Burnout 2 - the sequel to the brutally hard and unforgiving Burnout (which was once known as "Little Red Racer" and once featured a very close clone of the old Toyota MR2 as 'lead vehicle') represented something that Criterion Studios (one of the elite racing game developers, sadly gone to the dogs as part of EA's Dice Studios now, and probably the ones responsible for all the awesome vehicle handling in Battlefield 6) were utterly excellent at - properly evolving, improving and producing game franchises that people genuinely wanted to play (even their Need for Speed efforts are considered the 'best in series' by many, including me).
I digress. Burnout 2 was also one of those rare games that my new girlfriend (now wife) showed some interest in playing. She was an absolute expert at playing the "Crash Mode" portion of the game, where you could earn huge amounts of virtual money by crashing vehicles in a creative way. She seemed to have an instinct for that mode, and I'd often hand over the controller, listening to the rattle of it as she stacked up another monumental crash, her rings rattling against the case of the controller over and over again.
The game's racing modes were buttery-smooth. Maybe not the highest resolution in the world (but if you've played upscaled versions of the game via emulation, you'll know it still looks as good now as it did 24 years ago - will we be able to say that about today's games in a quarter of a century's time? I doubt it!)
Burnout 2 was a lot more forgiving than the original Burnout. It allowed you to get away with the odd scrape and rub, or glancing off other vehicles whereas the original Burnout was brutal and would destroy your car with the slightest contact with anything else.
Burnout 2's gradual risk-reward learning curve was immensely satisfying and still is, and I still puzzle over why arcade racers are no longer the titles that sell millions in today's gaming world (everyone still seems obsessed with shooters, sadly).
The puzzle-like crash mode enhanced the whole package and offshoots from Criterion who left and went on to other projects even developed games that were just that mode on its own. Burnout carried on as a series for a few more games (Burnout 3 was awesome, as was Burnout Revenge. Burnout Paradise wasn't really a Burnout game at all - at least I didn't consider it one, but technologically it still looks amazing, I just prefer the level-based approach to arcade racers than free roaming stuff).
Stangely the series never seemed to get a modern revival. Perhaps EA couldn't see their way to making it into some kind of money-spinning cash cow driven largely by live service or DLC shenanigans (like they did with the revived - but wholly unwelcome - Skate reboot).
Every few years I enter a lull in being interested in modern gaming and I'm right slap bang in the middle of one now. But I am finding solace in replaying old stuff like this, finding that the old games really are the best, and that ramping up graphical prowess or smoothing out framerates is no substitution for rock solid playability and addictiveness.
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