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Taking expectations for racing titles to the next level, Criterion and EA's Burnout 3: Takedown is an amazing experience from both a gameplay and a technological standpoint. This intensely fast racer lets players loose in some of the most intense and fastest driving ever attempted. The game rewards aggressive driving, and players are rewarded for Takedowns - causing opponents to crash into walls. Burnout 3 features dozens of race types, hundreds of unlockable mini-games and extras to make for a comprehensive game. It's solo mode is intense and thrilling, but players can also compete against each other online for an even more thrilling ride. This is all packaged with some of the slickest graphics seen in any racing title to date, making Burnout 3 one of the best racing games on any platform to date. Even though there are dozens of racing titles on the market these days, EA's Burnout 3: Takedown immediately stands out from the pack with it's incredibly intense gameplay, stunningly realistic crash animations and a seemingly unlimited amount of unlockable content. The gameplay remains true to the previous Burnout titles, but Takedown adds many enhancements that bring the series directly into the elite class of driving titles. Taking an arcade-style approach to the genre, Burnout 3 rewards players who drive aggressively. In fact, performing dangerous maneuvers and causing massive amounts of damage is required in order to progress through the game. You begin with a basic car that you can use to race through the various levels. During each level, you can Takedown an opponent by knocking them into a wall, causing them to crash into another vehicle or flipping over, to name a few basic maneuvers. When you Takedown another vehicle, you'll earn Nitro speed boost which is added to your power bar. The more cars you take down, the more boost you'll earn while chaining multiple Takedowns at once makes your boost bar fill up amazingly fast. However, your rivals can also cause you to crash, which sucks. The bright side is that when you crash, you can use the "Aftertouch" mode to slow down the crash and literally steer your car's wreckage. If you cause a Takedown in this slow motion mode, you'll actually earn boost for your vehicle. You have to be aware that other civilian cars can't be taken down, only rivals. Crashing into these non-competitors will cause damage, so you need to avoid them. It's not too terribly difficult to do this at normal speeds, but try weaving around these vehicles while you're driving on the wrong side of the road and boosting simultaneously. The amount of traffic you face depends on the course you're driving on, with city courses offering more obstacles than isolated country roads. There are other ways to earn boost such as driving against oncoming traffic, narrowly avoiding other vehicles, drifting, gaining air and more. This makes for an amazingly fun and entertaining racing experience that gives you an intense ride. Burnout 3's superb racing action would be more than enough to keep players coming back for more, but the multiple modes of play make it an incredibly addictive game.
Playing Burnout 3's single player modes is an adrenaline-fueled blast, but the game's multiplayer and online modes add even more frenetic intensity to the experience. Players can choose to compete against friends using either a standard split screen mode or online using Xbox Live. The gameplay modes available in these modes mirror the main game, but there are some clever variations that make the online experience all the more exciting. The Crash Party mode is intense as you compete against other players in crash mode to create the biggest crash. Players can also team up with another driver in Double Crash mode to cause the most damage. In addition, players can compete in standard races. The Xbox Live modes support up to 8 players at once in a single game and as usual, the service performance with the game is sterling with little in the way of lag and an excellent interface to set up games and chat with other players. Both the online and solo modes offer exciting gameplay and the game throws an unrelenting amount of unlockables and bonus items at you. There are more than 17 different game modes which take place on more than 40 tracks and with 60 vehicles. The vehicles range from standard coupes to custom muscle cars, Formula One racers, and more. If you're really good enough, you can unlock buses, tanks and prototype vehicles. This comprehensive garage offers exceptional variety. Though none of the vehicles in the game are licensed, the sheer volume more than makes up for it.
