Burnout Legends

This week I'm set to fail all my challenges. Not because I'm lazy; not because I'm just pessimistic. No, it's because I've just taken delivery of a (white) PSP. As such, I think I'll be stuck in the thrill of the new for the next week or so, and it's unlikely that Pokémon Sapphire, Black or Advance Wars: Dual Strike will get a look in. I'll water the flowers in Animal Crossing, of course.

I've not had much of an opportunity to play with it yet, but I couldn't resist, at lunchtime, turning it on, looking at the menus and setting up my name and other information. And trying out Burnout Legends, which is one of the games I got with it.

It's very good indeed. I liked Burnout and Burnout 2, but Burnout 3 was just a bit too heavy for my tastes. Burnout Legends isn't as 'in your face' as Burnout 3, but uses a lot of the same gameplay mechanics, while also returning to the ideas that made the first two games so good.

There are only a couple of issues. The PSP may look nice, but its controls are utterly retarded. The analogue nub is virtually impossible to use accurately, which means that I was trying to rely on the D-pad to steer. And the D-pad is a Sony one, which means it's the worse D-pad ever made. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but it's very awkward to hold and use, and after fifteen minutes of playing, holding down the right shoulder button to accelerate almost constantly, my hands did start to hurt.

I can't wait until I get to go home ...