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Review: Burnout 3 - Takedown 275

Posted by Zonk from the things-that-go-fast-fly-far dept.
Though it was released back in September of 2004, I've only had the chance to play the racing/action title Burnout 3: Takedown post-Christmas. Marked by imaginative gameplay and extreme speeds, Burnout 3 is an amazing example of what's possible when developers look outside the traditional confines of a genre. While games involving cars may be the furthest thing from the minds of some readers, if you were ever a four-year-old who made "psshhhh-kapoooo!" noises with your Hot Wheels, you are probably going to dig this game. Read on for my take on this Criterion Games title.
  • Title: Burnout 3: Takedown
  • Developer: Criterion Games
  • Publisher: Electronic Arts
  • System: Xbox
  • Reviewer: Zonk
  • Score: 9/10

Let me say something straight off: I don't play racing games. I don't play sports titles in general. My enjoyment of Burnout 3: Takedown stems from the fact that it is only a racing game in the loosest sense of the term. What Criterion has done with this title is to make racing incidental to the purpose of the game. The purpose of Burnout 3 is twofold: Go Fast and Hit Stuff.

Burnout's premise is that in racing "Risk = Reward", a catch phrase the radio-style announcer repeats often. The reward in this case is Boost, the game's consumable go-fast juice that increases your rate of travel from merely jaw dropping to truly ludicrous speeds. You obtain Boost by taking risks such as driving on the wrong side of the road, initiating near-misses with other vehicles, catching air, and skidding around corners. The primary way that you obtain Boost, and the way you increase the capacity of the Boost-meter, is through Takedowns.

* Takedowns are awarded when you take out another vehicle in a race. This can be accomplished in numerous ways, from grinding another car into a wall to tail-gating him into crashing (called a "Psyche Out"). These Takedowns fill and expand your Boost meter, allowing you to go faster and more effectively crash other vehicles. This leads to an amusing cycle of destruction that makes even a simple race through the Italian wine country into a Mad-Maxian experience. When you are taken out (or kiss that oncoming pillar) you're penalized some Boost, but the game rewards you for impressive flips and slides. Holding the Boost button post-crash allows you to view your explosive re-entry in Impact Time, a bullet-time-like slow-mo. Impact Time can even net you more Takedowns, called Aftertouches, as you direct your flaming heap into fellow racers. A Tony Hawk style breakdown of your crash ("Into Truck + Triple Somersault + 350' Sidewall Slide") can also net you some boost to refill your meter once you're done crashing.

The key is that Takedowns and being taken out, rather than things to be avoided, are the core of the game. Great looking damage is applied to the (non-licensed) vehicle models, with shattering windshields and flying debris the norm for any given race. Unlike some racing games where a vehicle can be thrown off of a cliff without suffering a scratch at the speeds you move in Burnout 3 you can twitch wrong and blow apart your vehicle on a fencepost. The sense of movement and danger is conveyed through excellent graphics and extremely responsive controls.

The overall mood of the game is accentuated by the music selection. Like many sports games they've done lately EA has opted to include a selection of name-brand music with their title, allowing you to race to bands such as The Ramones, Jimmy Eat World, and Ash.

Beyond the basic building blocks of the game, Criterion provides you with a panoply of cars, tracks, and things to run into. Events are spread out over three areas: the US, Europe, and the Far East. Within these areas are several themed courses which allow you to experience high speeds in places such as the California coast, downtown Chicago, downtown Rome, and a busy Hong Kong street-maze.

I say events because straightforward races are just one of the activities you can find yourself completing in Burnout 3. Road Rage pits you against other cars in a challenge to take out as many opponents as you can in an allotted time. Timed laps force you to traverse a course under a certain time to prove yourself worthy the gold, silver, or bronze. And then, most deliciously, there is Crash Mode.

* Crash Mode is the stand out event type in the game as well as being the most straightforward. You start at the beginning of a course, rev up to speed, and throw your vehicle into traffic. Your goal is to cause as much destruction as possible and rack up as much damage as you can in dollar amount form. Spinning coin icons add to your totals and icons representing cash amount multipliers float in challenging positions on the course. These add a strategy element into the wanton destruction of all you see before you. This is accentuated again by Impact Time, which allows you to savor the metal crunching results of your careful planning and permits you to guide your vehicle through the air.

