streets, and usually densely populated streets at that. The older games had fixed tracks with a start line/finish line and some opposing cars. As the games advanced, so did the "contact" part of the game, starting with Crash mode in the second game, and the addition of Takedowns and Road Rage mode in the third. The game is known for being very "fast", with the screen blurring out at extreme speeds and handling becoming this side of impossible. Also known for its spectacular camera views of cars spinning through the sky or crunching under trucks, which is [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation totally fucking sweet]].

* HeyItsThatVoice: DJ Atomika is [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Heero Yuy]] [[Music/MarkHildreth in English]].

* AltumVidetur: The motto of Paradise city
--->Loco Pedal ut Metal, Ledo is[[labelnote:Translation]] Put the pedal on the metal, hit it.[[/labelnote]]

* BadassAdorable: The Toy cars in Paradise. They are tiny little versions of existing cars in the game. They can take on the bigger cars just as easily as their bigger counterparts. Wrecking them via a crash is virtually impossible in some cases.
* BackgroundMusicOverride: In ''CRASH!'', most Features you've activated play their licensed [[NostalgiaFilter classical]] song. (e.g. ''It's Raining Men by The Weather Girls'' for Thunderstorm; ''Dr. Beat by Gloria Estefan'' when the Ambulance appears, etc.)

** The same goes with Burnout Legends, in which your car seems to be made of glass with the high chances of crashing for some reason. The rivals also ''blatantly teleport to safety'' whenever they're about to crash into traffic.

* DarkerAndEdgier: ''Burnout Revenge''. The levels are much more "industrial" and dirty, with more dark colors compared to Burnout 3, and the soundtrack is much more harder and raw compared to the rest of the series, in addition to the tracks being more combat oriented and the introduction of Traffic Checking.

*** This may have been because there was a bit of ObviousBeta going on here, and everything released for free was probably meant to be in the vanilla game. Google the whole debacle about not being to reset races on the fly for an example of this.

** The ''MotorStorm'' games are basically ''Burnout'' [[AC:[[RecycledInSpace off-road!]] And with NintendoHard difficulty!]]
** ''SplitSecond'' is ''Burnout'' meets a Creator/MichaelBay movie.

** ''NeedForSpeed: Hot Pursuit'' is basically ''Burnout'' with licensed cars and a major emphasis on police chases. Justified, as it was developed by Criterion.

** ''{{Driver}}: [[DriverSanFrancisco San Francisco]]'' incorporates a near-copy of Burnout's boosting system, event types, and event selection, worked into more standard Driver-style gameplay and missions. (It was also the first well-received Driver game in years, as they seem to have moved on from unsuccessfully trying to emulate the GTA series)

* [[HaveANiceDeath Have A Nice Crash]]: Whenever you crash, you're treated to a clip of your car spiraling gracefully through the air, shedding metal shards everywhere, frequently in slow motion.

* [[LastLousyPoint Last Lousy Smash Gate]]: lampshaded by Atomika; you will get stuck in the high 300s trying to find the last ones.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfLoading: Note to Criterion: When it takes over 5 seconds to load every car you so much as put the cursor over in the Junkyard in Burnout Paradise, your dynamic loading isn't working very well. Even worse is that it takes just as long to load a ''different paint job''. Thankfully, the rest of the game is ''much'' better about this.

* {{Nerf}}: Paradise after one of the patches. No longer could one have an unlimited timer in road rage. The timer now stops counting up after you hit the takedown target.

* ObviousBeta: The original release of ''Paradise''. ''The Ultimate Box'' version was supposed to be the intended product, and includes bikes, weather, an in-game clock, and several features they couldn't finish on time. That said, the unpatched/updated version plays fine with no game-breaking bugs, making ''The Ultimate Box'' a ''Burnout Paradise: Director's Cut'' if anything.
* OhCrap / ThisIsGonnaSuck: ''You'', the player in any of the games. When your car is blasting through traffic at ludicrous speeds, anything you hit is going to turn your car into a pile of scrap. If you see a wall or traffic coming at you at over 100 mph, this is going to be your reaction.
* OnlyAFleshWound: In Paradise. Your car can crash, flip, have the roof crushed, dented, bruised and otherwise wrecked...but your car can ''still'' keep on revving. These are called Drive-Aways

** 'Cept for when there's heavy traffic, so sticking to the correct side of the road is mandatory for survival.
** Also, you indicate in Point of Impact.

** ''Paradise'' also held distinction for being the first video game with political in-game advertising, with ads calling for votes for UsefulNotes/BarackObama on Paradise City's billboards in some earlier versions.

** Somehow, the last 2 Burnout games are titled from the game's theme song. The other (''Burnout CRASH!'') is [[Music/ThePrimitives The Primitives']] Crash, which also names this game's location.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Paradise is this to Revenge. Unless you were only going for Bronze medals, Revenge could get [[NintendoHard pretty damn hard]] (especially the Burning Routes, where if you wrecked even once you could kiss that Gold medal goodbye). ''Paradise'''s Burning Routes, on the other hand, can easily be finished with over 30 seconds to spare if you drive well enough. Most of the events are an absolute cakewalk for most of the game, and the challenge seems to come from simply not missing a turn and going the wrong way. The game ''does'' start to get some of its edge back when you're going for the Burnout Elite license, but even then it's not as hard as Revenge. This could have something to do with the fact that there's no medals in ''Paradise''; Just one target that you either pass or you don't.