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You
can familiarize yourself with the basic mechanics by playing a few quick rounds
in Arcade mode which doesn't offer many extras or unlockables. Once you've done
this, you'll probably want to go deeper into the game. Burnout 3: Takedown
allows players to access dozens of event types through the course of its
incredibly deep single-player World Tour mode. With more than 100 available
events, there's plenty to keep you bust. Players can choose to play any event
type that's open at the selection screen, and can choose to play these in any
order they want to. This gives Burnout 3 a non-linear structure where you don't
feel locked into a certain path. You can skip around to different continents and
courses with ease. The mini-games offer many different types of play including
standard races, where you have to battle the other racers for position. These
races can include point-to-point and lapped races. You can also compete against
other racers in Tournament matches. Burnout 3 also includes a timed mode called
Burning Lap where you have to beat the clock and an Eliminator mode where the
races ends for the last-place finisher on each lap. These racers usually require
you to boost non-stop and drive against traffic. These standard racing modes are
quite cool, but there are more interesting modes as well. You can compete head
to head against an opponent in a deathmatch mode, and if you defeat this rival,
you'll win their car. Burnout 3 also includes a Road Rage mode, where the object
is to destroy a certain number of rival cars before the timer runs out or you
total your own vehicle. This is definitely a challenging mode especially later
on as the enemy AI becomes more intelligent, making Takedowns harder to
accomplish. Finally, the game includes a really incredible and unqiue crash
mode, where you have to cause as much damage as possible by ramming into a
crowded street and causing a rapid chain reaction of damage. Once your vehicle
has crashed, you can set off a Crashbreaker event. This makes your car explode
and can cause additional damage. After the car explodes, a timer ticks down and
any damage is tallied up in dollars. This is one of the most innovative modes
seen in a driving game recently. It's really fun, and effectively showcases the
game engine's amazing level of realism and detail. The crash mode is a truly
innovative experience, and while somewhat mindless is thoroughly enjoyable and
addictive. When you win an event, you'll be rewarded with a medal and
unlockables, depending on your score, number of takedowns, cash or damage
caused. What's cool is that you can unlock multiple events, cars and stages at
once if you really perform well and earn a gold medal. These numerous rewards
will keep you going back for more, adding to the game's longevity.
From
a visual standpoint, Burnour 3 leaves most other contenders choking on its dust.
The game's beautifully rendered vehicles showcase plenty of detail with
shimmering paint jobs brilliantly reflecting light and shadow throughout.
However nice they look undamaged, it's the slow-motion crash animations that
effectively gives the driving a savage, brutal feel. Windshields shatter, hoods
cave-in, doors fly off, side bodies take unbelievable hits, tires squeal, hoods
are ripped off. All done with an amazing realism that brings the crashes to
life. The physics models are also very impressive and stunningly authentic. In
the crash modes, massive multi-car pileups occur with an amazing degree of
accuracy that gives you a certain twisted sense of satisfaction. Burnout 3's
unprecedented realism sets new standards in both car modeling and dynamic
collision detection. You can see parts flying off vehicles, and instead of
landing, bounce around or hit other cars. These realistic crashes take place in
breathtaking environments that range from mountainous dirt roads, to busy urban
streets. The level of detail in trackside objects is quite stunning with houses
and buildings rendered effectively. The light sourcing, reflection and
environmental effects are quite stunning throughout even more so when you factor
in the game's blistering speed and smooth frame rates. They're aesthetically
pleasing but the varied track layouts can be challenging as well. You can
traverse single lane roads, tunnels, and multiple lane highways in the course of
a single race. Most of the courses are straightforward, but the game also
includes some branching and hidden areas as well. The polished look of the game
extends to the crashes themselves, where the action slows down to slow-motion,
allowing you to soak in every crunch and impact as they happen. Burnout 3's
graphics engine sets new standards in real-time rendering and technology, but
the game's sound effects and music are also superb. Burnout 3's violent crash
sounds feel authentic, as the destruction piles on, with the sounds of squealing
tires and crumpling metal bring the action home. The series' new allegiance with
EA has paid off in a better soundtrack as well, with a variety of pop-punk and
metal acts adding to the game's intensity and brilliance. Unfortunately, these
excellent tunes are marred by some lame "DJ" banter between songs,
which is distracting and annoying. Fortunately, this lame banter can be turned
off, making this only a minor problem with otherwise outstanding production
values.