A Hong Kong based track was host to a particularly memorable crash for me. After the countdown I sped out of the start, laying down rubber behind me. Looking ahead I saw the Boost icon coming up quickly. In Crash Mode there are icons that instantly fill your Boost Bar and as I sped through it my speedometer leapt from 115 up into the 160+ range. Other racing games say you're going that fast, but the presentation of Burnout 3 really reinforces the awesome speeds at which your vehicle goes. Boosting hard I aimed directly at the small ramp they'd thoughtfully provided just before the busy intersection I was heading towards. I launched off of the ramp and Impact Time took over, allowing me to see the huge tanker truck plowing through the intersection at high speed. The small coupe I was driving entered the tank of the truck just behind the cab from above in a fiery conflagration that shook the room. Impact Time quit and the now burning and blackened coupe flew upside down through the air into a pillar, taking out a pair of the tiny TukTuk cars so common in this area. As my coupe landed the camera pulls back to reveal the devastation in the intersection, where the tanker explosion has ripped open the frames of several small cars and caused a few others to slide over into the oncoming lane. Another truck, this one with a long trailer laden with boxes, slams hard into the wreckage and adds flying cargo to the confusing pile. At that point the camera swings back to my already burning wreck and informs me that if I hit the B button I'll be able to use the Crashbreaker. After a certain number of wrecks are accumulated in a Crash Mode session, you're allowed to effectively detonate your vehicle to add more burning metal to the experience. This explosion also allows a second go at Impact Time and can be the key to hitting out of the way points icons. Always willing to destroy things, I hit B and with an explosive *wham* my vehicle goes from a burning cinder to a rapidly expanding vapor cloud. The largest chunk is the one I have control of and I guide it through the air with my control stick directly into a score multiplier icon, netting me a huge amount of cash.

Moments like these accumulate more lasting rewards as the game plies you with an endless string of medals, trophies, new cars, and (most amusingly) headlines in the newspaper. You can specifically go for these rewards but I found during the course of play that cool things(tm) would just organically happen, netting me accolades as a byproduct to my fun.

* Beyond this rich tapestry of single player speed hedonism, the game is fully Xbox Live compatible. Though there aren't hundreds of games available like you'd find with Halo 2 there are still plenty of Burnout 3 players to be found on the service. Online games come in many different flavors, from straight matches to series of races, time trials, crash contests, and battle races where one team tries to take out the other team before they reach the finish line. The Xbox Live service does the game full justice with very little lag and extremely tight response.

The only complaint that I can offer up is that the game is extremely to the point. There isn't a create your own racer mode or any building features for the vehicles you're offered. It's a small thing, though, as Burnout does what it does very very well. I highly recommend this game to speed lovers, Hot Wheels aficionados, and anyone who has found themselves on a go-kart track saying "Maybe I'll give him just a tap."

Screenshots are from EA's official Burnout 3 site, ©2005 Electronic Arts Inc.

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Review: Burnout 3 - Takedown More

Review: Burnout 3 - Takedown

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  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:21PM (#11409548) Homepage
    ...doesnt the takedown happen after it's been posted to the P2P networks? Isn't this a bit preemptive actually putting it in the title? Do you get one free lawsuit with every copy?

  • Great, simple controls... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bucket74 ( 712690 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:22PM (#11409553)
    ...are one of the best features of this game.
    • The online play is pretty damn good too. As is the offline multiplayer play. I online wish more of the online game types were available online (the one where one team chases another would be pretty damn sweet offline). I've stayed up until 4:00am playing this game with friends.

      For those who played the original Burnout and didn't like it: this one is a lot better. I bought the original, played it once, and haven't played it since. This one I've played a ton of.

      And if you have a PS2 and Xbox, get the Xbox v
      • And if you have a PS2 and Xbox, get the Xbox version. Much nicer graphics :)

        Not to mention the ability to have custom soundtracks. That alone, to me, makes the game worth it.

      • Re:Great, simple controls... (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Mattcelt ( 454751 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @01:13PM (#11410273)
        And if you have a PS2 and Xbox, get the Xbox version. Much nicer graphics :)

        I haven't seen the xbox version, but the PS2 version in progressive scan mode is pretty damn nice, too...

        I hear that the xbox live online experience is much better than the PS2 one. I can't imagine it's worse - random disconnects, timeouts, server-side connection problems, and listening to other players voices that sound like they are underwater... EA seems to have major problems running game servers. But when it works, man is it fun!

