Burnout 2: Point of Impact (PlayStation 2)

By JON MINIFIE

(Herald rating: * * * * )

Too often, developers lose sight of the basics, especially with driving games and in the process of striving for realism, they become tedious. Playing around with an interface is fun for a while, choosing the tyres, paint colour and such but it's not what makes you want to play again and again.

Burnout 2: Point of Impactis a superb sequel - better, stronger, faster and building on all the features that made the original a surprise success.

Game developer Criterion (UK-based outfit that gave the world Airblade) hasn't tweaked the winning formula too much. There are 125 fully licensed cars to choose from, more tracks, more options and multiplayer.

Burnout 2: Point of Impact is all action, cool big-air jumps and some of the best crashes: there's even a mini-game that rewards you for causing carnage at a series of busy intersections.

There's not much strategy involved during a race, or much finesse, the idea is to go hard and not crash.

This is far easier said than done but thankfully the handling is just right because a game with these types of speeds simply would not work otherwise.

The graphics in the PS2 version are visibly superior to the originals and I'm told the Xbox version is even more impressive looking - though essentially, they're the same game.

* $119.95