A few years ago I was in an Electronics Boutique store just browsing around, taking up some time before I had to report to work. Burnout 3 was playing on the X-Box the store had setup. I guess the game had just been released, so I continued to watch another customer try and play the game. I was not a fan of the other games; I had played the first one...but only for a moment. But I will have to admit, that this installment in the series, is what "drove" me to buying a Microsoft X-Box after a couple years of debating the idea.

So I finally broke down and bought an X-Box within a few days of playing, and I was glad I did. Acclaim originally produced this series, but Electronic Arts picked up the series after Acclaim started going under. I think EA did a great job in producing this game, and taking the game to newer heights.

The basic idea of the game is to race in all different types of events, and cause havoc (and a little bit of destruction) as you do so.

There are several Game Modes in Burnout 3: Takedown...

BURNOUT 3 WORLD TOUR
SINGLE PLAYER EVENT
MULTIPLAYER EVENT
XBOX LIVE


 "Burnout 3 World Tour" is the heart of the game. The object of this mode is to compete in several styles of races all over the world. The races vary from driving against several opponents while trying to place in First, or competing in some Time Trial races, to one of my favorite events...Crashing your car and trying to rack up the most damage to earn money to unlock cars, etc.

"Single Player" is similar, except you drive in the events to earn Points and Money to obtain new vehicles. Also you unlock new tracks and races by completing events in the World Tour Mode. And then you come here to try them out, etc.

"Multiplayer" is a lot of fun, but not as much fun as playing the game by yourself. There is little if no slowdown while playing the game in split screen with a second player. But it's much more fun to take turns while playing the Single Player or World Tour modes...unless you invite a controller hog over to play...then that's a whole different story all together!  I have yet to play this game online so I really can't talk much about my experiences there.

When you are competing in a Crash Event, not only do you crash into cars and try to cause the most damage, you are also able to blow yourself up by performing a move called the Crashbreaker. At the beginning of the event, you are given a number of crashes that must happen before you can use this feature. If it says "CrashBreaker in 5", you have to have at least caused 5 cars to crash before you are able to blow yourself up. When you do blow yourself up, you can also steer your car as it's exploding, allowing you to cause even more damage and move into the path of out-of-reach vehicles. In this event there are Icons you can collect. Some double your points; some even take away your points. And there are ones that cause an instant Crashbreaker.  The cars in the game range from the basic rally style cars, to some 70's era muscle cars, to even a city transit bus.  The faster sports cars surprisingly cause quite a bit of damage when compared to the unlockable buses, semi-trucks, etc.

The graphics are superb. First off the background and the locations you race in are beautiful. It's very close to real life. Traffic Signs along the side of the road, skid marks, buildings, landscaping, etc are all realistic. You could almost live in this game. The water effects are great, and you can even crash and go flying in the lake or even over a cliff.

The vehicles, while not actually being licensed, still look a lot like real life cars. They are just called something different, and they don't have manufacturer marks on them. Most car companies still have a problem with having realistic damage on cars in video games. Off the top of my head I really can't recall any game featuring real-world vehicles getting beat up.

Speaking of realistic damage, your car takes a lot of abuse, and it really shows in the Crash Events and Road Rage Events. When you crash, your doors bust off, windows break out, trunks bounce up and down, and your front hood even pops off and goes flying towards the screen. Crashes are spectacular, and with the added Impact Time feature, you can really see the detail that developers added during these sequences.

The game features Dolby Digital 5.1 ® support, so if you have a surround sound system...hook it up. There's nothing like the sound of a car exploding, and having the sound move from one speaker to another like you are really on the freeway during an actual crash.  I love the exploding vehicles, the sound of glass shattering, fire crackling, and more. Engine noises all pretty much sound the same, but it's still great to hear the sound of a revving motor.  Burnout 3: Takedown features a commentator named Stryker who lets you know a little about the track, its obstacles, and some useless stuff. He commentates in the form of a Rock Station DJ (which he happens to be in real life) cutting in and out.  I've never been a fan of Stryker, I think he's obnoxious but he does do a fairly decent job in the game.  I would have chosen someone else to do the commentating though.

Also there are several dozen Rock/Hard Rock/Punk songs used in the games soundtrack. During the races, a banner appears and lets you know the Artist, Song Title, and even the Album it appears on. The game features the sounds of The Ramones, Sugarcult, Midtown, Pennywise, and my favorite, Funeral For A Friend. If you don't like any of the songs, you can turn them off, and even use your own tracks with the X-Box feature, "Custom Soundtrack". Copy a song directly to the X-Box from your favorite CD, and then use it in the game.  I personally like to add Industrial bands like KMFDM, Gravity Kills, and Fear Factory to my playlist when.

Burnout 3: Takedown is a lot of fun and the racing (and mostly the crashing) never gets old. The crash physics are very realistic, although I wouldn't want to test it out in real life. The visuals are very appealing, and the soundtrack gets the adrenaline pumping. If you want something different than the usual, "race around the track and get the best time" ...this game is for you.  I would be nice though to see an installment in the series featuring real world vehicles.

_________________________

[TITLE]
Burnout 3: Takedown

[PLATFORM]
Microsoft X-Box

[DEVELOPER/PUBLISHER]
Criterion Games/Electronic Arts (EA Games)

[GENRE]
Driving/Action

[YEAR of RELEASE]
2004

[ESRB RATING]
T for Teen
_________________________

© COPYRIGHT 2009 Chris_Billings

Recommended: Yes