Burnout 3: Takedown (Sony PlayStation 2, 2004)

Put it this way: Even if driving games aren't normally your thing, Burnout 3 is still right for you. It's that good. Burnout 3 expertly combines the two main elements of the series while also adding some great, new gameplay modes, a career mode that ties all of these different modes together, good split-screen support, and online play that supports up to six players on the same racetrack. Burnout 3, like the previous games in the series, is mainly a racing game that rewards you for living dangerously. The game features simple, extremely responsive controls, so you can accelerate, steer, brake, and boost for a burst of speed. The courses in the game are open-road tracks on winding freeways and city streets, and, naturally, the streets are populated with a good amount of traffic. Driving dangerously comes in the form of driving in the wrong lane, getting close to other cars, catching air, drifting around turns, and so on. When you pull such risky maneuvers, you're rewarded with boost. But the quickest way to fill your boost meter in a regular race is to make your opponents crash. Takedowns, as you might imagine from the game's subtitle, are a major part of Burnout 3. The other big gameplay mechanic in Burnout 3 makes the crashes much more exciting and interactive. When you crash, you can drop the game into a slow-motion mode called impact time, which makes for a very interesting and even innovative dynamic where the pacing of the game can drastically shift for a few moments if you crash. There are several different types of events in Burnout 3 that build on the basic concepts of driving dangerously and making the most of your wrecks. Many of them can be played on their own or in an offline or online multiplayer setting, but a few of them only really come up during the game's world tour mode. The most standard mode of them all is the single race. A single race puts you and five opponents on the track, and, as the name suggests, you race. Some tracks feature multiple laps, while others are long enough to be one-lap affairs. Crash mode returns to Burnout 3 with the same goal as in Burnout 2-to create the largest, most expensive pileup possible. The crash junctions still have a puzzle-like quality to them in that you'll have to figure out the most efficient crash spot in each level. Crash mode also benefits from a new function called the "crashbreaker." This basically lets you make your car spectacularly explode on command. However, you can only trigger it after a certain number of cars have become involved in the wreck. There are also a few different multiplayer crash options to choose from. You can play two-player games online or offline, and you can either cooperate to cause an even bigger crash, or you can work against each other to see who can cause the biggest pileup. The other modes in the game are standard variants on the basic format. You'll face off against one other car in a race that, if won, unlocks the opposing vehicle for your own use. The burning lap is a solo race against the clock, road rage gives you a time limit and a never-ending stream of opponent cars. Tying all of the single-player modes together is the world tour mode, which is essentially a large map full of different events. This career-type mode is good at letting you do what you want to do. The world tour mode is fantastic at ramping up the difficulty at a manageable pace. it's simply one of the most exciting, action-packed games to come along in a long time.

Burnout 3 improves on nearly everything making it the best in the series so far. This game is definately in contention for the best racing game ever.

What Burnout does exceedingly well is speed. You feel it, you hear it and sometimes you can almost smell the rubber burning. No other racing game captures the feel of racing on the edge like Burnout. You are rewarded for risky and aggressive driving, provided you have the skill to pull them off safely. Push the envelope too far and you're going to wreck.

Crashes themselves are a beauty to watch and these sort of accidents don't become frustrating to the point of detracting from gameplay. In most modes, you simply restart on the track a few seconds after your crash. Your opponents aren't perfect either and they will wipe out themselves, with or without your involvement. This kind of mayhem makes the game pure fun.

There is also the crash mode gameplay which is a staple of the Burnout series. Step on the gas, rocket towards trouble and crash into traffic, causing as much devastation as possible. While still fun, the crash mode in Burnout 3 isn't as deep as its predecessor. The addition of bonus coins, crashbreakers (secondary explosions after impact) and multiplier icons means that you have to take a set path to achieve the highest scores. The random/luck factor is almost completly gone and makes the varied, replayable crashes of Burnout 2 a thing of the past. Too bad.

The graphics are amazing, giving rich detail and life to the cars, the road and the environments. When you get up to high speeds, things around you start to blur, the cars around you have motion trails and a sense of tunnel vision grips you. It's the kind of rush that makes your knuckles white. Combined with the stellar visuals are some very intense sounds and high-energy music. You can alter the playlist to your liking as well.

Burnout leans heavily in favor of arcade racing fans, but there is most definately a degree of skill required that some sim fans might enjoy. You can still get ahead of the pack by hitting the apex of a corner just right, but with aggressive drivers and unforgiving traffic, that's a hard thing to do. That just provides more of a challenge and is what draws me to Burnout over and over. With tons of unlockables, tracks, race types and special objectives, you can be racing for many an hour.

Burnout 3 provides excitement through and through. With the exception of the more linear, predestined crash mode, this game brings it all to the table in a nice shiny package.

Burnout 3: Takedown is definately one of the best games available for any console. You don't have to be a fan of racing games to enjoy this one because there is so much more to it than racing. On some tracks your goal is to place first in the race, on others the goal is to "takedown" you opponents -making them crash-, on others your goal is to create the biggest multi-car pile-up ever. The graphics are increadible and the physics are equally impressive, creating a very lifelike game. There a plenty of unlockable cars and tracks to keep you playing for hours on end. The mulitplayer modes are extremely fun and exciting. This is a game that should appeal to anyone regardless of age or gender. If you are shopping for video games and don't have this one, it should be on the top of your most wanted list.

This game was fun the first time I played it back in 2004/2005, and well, after not having played it for a long time I got the urge to play it again, so I set about looking to buy a copy here on eBay.

I've got to say, this game is just as much fun today as it was the first time I played it six or seven years ago. Even years later I do not feel that to me it has lost one bit of its appeal or that the fun factor has diminished.

I don't know what it is really that makes the combination of racing, crashing, taking out your opponents, and explosions that makes up this game so good. My only guess is that they got the combination just about perfect with Burnout 3.

About the only things I don't like about the game are the in-game camera angles for crashes, as they often give you shots which are in the opposite direction of where you want to after-steer your car, and that the gold medals on the "burning laps" are so difficult to achieve. If it weren't for those little things I'd give it a five-star rating.

I played this game when it was new and I loved the way we can keep boosting the speed while increasing the speed booster meter by doing crazy stuff. The game is simple, either race and be the first or damage 10 or so opponents to win and while doing that u can keep increasing the speed booster meter along with speed. The Graphics and boosting option when compared to the older burnout games is amazing. And I love the CRASH mode also " DESTROY as much as u can". Overall I love this game the most among all racing games (including NFS series)