Burnout 3: Takedown

"I'll still be playing this game when Im in my grave."

Back in 2003, when I played Need for Speed Underground, I thought I had played the greatest racing title of all time. Well I was wrong. Very wrong.

Gameplay. Score 10/10
The gameplay of B3 is eye popingly amazing. Most racing titles give you the options of racing around a circle with stupid A.I. or racing around a circle with a friend. B3 does that and so much more. I mean you have the crash junction- where you purposely try to cause as much car exploding mayhem as possible. You have the Eliminator- 5 laps and the last burner on every lap is eliminated. You have Burning Lap- which is the worst mode, you have you beat times laps. You have face Off- which is a one on one race. Finally you have the best mode, Road Rage. The whole purpose of road rage is to make as many cars as possible crash brutally. And they have the same mission. All that is just the new modes, not the mention the new tracks. All of they are amazingly detailed and designed, with incredible lakes, forests and cities. The good old boost meter is back but this time you can double, triple and even quadruple it for even more neck breaking speed. One new feature that in great is the after touch. With after touch you can control your car after you have crashed, so that you can get bonuses or make other cars crash into you. After touch also allows you to keep your boost meter up. Another great addition is online play. Now I don't have Xbox live but ive seen events that are online and they look incredible, with more modes than single player has to offer. I could probably still go on for hours about the gameplay but I can't so I will conclude by saying the gameplay of Burnout 3 is completely flawless.

Graphics. Score 10/10
Comparing the graphics of B3 with other racing games is like comparing Christmas morning with death. Okay I know that didn't make a lot of sense, but I thought it made a good intro. Anyway the graphics of this game are mind boggling, some of the best ive seen all year. All the cars are very detailed and smooth. Other racers and traffic all look amazing, unlike NFS:U 1 and 2. All of the environments look incredible with vivid textures on everything. They're also also great lighting effects, like when you fly under a street lamp you car glows. There are other great effects like when your being scraped along a guardrail at 150 mphs's sparks come flying at the screen, blinding you. By far one of the greatest graphical achievements is the car damage. It totally fits the crash. For example: if you lightly crash into another car at 70 mph a bumper may fly off and you will get some dents. But if you slam fender first into a wall at 230 mph your car is crushed into a cube smaller than Gary Coleman. So overall the graphics are the best ive seen on the Xbox in a while (Halo 2 could give it a run for it's money though) and the best ive ever seen in a racing game.

Controls. Score 10/10
Now you would think that controlling a car that's rocketing around a corner at 200+ mph would be next to impossible right? Well on the contrary, it's just the opposite. The cars respond perfectly, turning exactly when you want to, allowing you to blast between a semi and 4-door just when you need to. There are no complicated control figuration's to learn. Anybody can just pick up and play this game with ease. Sorry this section isn't too long, but how much can you say about plastic push buttons made in China?

Audio. Score 9/10
If I have to diss Burnout 3 in any way, shape or form it would have to be the audio. But even so there still isn't much to complain about. 3/4 of the bands are good and they all fit the style of the game perfectly. There are some bands in there that make you shake your head and say "what were they thinking?" though. The cars sound great but not realistic. But then again how do you make a fire truck that is screaming along a 150 mph's sound "real"? So my overall conclusion of the audio is mostly good, some bad.

Replay Value. Score 10/10
The RV of this game is great. I played for more than 20 hours and im still only 56% complete. There are plenty of cars and tracks to unlock and race one. Also with the addition of XBL you can play this game for years and not get bored of it!

Final Thought: This is probably the best racing title to ever be released. I'm seeing many awards in Burnout 3's future.

Buy or Rent? Make sure to pick this one up, even at 50-70 bucks!

Overall Game Rating: 10 out of 10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/04