        Here are some thoughts regarding Burnout 3 that I wrote a while ago, but aren't 100% finished. Sorry for the length:

        ===
        Burnout 3 Beefs
        ===
        by Mattcelt1 (currently ranked 98 out of 30,000 on PS2)

        Here are the things I have found to be helps or hindrances when playing Burnout 3: Takedown. Before I begin, I should say that this game is incredible. It is a major enhancement over Burnout 2, but interestingly they've changed enough that BO2 is still fun to play for its own sake. In Burnout 3, the graphics are incredible, the playability is way up there, and the game is just difficult enough to make you nuts. For the first time ever, I actually hit my controller hard enough in frustration to break the vibrating unit inside. Not my finest hour. But I'll be the first to say that I should be frustrated by my own screw-ups, not because the game isn't working the way it should!

        Keep in mind that despite my rants here, this is still one of the most fun games I have ever played, and that these problems I have do not keep me from racking up many, many hours of enjoyable play. What's more, the interesting thing is that in nearly all the instances, the things I recommend are interface changes, mostly cosmetic. That should speak volumes about the game itself - it's built on a solid core, and I have no complaints about the physics or the controls. Most of what I'm going to complain about is nitpicking; once these things are addressed, this game will be as close to perfect as possible. So now it's time to see what I'm on about.

        The Camera:
        By far the major offender in this game is the camerawork. I'm going to say this very loudly so that any passers-by from Criterion will hear it reverberating through the streets: HIRE A CINEMATOGRAPHER!!!! Seriously, put a cinematographer on your development staff and listen to what s/he has to say about the camera. The addition of 'aftertouch' in crash situations was a stroke of genius, and I love it. But a consequence of this great idea is that camera positioning, control, aiming, and zoom have suddenly become major factors in successful gameplay, where camera views were incidental at best in Burnout 2. Where they were once incidental windows into the action, the cameras are now integral to successful gameplay, and the lack of control makes them, frustratingly, a hindrance instead of a help.

        There is something in film circles known as "crossing the line", the prohibition of which is the first rule taught to any cameraman. If there's a girl on the right and a boy on the left, you never, never, ever cut to another angle where their positions are switched (i.e., the girl is on the left and the boy on the right). It's the biggest sin you can commit in cinema. Yet Burnout 3 does it all the time. You're racing, you crash. You start to aftertouch, pressing left to try to take down the car you know is following you. Then all of a sudden, the camera swings wide in a 180-degree arc, and you find yourself moving away from the other guy, without ever lifting your finger off the stick! This is too frustrating for words.

        The second time this rears its ugly head is during crash competitions. Most of the time I play single-player crash, I plan my crashes so that I get the 4x multiplier (or one of the other power-ups) during aftertouch. But with the camera jumping around from place to place, and even coming to rest on some far-off vehicle that's rocking back and forth on its
        • I suppose in a way Prince of Persia:Sands of Time ruined me.

          I loved that game, but I had the same complaint about switching camera angles as you make about Burnout3: sometimes I'm running along and then - usually when passing through a doorway - the camera angle will suddenly switch 180 degrees and I lose control of my character. Or, worse, I twitch the control stick and suddenly he reverses direction. Frustrating at the best of times, but downright infuriating when it happens during a melee.

          By the way,
    • The EA racing game I liked most was NFS Porsche, because it had a good physics model. It was fun to play with a force feedback wheel, only Grand Prix Legends is better. However, the later NFS series games suck when played with a wheel, they seem to be designed for gamepads only. I suppose that's a consequence of being designed for consoles.

      Unfortunately, the 1967 F1 cars in GPL are so difficult to drive and one gets tired of the same tracks in NFS-PU. In a perfect world, Papyrus would open source GPL, EA w

    • EA has been moving to simplify and standardize controls across all thier games.

      People like me didn't like learning 10 button combos to do the special moves, so EA started making all special moves just moving the right stick (on PS2). The controls overall for SSX:Tricky and Def Jam Fight For NY are really similar considering one is a snowboarding game and one is a fighting game.

      I've been impressed by the number of really quality titles EA has released in the past two years. Dividing into three divisions

  • Also available on PS2 (Score:3, Informative)

    by ragoutoutou76 ( 832439 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:22PM (#11409558)
    ... Playing if for a few months, great game, low morality, big fun ...
    • Morality? Considering that 9 out of every 10 games available right now involves shooting people, I'd say that a game with some cars crashing and some speeding is pretty damn tame. Especially since death is never depicted... cars just magically re-start after a crash.
    • Sadly not available for the PC or gamecube, or anything else for that matter. I played it at a friends' place, and it is a great game, so I'll probably pick it up when Xboxes are $40 in a year or two.

