Burnout Revenge first glimpse

Aside from the first-looks and playtests of the first batch of next-gen titles, this is one of the most exciting games of this year's E3 show, so how could we resist a sneaky peak.

Burnout 3 is the best arcade racing experience money can buy and all eyes are on its sequel to perform equally as well.

But will it? Can it?

The main difference is the new ability to hit traffic without suffering any sort of penalty. Moving further towards Takedown-lead gameplay and fighting, rather than the extreme skill and crashes of previous games, you're now encouraged to take out the traffic in order to earn boosts and scupper rival racers.

See, while the emphasis on combat, raw thrills and excitement will no doubt please the mass-market audience who just want to smash into things a lot, the people who loved the skill-based ducking and weaving of Burnout 2 (where any sort of crashing was something to avoid at all costs), and to a lesser extent Burnout 3, may be a bit disappointed.

Still, for those who don't necessarily want a replication of past glories, this could prove to be another success on its own terms.

We'll have more on this later in the week as we prise even more of the game open.

Burnout Revenge will be released for PS2 and Xbox later this year