Xbox
Not having played the previous Burnout titles, I didn’t really know what to expect from EA’s Burnout 3 Takedown. I was expecting something pretty special though, as this was EA’s first venture onto the Xbox Live! service. Whilst the game itself is outstanding, the online implementation is buggy as hell and ruins the experience overall.
Burnout 3 is a different type of driving game. Rather than racing around tracks trying to avoid other cars, taking the best lines and avoiding traffic, Burnout 3 encourages you to hit other cars and cause the maximum amount of damage possible. Starting off in the Burnout 3 World Tour, you race in different cities in one of two different types of event – “Race” and “Crash”. “Race” has a number of modes; Race is your typical get to the line first in the fastest way possible. The Grand Prix race is where you get points for where you finish in a series of races. Eliminator finds the last placed car in a series of races eliminated. Face Off is a one on one race where the winner takes the losers car, and Road Rage is where you have to smash as many rivals as possible.
During a Race Event, it is important to smash your opponent’s cars in order to get boost points and stay in front. Causing another racer to crash is called a takedown, and a slow-mo replay of the crash is displayed immediately afterwards, and it looks freaking cool. The car flies through the air, sparks flying off, and it looks awesome when you smash them into on coming traffic and see the cars pile up. However, if you are taken down yourself, the slow-mo is activated by the A button, and you’ve got a degree of control over your smashed car in what they call aftertouch. Here you can, if you are lucky, hit another racer and cause a further takedown.
Crash Events are single races where you simply have to crash your car into a bunch of other cars. Sounds simple, but you’d be surprised at how often you miss crashing. It is so easy when not trying to do it, but when you’re aiming to get enough points to get a gold medal, trying to hit all the tokens that double or quadruple your points and cash, as well as trying to hit the ‘crashbreakers’ that cause your car to explode allowing you to create more mayhem, can be really difficult. But the difficulty is never too hard, and that’s one of the joys of the game. I’m not normally someone who needs gold in every single race – if I can get through the game without winning the top goal I’m happy. But with Burnout3, I have to get gold. It’s just too damn addictive causing all the mayhem, trying to get that many more points to reach gold!
The game looks fantastic, and the crashes and carnage simply looks superb. The damage models on the car are fantastic; Chunks of metal get tossed into the air, glass smashes and sparks fly. The sounds of crashes is excellently done too, although the annoying “EA” soundtrack and DJ will be some of the first options to turn off. Luckily you can have your own custom soundtracks, which makes racing that more pleasurable.
The biggest let down is the Xbox Live! implementation. To be fair, this is EA’s first game to feature an online component for Live, but it is far too complicated and causes unnecessary stress for anyone trying to get a game. As the service goes through EA’s server and not the usual XBL service, every time you start a new session you have to log back into EA’s server, extending the time between races. There are problems with rankings not updating properly, problems with voice communication and even people seeing accounts been temporarily locked for no obvious reason. When you do get a game, races are relatively lag free, but the hassle getting in really puts you off.
Whilst the online implementation sours the game, Burnout 3: Takedown is still a very enjoyable racing title that offers something a little different from the norm. It looks and sounds superb, and the single player game offers an addictive and long lasting experience, and once you get on to the online component, lots of fun can be had.