  • That's weird... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Shadow Wrought ( 586631 ) <shadow.wroughtNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:26PM (#11409623) Homepage Journal
    I've been driving like that for years and I'd never even heard of "Boost."

  • Fun (Score:4, Interesting)

    by fimbulvetr ( 598306 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:27PM (#11409644)
    The game is a TON of fun, I loved it.
    Admittedly, it gets a little hard at times, I wish there were ways I could just skip a certain point (or points) and progress and come back them later. It's all a checkpoint system, where if I beat certain maps then others are unlocked.

    Especially cool is the way the graphics blur when you hit turbo. The soundtrack gets old, the announcer is boring and very irratating. I still haven't figured out how to get the custom soundtracks working...perhaps someone could enlighten me.

    This game will almost certainly have you hooked for weeks or more.
    • The only problem with this game is the layer of marketing that they slopped all over it. The annoncer and all of the music tracks are there to make the game feel like a big frat party. Most of the music is seriously insulting to your intelligence (interesting fact: 'We are the lazy generation' was written by a single brain cell, shared among three band members) and the announcer is a jackass, but not in the good DDR jackass sort of way. Of course, once you've turned off the music and the announcer, it's an

    • Re:Fun (Score:4, Informative)

      by TheBunk ( 741153 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:42PM (#11409816)
      Custom Soundtracks:

      Put an audio CD into your xbox, and go into the audio menu, copy all of the tracks to it's own album. It'll copy them over, rinse and repeat with as many cds as you want. Once you have all of your music on the xbox hard drive, you can create a new album, and copy over all of the appropriate driving songs into it. Label that album burnout3 or something appropriate.

      Once in the game, go into your profile section, then to settings, there should be an option that says EA TRACKS. You can change the sound track of the game from the one that they give, to any of your albums, including your custom burnout3 one.

    • You *can* skip sections. There's an entire single-player mode where you do random races of various types using any car from your inventory against a variety of co-racers.

      You should also be unlocking events faster than you can complete them, meaning that there is more than one option of a next event to complete at any one time in the world tour mode.
      • Yeah, I know, I just didn't mention that part. It seems that when I'm in a rut, I just can't win anything, and at this point, I'm in a rut:)
  • This game is fantastic. Since I got it my profile tells me I have wasted 165 hours of it and only got through 75% of the game.

    The best part is the party crash mode where up to 8 people can pass a controller around and try to create the biggest pileups possible.

    • Heh (Score:2)

      by delmoi ( 26744 )
      Your post was more informative then the entire review.
    • The best part is that my gf likes it. She's definitely a gamer, but she's not much into games like Halo that require you to take the time to learn what every button does before you can play it effectively.

      Burnout 3 has a good learning curve if you want to really improve your game, but at the same time, someone who's never even held an xbox controller before can jump right in and have a good time.

      The worst part is that since it's all we play when she's over, when she's not here I play other games, and that
  • This game is really fun. To me this is what console gaming is all about. Fast, great looking arcade action. Add in the great infrastructure of Live with a bunch of good players and you can't beat it.

    Too bad the masses of Live have probably moved on. You'll find with many of the online console games that when two or three newer Live games hit people move to them. So, if you get an older (6 months) Live game you may have trouble getting bigger games going.

  • Noises (Score:3, Funny)

    by jargoone ( 166102 ) * on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:30PM (#11409671)
    who made "psshhhh-kapoooo!" noises with your Hot Wheels

    I played with Hot Wheels when I was a kid, and made lots of noises, but "psshhhh-kapoooo!" was not one of them. What the hell is that supposed to represent, anyway?
  • Awesome game. After the last disappointment in the series, I was dubious, but they must've had the shit kicked out of them with the clue stick because they've turned out a fabulous game.

    Also, what I enjoy about it is that it makes a good party game as well. Short moments of excitement, ability to take a break any time you want, and a good rhythm for handing off (after ever crash for example) make this a much needed addition to the PS2's party game lineup. Of course, its also fun to play by yourself, or w

  • EA-published title (Score:4, Insightful)

    by fahrvergnugen ( 228539 ) <fahrvNO@SPAMhotmail.com> on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:31PM (#11409676) Homepage
    I really enjoyed the first two Burnout titles, but I'm sorry to say that while I'm sure that Burnout 3 is a fine title, it is also an EA-published title, and I won't be buying it for this reason.

