Burnout Revenge Xbox 360 Q&A

"Matt Webster, executive producer at Criterion Games, answers our questions about the upcoming Xbox 360 version of Burnout Revenge.

Electronic Arts and Criterion Games have today confirmed that an Xbox 360 version of Burnout Revenge is currently in development and scheduled for release in March next year. That the long-rumored-to-exist game will feature improved visuals is a given, but Criterion Games has many more improvements in store for Xbox 360 owners as well, as executive producer Matt Webster explains.

GameSpot: The Xbox 360 version of Burnout Revenge is going to be more than just a prettier version of the Xbox game, right? Any new content?

Matt Webster: Absolutely. When looking at the 360 version of our game, we wanted to make it the showcase version, the pinnacle of Revenge on any console. With every Burnout game, we look at the areas that are most important to us and what we are able to do on the hardware that we are creating the game on. For the 360, it was clear that Microsoft was gearing the machine at the connected generation. It feels like you are not getting all that the machine has to offer if you aren't connected to the Net, so we made this our focus with our Live Revenge and Save & Share features.

Live Revenge
We've spent an awful amount of time looking at games online and how they are played. They all seem to stick to the same basic premise: connect to a server, find some people, play the game, come back to a lobby. We really wanted to change this, to take it further, and that's what we are doing with Live Revenge.

Gamers come together in the lobby and then we do something brand new. We look at how these players connect with each other in a real sense, and then we highlight these relationships to all players. So, six players come together, we look to see who has played whom before. Perhaps you have taken me down in a previous game, perhaps I am the highest-ranked player, or maybe we haven't played each other before. Whatever the case, when the game starts, we fly the camera around each of the racers in the game, and then every player gets a rival relationship called out." [more]