Burnout Spiritual Successor Teased By Ex-Criterion Founders

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If you've been waiting for another Burnout game, there may be hope for you on the horizon. Back at the beginning of 2014, Criterion Games creative director Alex Ward and studio director Fiona Sperry left the studio behind to strike out on their own. A few months later, the pair formed Three Fields Entertainment.

Yesterday on the official Twitter account for Three Fields, there was a confirmation of the first title coming from the a studio, a multiplayer sports title coming in Spring 2016. In addition to that confirmation though, there was a tease for a driving game.

"What sort of driving game you ask? A spiritual successor. Speed. Traffic. And Crashing. Lots and lots of crashing," said the following tweet.

That sounds a great deal with the new studio is planning a spiritual successor to the Burnout franchise that put Criterion Games on the map. That tweet came with the hashtag #ShinyRedSomething, a reference to the original Burnout's working title "Shiny Red Car". The thing is, Burnout had a wide variety of gameplay across its titles, so which game would they harken back to? The next tweet left that in the hands of fans.

"Spiritual successor to which one though?" the tweet read. "The second, the third or the fourth one?"

For clarification, that would be Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Burnout 3: Takedown, and Burnout Revenge. This means Three Fields would be skipping the open-world Burnout Paradise entirely, instead focusing on a more track and event driven racer. A number of replies have brought up Burnout Paradise as their favorite racer, but for my money, I'd buy Takedown or Revenge every time. The original Burnout games were such unique racers for their era and a similar title would remain unique today.

Hell, I love the old Burnouts so much that I (alongside Jaz) fought for their inclusion in our 15 Best Games Since 2000 list.

"The reason why Burnout 3: Takedown is on this list is, like I said earlier – it represents the very pinnacle of arcade racing," we wrote in Burnout's entry on the list. "While current cutting edge arcade racers like Forza Horizon 2 and even the latest Need for Speed games are enjoyable and fun – and of course feature graphics that are two generations ahead – they feel positively pedestrian in terms of their speed and action. Burnout 3: Takedown sets a pace and intensity that no other racing games have ever managed to best, because, to be frank, if a game were any faster it would likely be nigh on impossible to play."

I actually chose Revenge over Takedown, but it made sense to ultimately pool our resources, so I changed my vote over to Jaz's choice. For Three Fields to take their inspiration from Takedown or Revenge would be a very good thing indeed.

Three Fields co-founder Alex Ward later confirmed to Develop that the racing game would not only be coming to PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4, but it would also potentially support PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift.

"Our second project will be a racing game," Ward explained. "A spiritual successor to one of the Burnout series for PC, PS4 and Xbox One. We aim to support PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift."

EA trapped Criterion within the Need for Speed series before gutting the studio to create Ghost Games. What's left of Criterion is still working on an unnamed extreme sports racing title that we've only seen briefly. It seemed like Burnout was all but dead after EA released Burnout Paradise back in 2008, so the news that something Burnout-esque is coming is great.

Which Burnout did you love the most? Which Burnout would you like to see come roaring back?