    All those people who decry the inhuman working conditions at EA, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Stop rewarding their deplorable labor practices with your dollars.

    • Re:EA-published title (Score:4, Insightful)

      by prockcore ( 543967 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:47PM (#11409877)

      All those people who decry the inhuman working conditions at EA, it's time to put your money where your mouth is.

      But EA didn't develop this game, Critereon did. EA just published it, which doesn't involve any inhuman working conditions.

    • Re:EA-published title (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Skraut ( 545247 )
      I totally agree. My wife likes to surprise me with games, and last night I went though an Electronic Botique with her and pointed out what games were made by EA, and that I made it clear I didn't want any of them.

      Having developed games, in what seems like a former life, for the Dreamcast I still haven't forgiven them for their boycot of the system, and their recent actions against Sega. Not that Sega is a holy company in their own right, but working closely with them for those years I felt they truely c

      • My wife likes to surprise me with games, and last night I went though an Electronic Botique with her and pointed out what games were made by EA, and that I made it clear I didn't want any of them.

        Your wife must be awed by your gratitude.
        • You don't get out and see the forest for the trees much, do you?
        • "last night I went though an Electronic Botique with her"

          And you're still married? This happened to me and my wife exactly once. I was going to a neighboring town expressly to go game shopping. Wife wanted to tag along and combine trips, so I told her she could, but she couldn't complain.

          She lasted 4 minutes and then excused herself to the Borders Bookstore next door. I'm surprised she lasted that long.

          We've had an uneasy truce over PS2 ever since. Fortunately, she sleeps in on weekends and I wake up at

    • In Related News (Score:3, Funny)

      by ppp ( 218671 )
      In related news, EA has agreed to pay the automotive industry $12.5 billion for the exclusive use of automobiles in a video game format for the next 10 years.

      -G
      www.g.pix.com [g-pix.com]
    • EA was Disney/Microsoft/Coors/SCO/Dominos-evil LONG before this. Am I the only person who remembers the way EA copy protection would cause the read-heads on Commodore 64 floppy disks to go out of alignment? What kind of sick bastards implement a DRM that causes HARDWARE damage???

    • All those people who decry the inhuman working conditions at EA, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Stop rewarding their deplorable labor practices with your dollars.

      It isn't as if EA employees have no other choice than work there. EA isn't anything like where the 8 year olds in South East Bumfuckistan that made the clothes you wear [aflcio.org]. If EA so bad of a place to work then the employees might want to think about working somewhere else. A boycott of some [com.com] won't quite cut it.

    • Stop rewarding their deplorable labor practices with your dollars.

      What if I don't care? They made the decision to make more money than an easy-going job like mine provided. That's the trade-off: if you want the money, you have to work harder.

      That said, if they aren't making any money, they need to move out east where I live.
    • Don't worry about it much as Burnout 2 is a much better game anyway. Better music, better courses, better gameplay (both racing and crash mode), better challenge (as in having challenge, period). The glitchy online play and slighty better graphics is really all you are missing.

      (And I don't purchase EA games either. My experience is through playing my brother's game. If you desperately need to try it to see what a fall from excellence it really is, renting it won't give EA any money...)
  • Crashing for points sounds and looks cool. I saw them have a couple people play against each other on G4 (yes I'm ashamed I watched it). It would be fun for a little bit like the "push the man down the stairs" game for the PC, but would eventually get boring. Personally I'm really into Need For Speed Underground 2 right now. I think its the ability to customize your car with something new after every couple races. Plus its fun applying those enhancements to the other cars they have in there and. Just
    • What I hated about both the Need For Speed Underground games is the way they put traffic in the races. It stops being a game based on skill and becomes a simple lottery. Since there's no damage, the quickest way around most curves is crashing against the outside wall. Just keep trying until you get to those curves without oncoming traffic and you win every time.
  • I'm a gamer, and even I think this is ridiculous as a frontpage /. story. I think there are a couple of games that *might* squeeze into acceptability for the majority of readers, such as the KoTOR games, but Burnout?! It's an awesome game that just about anyone can get into - but it's just not /. material.

