Burnout 3: Takedown

"And I thought this game would be good, but it's actually GREAT!"

Hey guys you are tuning into my first review so I hope you like it. Now off to the review. Now I bought this game almost a week ago. I really never had played any burnout game until I went to my friends house and he put in Burnout 2. Now that game BLEW my mind. This is the reason I started looking into Burnout 3. Then when I finally purchased it, I forgot all about Burnout 2. If you know nothing about this game then you should take a look at Gameplay where I will explain.

Controls: 9/10

The controlls in this game are great. Very simple the right and left triggers are to go and to brake. The "A" button is to use boost once you earn it during racing, and the left joystick to steer the car. Very simple controls, problem is I think they should of had an option to custimize. Now you are probably saying why do you want a feature to custimize when you say they are great, its pretty much because the left trigger which makes the car go. I guess when you are racing you dont really think that you dont have to push the trigger as hard as you can but you do, so once you end the race you feel your index finger is really sore. Good thing is that when you use boost you can take your finger off the right trigger since the speed stays the same if you only hold "A" and not both "A" and the left trigger, but beware once you are out of boost you better put your finger back onto the trigger since you can only use "A" when you have boost :)

Graphics: 10/10

WOW this is the part that amazed me once I turned on the game. I have not seen any racing game with such graphics. I used to think Midnight Club 2 and Need For Speed Underground had good graphics but this game blew them away. The look of the car when going 160+ just looks amazing to me. Then once you crash, WOW again. The crash looks amazing, you see every detail, from the scraps of metal flying around to the sparks when you hit another car or slide against the wall is just amazing.

Sound: 9/10

Now the sound of the cars are really good, you hear the sound of the crashes, the sound of the cars switching gears and the horns of traffic when you pass them. The only bad part is the music that comes with the game. Many people complain that is the worst soundtrack they have heard, but it depends on what you like to listen to. If you like rock(not hard core or metal) then you will like the music. I like some of the songs but some I dont, BUT the great news is CUSTOM SOUNDTRACK. Yup you can put your own custom soundtrack for those of you that dont like the music.

Gameplay: 9/10

Now here is where the game really shines. For those of you that dont know anything about this game it is pretty much a racing game with a nice touch of when you crash you get to see your car in slow motion go from a perfectly beautiful car to a piece of scrap metal. In this game the motive the more the risk the more the reward. For example if you are racing and are on the wrong side of the road, or if you pass traffic with only a couple inches between your car and thier car. Also new to Burnout 3 that isnt on Burnout 2 is Takedowns. Takedowns are when you make one of the racers you are racing against crash. you can do this by ramming them into the wall or into traffic. Now by doing these things you get something that is called a Burnout or kind of like a NOS type thing. It gives you a boost that boosts you up quite a bit. You can save your boost for when you fall behind or you can be risky and use it to get far ahead but beware not to crash or you might fall behind. Well in the gameplay there are many different Countrys to play in including US, and places like Europe. Now in Burnout 3 there are MANY different things to do, there is a regular Race where you race against around 6 other cars, faceoff where you race against one car, there are timed races where you have to get from point A to point B in some certian time, Road Rage where you have to only takedown the other cpu players at set time, Crash mode where you have to cause the most damage as you can to get a Gold, Sliver or Bronze, and much more. Now as for the cars there, are a little less than 70 cars to unlock! These cars include Sport cars, Coupe, Muscle, and Much MUCH more which I dont want to give away. Every car has its own stats from how fast it can go to how good it can handle and also the weight which is good so if some racer trys to take you down your car wont go flying off and crash. In this game you will have fun all by your own racing the world campionship mode, but if you have an extra controller and a friend you will have a BLAST racing each other and making each other crash. Those are all good but you cant forget Xbox Live, if you dont have a friend around to play with you can always go to Live and have fun racing people around the world. There is all this to do and much MUCH more. This is the perfect racing game for you if you into arcade type racing games with easy turning, so if you are really into sim racing games like Project Gothem racing then I dont think you would really like this game.

Replay: 10/10

You will seriously have hours of fun playing this game, you dont know how many times I have played this game and said this is my last race of the night but then two hours later I will be saying the same exact thing. You just cant put the controller down. Even after you beat the whole game I can bet you that you will be back at it again in no time.

Conclusion

At the end this is a great game. You wont regret buying this game, its worth every penny. If you are thinking about renting the game or buying it, then I would go with buying, but if you are a little worried that you are not sure you might not like the game then it would be safe to rent it, and then go buy it. This is the greatest racing game I have ever purchased and the only game that might beat it in the near future would be Midnight Club 3, but for now this blows every other racing game into the dirt.

Ending Total: 10/10

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