Burnout 3: Takedown

The Good
You're just driving up the road in your supercharged sports car at 150 MPH. You come up to the final corner before the end of the race and start to turn. Suddenly, your opponent comes up behind you from nowhere, charging at you at a speed of 200 MPH with boost. He then shunts you at the side with incredible force into the oncoming traffic. Your reaction to this is strong, and you steer immediately as hard as you can as to not lose out on winning that gold medal. You see a car coming towards you. Your heart is pounding at an unbearable rate... you need to outwit your opponent. You avoid the oncoming traffic by an inch and shunt your opponent into the busy traffic, only for him to be trashed by a huge oil tanker. You race down the straight to the finish line, relaxed and sweaty.

Speedy and insane are the very words that describe the above. Times this by 10 and you'll get Burnout 3... the most insane game on the planet!

There are just so many things I love about this game. The graphics are beautiful (nice blurry effect when driving at speed!), the speed is mind-blowingly fast and the gameplay is just awesome!

The idea of the game is to unlock all the cars, awards and other things in the game by competing in Burnout World Tour mode. You get three continents (USA, Europe and Asia), all which have their own tracks and events. There are 6 types of events:

• Race - The rules are simple... first place wins (also in many forms of tournaments)!
• Eliminator - Same as Race, but last place gets eliminated every lap.
• Crash - Cause as much damage as you possible can by crashing into busy traffic!
• Battle - Destroy your opponent to win their car!
• Duel - Just you and a computer player, not as easy as it sounds!
• Time Attack - Do one lap and beat the clock!

The scoring system is very impressive. At the end of the race (no matter what type), your total score is calculated. Scores are worked out in prize money and burnout points. Money is rewarded in many ways, whilst burnout points are rewarded depending on how insane you were in that race. Get to a certain score in either of them, and you'll win a new car! Excellent!

The racing in Burnout 3 is very unique. You're not going to win the race if you don't have boost power, and the only way to get boost is by being insane! You get boost by driving on the wrong side of the road, drifting around corners etc. The best way to get boost however, is to take out your opponent by slamming them into walls and oncoming traffic. You'll double your boost-meter and fill it up!

Another unique feature is impact time. When you crash you can hold down R1 to make everything go in slow motion, and steer your wreck! You can then take out your opponents that way, or you can reach other places that other racers can't reach! Cool or what?

As for audio? The music soundtrack in this game is rock hard! The music listing contains tracks from the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Franz Ferdinand etc. The list is just so big! The sounds of the engines, smash-ups and car-screechings are very cool! Throughout the game you'll be listening to 'Crash FM', the ultimate sound in the Burnout world with 'Striker' as the DJ. Despite not being as complete as the radio in Grand Theft Auto 3 or the later games (there's no adverts or phone-ins!) it is very funny to listen to, especially as the things you hear can be a good laugh at times!

The Bad
The game is slower in multiplayer split-screen mode as it runs at 25 frames per second (the single-player mode runs at 50). Apart from that, there is nothing else wrong with this magnificent title.

The Bottom Line
This game is simply a wannabe-insane driver's dream! An absolute classic, and one of the finest games around!