    Also, it's published by EA. /. is the sort of place where people boycott companies like EA.
    • I think there are a couple of games that *might* squeeze into acceptability for the majority of readers, such as the KoTOR games, but Burnout?!

      And what makes KotoR so much more news worthy? I'm not saying it's bad, I haven't played it. I'm just wondering why you think it's worthy of a review but not Burnout or whatever other title.
  • My thumbs and forefingers were so sore from this game that I needed to take tylenol. It is just amazingly addictive. The multiplayer part is very well done, and there's *zero* learning curve.

  • For PS2 also (Score:3, Informative)

    by shadowsurfr1 ( 746027 ) on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:38PM (#11409762)
    I don't know why so many reviews I've read say it's for the Xbox and not the PS2. It's equally as great on the PS2 and the online play is free no less. What the hell?

    It's a great game none the less.
  • Has anyone played all 3 burnout games? I saw Burnout 2 at a LAN party on a 15 foot projection and was totally drawn to it. I recently got a gamecube and just realized that burnout 3 isnt on that platform yet. I can pick up a copy of 1 or 2 for cheap so I'm wondering if there is any major differences, or is it simply better graphics and more maps?

    I'll probably go out and pickup a copy of burnout 2 today. Thanks.
    • I remember renting a racing game for the Gamecube where you earned boost for dangerous driving; it was probably the original Burnout. It was a good game. By default the tracks had traffic, which made the racing more interesting. The sound and graphics were good.

      I remember one race in particular. A large part of the race was down a busy multilane freeway (aka turnpike). The only way you could complete each lap in the alloted time was to hold down the boost button on this freeway, and the only way to re

    • There are a couple differences between Burnout 2 and 3. The main one that stuck out for me was the use of the "boost", as you have to fill up your bar entirely before you can even use it. Burnout 3 on the otherhand allows you to use it at anytime, no matter how full the bar is.

      The addition of impact time after a crash makes the game play drastically different. 3's Crash Mode in general, making you plan out your routes based on the numerous powerups and crash-breakers, giving you more control over how you

    • Burnout 1 is a fairly straight racing game with excellent crashes, and a few extra game modes. Burnout 2 has more game modes, and focuses more on driving dangerously to earn boost to win. Crash mode makes an appearance here, great fun. B2 is about halfway between 1 and 3, where Burnout 3 is all about the crashing and driving dangerously, almost making the racing itself secondary a lot of the time. In fairness, 2 is good, 3 is the best :)

      Disclaimer - I worked on 1 (ports to XBox and GC) and 2 (PS2), but not
    • Burnout 3 is great, no doubt, and IMHO the best in the series. But 2 is fantastic as well. Until 3 is out for the GC, get 2, you'll be very happy. When 3 does come out, you'll want that too :)
  • I just found this game a few days ago, and have been playing it quite a bit. It's great fun, and doesn't require a lot of time consuming linear movement through the "storyline" (such as it is).

    It's definitely worth the money. However, the sound tracks get old after the first 10 hours of play or so... they need a lot more music. The music is good, don't get me wrong, but hearing only the first 1/3 of each song before it's changed to something else gets tiring, and also wears out the playlist that much fa
  • I have all three burnout games, and am a big fan of the series.

    However, i see burnout 3 as a perfect exmaple of what happens when an awesome idea gets subverted by a marketing team gone wrong, and a loss of focus on actual GAME PLAY.

    While the many new game modes are fun and worthwhile, this game makes four egregious errors that are so bad as to cause me not to play it as much as its prior two iterations.

    1 load, load, load, load.
    The single greatest fault of the game is the continual loading... unlike

    • 2 music for teenagers

      Well, if you've got the X-Box version, you can rip music to the hard drive and use custom soundtracks while playing instead of having to put up with the default soundtracks.

    • Thank you very much for the review/comment. I actually have not yet bought an Xbox, but I must say that the release of Burnout 3 and the realization that it would not be released for the Gamecube definition made me starting thinking seriously again about getting an Xbox.

      In fact, it is our plan to get an Xbox anyway, mainly because we're getting tired of feeling like we're on the stepchild system when looking at the rental shelves. I've also heard awesome things about the Xbox and like a lot of the games,
  • This is one of those games that you don't need to know difficult controls or button sequences - just push the gas button, steer, and use the nitro occasionally.

    It's also fun because it's real easy, you don't have to be super-precise, and you don't end up getting killed constantly.