* SoundtrackDissonance: Pounding your foes into the pavement in Road Rage or Marked Man to the sound of Vivaldi's Four Seasons or Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata in ''Burnout Paradise''.

* YouBreakItYouProfit: Crash events, Showtime mode

** ''Paradise'' also held distinction for being the first video game with political in-game advertising, with ads calling for votes for BarackObama on Paradise City's billboards in some earlier versions.

* Airplane, Asteroid, and UFO in ''CRASH!''

** In Paradise, when the Crashnav compass is telling you to turn, your turn signal comes on. [[TheDevTeamThinksOfEverything Good ol' devs!]]
* ProductPlacement: Lots of ads in Paradise: Gilette, nVidia, Diesel... The last one is quite unfortunate: as [[TopGear Clarkson]] would say, "Diesel" is not a word petrolheads want to hear.

** And Paradise has this along with ''Shoutout'' Names: "Angus Wharfare", "Go West", "River City Rampage", etc.

* SequelDifficultyDrop: Paradise is this to Revenge. Unless you were only going for Bronze medals, Revenge could get [[NintendoHard pretty damn hard]] (especially the Burning Routes, where if you wrecked even once you could kiss that Gold medal goodbye). Paradise's Burning Routes, on the other hand, can easily be finished with over 30 seconds to spare if you drive well enough. Most of the events are an absolute cakewalk for most of the game, and the challenge seems to come from simply not missing a turn and going the wrong way. The game ''does'' start to get some of its edge back when you're going for the Burnout Elite license, but even then it's not as hard as Revenge. This could have something to do with the fact that there's no medals in Paradise; Just one target that you either pass or you don't.
* ShoutOut: The "Legendary Cars" pack for ''Burnout Paradise'' has [[{{Expy}} expies]] of the [=DeLorean=] from ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', the General Lee from ''DukesOfHazzard'', KITT from ''Series/KnightRider'', and the Ecto-1 from ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}''. You get trophies/achievements for doing specific things in the cars, in particular, driving off a cliff with the horns blaring in the General Lee.

Tropes used in the ''Burnout'' series:

* ProductPlacement: Lots of ads in Paradise: nVidia, Diesel... The last one is quite unfortunate: as [[TopGear Clarkson]] would say, "Diesel" is not a word petrolheads want to hear.

** Also, in another patch the beginner cars were made slower for more inexperienced drivers, and most of the previously awesome cars (like the Hunter Manhattan, an extremely useful all-around car found early on) had their stats whittled down a few nothces.

--->Loco Pedal ut Metal, Ledo is[[hottip:Translation: Put the pedal on the metal, hit it.]]

''Burnout'' is a car racing series by Criterion Games with "full contact" rules, set on city streets, and usually densely populated streets at that. The older games had fixed tracks with a start line/finish line and some opposing cars. As the games advanced, so did the "contact" part of the game, starting with Crash mode in the second game, and the addition of Takedowns and Road Rage mode in the third. The game is known for being very "fast", with the screen blurring out at extreme speeds and handling becoming this side of impossible. Also known for its spectacular camera views of cars spinning through the sky or crunching under trucks, which is [[WebAnimation/ZeroPunctuation totally fucking sweet]].

* '''''Burnout 3: Takedown'' (2004):''' This game saw the introduction of the Takedown, which allows you to check other racers into walls or traffic to earn boost and get them out of your way. Along with Takedowns came Road Rage mode, where you have to wreck as many opposing cars as possible before a) the time ran out, or b) you took too much damage. Crash mode was also improved, adding power ups that increased (or decrease) money gained, and added Crashbreakers, which allowed you to blow up your car to do some extra damage. This game was originally planned to be released in 2003, but it was delayed for a year when Acclaim went bankrupt, finally getting picked up by [[ElectronicArts EA Games]] in 2004. EA would eventually buy Criterion outright, making ''Burnout'' a permanent staple of EA for the future. It was a smart move on their part--this game won widespread praise from critics, and it became a major hit, turning ''Burnout'' into a CashCowFranchise for EA. Released on [[PlayStationTwo PlayStation 2]] and {{Xbox}} ({{Gamecube}} owners weren't so lucky this time around).
* '''''Burnout Revenge'' (2005):''' Arguably the most combat-oriented game in the series, ''Revenge'' introduced traffic checking, which allowed you to ram through traffic and send it flying at rival racers. Also introduced were Traffic Attack mode, where you must use traffic checking to cause as much damage as possible, and Crashbreakers were carried over to all non-Crash events. Last game in the series for the Original {{Xbox}}, first game in the series for the [[XboxThreeSixty Xbox 360]]- the Xbox 360 version was released in early 2006.

* '''''Burnout Paradise'' (2008):''' The first ''Burnout'' game to come out on [[PlayStationThree PS3]] and Windows PC, along with the Xbox 360. This game completely overhauled the series, putting it in a WideOpenSandbox called Paradise City. Crash mode was replaced with Showtime mode, which allowed players to instantly turn any road into a crash junction in what almost feels like KatamariDamacy with explosions. Takedowns and Road Rage mode returned, but traffic checking could only be done by the heaviest vehicles and Aftertouch Takedowns were sadly removed. New for the series were Stunt Runs, where players had to rack up points pulling off stunts (essentially a skateboarding game with a car), and Marked Man mode, where you have to get to a destination while being hounded by supercharged armored cars trying to wreck you.