Burnout 3: Takedown

"The game to take-down from the store shelf this year"

How ironic: my least favorite genre of video gaming happens to churn out my favorite game this year so far: Burnout 3.

Criterion games deserve a big pat on the bag here for this game is absolutely incredible. Heck, even EA deserve a pat on the back, but that's only because there is an option to switch the 'DJ' off (more on that later).

Take this scenario: I went into EB on one Friday night because I required a brand new game before GTA: SA comes out. I saw Burnout 3 in all its glory on the shelf labelled as brand new. Hesitantly I picked it up and flipped it over...
I first noticed how the words stood out - 'take a trip down Adrenaline lane, SLAM the competition into oncoming traffic and risk all to win, in the fastest, most intense racer ever...'

Don't ask what made me purchase it. But I did and I took it home, put it into my faithful Xbox (brushed the dust off it too) and began to play.

GAMEPLAY
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OK, Burnout 3 is a racing game, right? Wrong. Burnout 3 is not only racing, but total mayhem on the road. There are multiple modes, each mostly different to the other.

OK, this is similar to another racing game. There are all sorts of different modes, but they all include the same features as ordinary racing games. You choose your car, change its colour if desired, and begin the race (I like to call it match). But there one a twist involved - the boost bar. This fills up on numerous occasions, such as driving into oncoming traffic or drifting around corners perfectly. But the best way to get your boost gauge up is to do what the game is best at: destroying rivals. To do this, just ram them heavily off the road and watch the sparks fly. There will be all kinds of crashes, and every time you destroy a rival, the game goes into slow motion and shows the car you just destroyed in all its glory spinning through the air. This is both extremely satisfying and fun, especially the more diverse takedowns. By taking down one car, you are awarded with a full boost meter. When you take down another, your boost meter will double and so on until you have 4X boost (4 takedowns). And you use that boost to win the race. And when you are taken down? You lose a bit of your boost meter (i.e you have the full 4X boost bar and you will go down to the 3X).

There is a specific mode that is really, really appealing and that is the Road Rage events. Road Rage means this: take down as many of your opponents as possible as long as your car survives. A hilarious and exhilarating experience, Road Rage is by far the best mode the game has to offer. You destroy opponent's vehicles and try to crop up high scores by amounting takedowns. You do this by ramming opponents into walls, cutting them off, or my favourite - ramming them into oncoming traffic. Another neat touch is aftertouch. This is when you are taken down, but everything is in slow-mo and you can direct your car as it crashes. This makes way for new takedowns - direct your car into another rival and they will be taken down. The game puts a lot of emphasis on aftertouch.

The final event worth mentioning is the Crash mode - a simulation similar to the concept of crash dummies but you race your car into a junction of oncoming traffic. The goal here is to amount the most carnage as possible to crop up points. Collect boost to increase your speed and the 2X or 4X meters to double or quadruple your total score. The crashes are always entertaining to watch, especially when enough crashes are amounted and you can detonate your car. When you do this you can direct your car in the direction of something (as well as creating more carnage) but you may be able to collect a 2X or 4X meter. Overall there are a whopping 100 junctions to select from, but that's nothing compared to the main single player event mode.

The world tour mode runs through 3 areas (USA, Far East and Europe) in a colossal amount of events (something like over 170) which indicates that this game will last for a long time. One other thing worth noting is that the World Tour mode is required to unlock the majority of the game (including most cars) and there is a hell of a lot to unlock. Most of the time you'll be constantly pushing A to skip the unlocking cinematics. Also none of the cars are officially licenced, but that's still no big deal, because it makes up for that in the fun factor.

10 / 10

VISUALS
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The second most important part of a game, the visuals are astoundingly beautiful. Yes, beautiful. Not awe inspiring like Final Fantasy, Burnout 3 obviously concentrates on the sensation of extreme speed. And it delivers by the truckload. The frame-rate runs at a constant 60 FPS without ever slowing down. Sparks fly like crazy when you crash into someone and make the crashes look so damn real. What's more the unfortunate car will often lose parts such as tyres and create real mayhem on the road. The weather effects are nicely done but mostly the speed is absolutely incredible. One other thing I have to mention about the visuals is something on EA's part - advertising. EA have gone to the effort to put billboards in certain courses to advertise other products. In my opinion this is cheap and just paving the way for in-game advertising. It really, really spoils the experience, although they are pretty neat when you first see them because no-one's really done it before.

9 / 10

SOUND
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This includes all the sound effects in the game, including the 'DJ.' God bless EA for allowing us the option for turning him off because he has to be the worst thing in video-games since licenced music came into the fray. He is constantly on your nerves - interrupting songs during mid-race to say something you've probably heard twice before, but even worse is that he may spoil a decent song! Damn EA for putting him in - he spoilt such a great game. Other effects, however, are astoundingly wonderful, whether it be the numerous crash sounds or wheels coming off cars or horns of oncoming cars and trucks, the sound effects are great.

8 / 10

MUSIC
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Ugh. Licensed music has never been my forte, but you can't help to appreciate how much it does suit games such as this. However much I hate it, it does suit this game and is probably a little better than the abominable Need for Speed Underground soundtrack. EA has returned with its 'EA Trax,' but for the most part it is rock, but not the good rock. The music sounds a lot like those annoying boy bands such as Blink 182 style music (although Blink 182 fortunately not featured in the soundtrack). The main theme of the game 'Lazy Generation' sounds like fresh turd while fortunately god has blessed the Xbox with the capability of custom soundtracks, which I advise right away. Heaven help the PS2.

8 / 10 (because it is suitable music)

LASTING APPEAL
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Where do I begin? I am currently fifteen hours in with 29 percent done. Not a hell of a lot eh? Perhaps the World Tour is a little too big, but overall there is absolutely no worries here, especially with multiplayer and Xbox Live. Crash mode will last for ages and you'll always want to have a quick Road Rage race every time you play the game.

10 / 10

Pros/Cons

+ Fun, fun, fun
+ Speed is thrilling
+ Nice visuals
+ Replay forever

- Frequent loading
- The DJ is so annoying he will likely give you an urge to kill
- No revolving camera when taken down
- EA in-game advertising

Even if you dislike racing games, this is still the game for you. Burnout 3 was such a surprising game for me because it was so damn fun. I advise anyone to pick this one up on whatever console - I got this on Xbox because it is always superior. Simply put: this is the best game this year. Forget Need for Speed Underground 2, I am sure it cannot beat the goodness of this game.

Overall

45 / 50 (10/10)

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 09/21/04