    This version is a great improvement over #2, which was fun for the crashing part, but wasn't as interesting as #1 for the racing. #3 combines the best of both ealier versions, with much, much more racing venues and gameplay.

    Defi
  • This is one of those games like Katamari Damacy, that I can show to all my non-gamer friends and they get really, really into. Plain and simple, this is a GOOD game. This review really sums up what's great about it. Although I don't think he put enough emphasis on how good the game is at making you feel like you're going FAST. When you hit the boost, the edge of the screen gets a blur effect that is less novelty, and more essential for giving the impression of ridiculous speeds. But um, front page? Is
  • A game developed by EA Games, running on an X-Box, reviewed on Slashdot?!?! Wha, wha, what!?!

  • A warning to burnout 2 players... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ClioCJS ( 264898 ) <cliocjs+slashdot@NospAm.gmail.com> on Wednesday January 19, 2005 @12:57PM (#11410031) Homepage Journal
    My wife and I purchased two $80 force-feedback steering wheels. (Logitech).

    These 2 wheels allowed us to race against each other in Burnout 2, which is the ONLY thing we ever did.

    In Burnout 3, these 2 wheels do NOT work. Only one works. I AM LIVID.

    What the fuck is EA doing? Removing hardware support from previous versions? Trying to participate in a conspiracy to get us to spend another $150 on steering wheels?

    If anyone has ANY information on how to get 2 wheels working, I'd love to hear it.

  • Maybe you should have spent more time learning grammar and less time making weird noises with cars:

    "...may be the furthest thing from the minds of some readers if you were ever a four year old..."

    The grammar totally sucks!
  • Why am I not suprised that the review for a Video Game called Burnout 3 was posted by someone who refers to themself as Zonk.
  • and really hate the load times on the xbox. That alone has made Crash mode (my house's favorite on the predeceding game) not nearly as fun. The best part of the game is the revamped pursuit mode, now known as road rage.

    There are a lot of little interface odditites too. You can't jump into another crash mode via the menu, you have to go backwards and it takes as long to choose to play as it does to actually play the mode.
  • Loved the crash mode, but is it just me or are the races freakin impossible?
    • I haven't tried Burnout 3, but in 2 the races are definitely possible. You just have to learn how to get into chains of burnouts. my record was 11. Basically, when you are in boost mode, drive on the wrong side of the track, do good drifts on intersections and do lots of near misses.

      Your reward is more boost when you are currently boosting. Thus, you can be miles ahead of the competition.

      As for burnout 1, I couldn't complete a race due to sheer boredom of the game.
    • Definitely possible -- it just takes practice. FWIW, sitting closer to the TV helps me!

    • Re:Argh (Score:2, Informative)

      by Bahumat ( 213955 )
      They're difficult at first, but well worth it as the gameplay goes on past the 40th hour or so.

      I was pleased to find that the technique racing was just as effective as most.

      A few things I've found help in the races: Remember that you have both brakes and "neutral" on your analog dpad. You can make some marvelously sharp turns by simply letting go of the gas/brake entirely for a moment.

      Likewise, regardless of the car, your handling is always better if you aren't boosting. Always. Even for some reason in c
      • Hey, thanks, I'll take that advice and (try to) apply it. Besides the timed races being somewhat impossible to get through for me, I find it annoying in the head to head races how the crash penalty for the computer is practically zero. I never get more than one second ahead. But if I crash, the computer is automatically 10 seconds ahead...I swear the developer is a total masochist.
  • Excuse me, where are the guns?

    Racing games are tired. Sure, they vary a bit from one to another, but they are, in essence, the same: go around a track. It's worse than FPS games in terms of repetitive gameplay.

    I want something along the lines of "Rock 'n' Roll Racing" but with a modern game engine and graphics and additional gameplay modes. Is that too much to ask for?

  • Total agreement (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Bollenator ( 733651 )
    I've had this game roughly since it came out and find that I still put it in the ol' Xbox to play, despite the other top-notch games in my collection (Halo 2, MechAssault 2, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow). The graphics, gameplay, cars are all designed with quality in mind by people who obviously have a passion for gaming. The included EA Trax could definitely use the old "heave-ho," but otherwise I am very impressed with this game.

    The most amazing thing about this game, however, does not stem from its
  • This games has been out since September 2004. Why on earth is this review being posted here? Why does this review get posted over the thousands of others that probably get submitted?

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