Choose your burner.

 It's no secret that Burnout is one of my all-time favorite series. I haven't played it much because mastery has already come to most of the games in the series, and it really takes a couple of buddies and a case of beer to get started on one of those games. That's not to say you need to be inebriated to enjoy them, but you need to amp up interest and make an event out of it when going on a Burnout campaign.

 The strangest thing happened the other day, however, after several bottles of wine and a Modern Warfare 2 fest which, oddly, burnt me out on the hit shooter. I picked up Burnout Dominator, jumped into the game from exactly where I left off, and realized that there was no hope of me beating the stage I was on because I had lost all the skills I used to have. Then I realized that this was Dominator we're talking about here, and thus, I am here to tell you all you need to know about the Burnout series.

 If you need a quick primer, then it's not a bad idea to start from the series roots. The game I began on was Burnout 2, and it's an excellent starting point for anyone looking to get a feel for the series. Even now, it's not outdated. Sure, the graphics could use a little bit of a nudge, but the game still feels smooth and carries primitive versions of the trademark systems every other game would use after that point. I never played the first, but really, with the second game around, there's no real reason to except to give yourself the sense of nostalgia when tracks get revisited later on.  2 is still a challenge, and possesses all of the game modes that remain popular to this day, including cops and robbers and the better version of crash mode. The speed is there, and maybe it doesn't quite reach warp speed like other games in the series end up doing, but that's part of the reason why I would recommend this one as a good starting point for the addiction.

 Burnout 3 is where it all came together, and while I absolutely hated its version of crash mode, the campaign is simply perfect. Everything is a challenge and the series really hit the perfect balance between speed and control, as well as introducing the ability to put forceful "takedowns" on opponents to get them out of your way. Progressing through the game really demands excellence on your part if you want to get gold every time, and one mistake will put you right back in last place if you didn't make sure to take someone with you. On top of being a very good racer on its own, this game really introduced everything explosive and crazy in the series. Pair that up with the excellent presentation, and you can see why this game is still considered the very best the series has to offer.

 Then came Burnout: Revenge, which ditched the number system entirely and began the cash in on 3's classic status. That's not to say that the series went downhill, because it really didn't. Revenge was the most accessible game in the series due to the fact that half of the traffic was no longer a danger to you. Speeds remained insane and the game was not easy by any stretch, but players were encouraged to use a little more of the road by allowing the use of same-direction traffic as guided missiles. Ram into the back of a car that wasn't a semi-truck, and you could send that car flying right into the opponent that taking your place. Better yet, even if you missed, that guy who wanted to edge you out may catch that car in the face. This made the game a psychotic joy to play, and the crash mode was brought back to its roots along with a few more options for multiple people who enjoy wrecking intersections up. The challenge slipped a bit and the game was over the top at times, but that never stopped this game from being extremely fun. What's more, the presentation ditched the running commentary by DJ Stryker and still managed to ramp up the presentation side of the series.

 Burnout: Dominator is when the series took a bit of a slip, trying to combine many elements of the different games into one. It turned into to be sort of an incoherent mess, not really resembling what fans came to expect from the series. The soundtrack remained memorable and amped up, but that's about the only thing consistent with the excellence of 3. The presentation really took a dive, the game didn't feel as natural, and there was an insane amount of Nintendo hard difficulty within the game. Not only did you have to be perfect, but some stages were absolutely unforgiving, and it seemed that any slack previous games gave you for tiny mistakes was left behind in favor of torturing the player. You really had to be an expect at Burnout games, and while this game puts out the highest challenge of any of the games so far, it really lost a lot of the fun. It was largely forgettable, and most people who are fans of the game really didn't consider it to be a complete effort anyway.

 That's probably because Burnout: Paradise was on the way, the first free-roam entry in the series. Everything that made the other games in the series good were present and accounted for in the series' jump to the current generation. The open world aspect was a double edged sword in some respects, as Burnout was traditionally a game that skilled gamers could play without having to think too hard about what they were doing. Considering that the series' hallmark was reaching speeds that are usually reserved for jet fighters, the need to glance at a map or spend hours memorizing the terrain was a huge deal. On the plus side, the creative ones would be able to create a route to the finish that favored them. If you thought you could drift perfectly, you could take an alternate route that would pit your skill set against someone who was willing to give the traffic infested straight-line a shot. The freedom to choose was a big plus, and the game found multiple ways to incorporate rewards for exploration, skill, and destruction.

 On the other hand, there were no walls or obvious markers on the road that would tell you where you needed to be going. If the player wasn't careful, they would find themselves thrown into a 5 mile stretch that took them away from the goal with no quick escape route to get back on track. Sure, if you missed an intersection, you could take the next one without chancing a crash with a late turn, but not always. Gamers that were hoping to use the town to create races were given that option, but customization was slim, and the hope was that the roads could be blocked off in some way. This wasn't a deal breaker, but many fans are hoping with the next installment that "mindless" will involve a little less map-reading.

 Ranking the games is difficult, as everyone has their favorites, but as long as you love speed, destruction, and pure arcade racing, there is a game for you. This is my own personal list:

1. Burnout: Revenge
2. Burnout 3
3. Burnout Paradise
4. Burnout 2
5. Burnout Dominator

 I was a huge fan of Revenge, but I feel that I have to justify why I put it ahead of 3. I simply had more fun with the title, and the crash mode was immensely better than the version found in 3. If I was going to pick a Burnout game to waste an hour on, that would be it. Crash mode and the removal of Styker alone made it better for me, and despite the weapons at your disposal, there was still challenge in that title even if it isn't as difficult as 3. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit