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If you want more than this from an arcade racer, you’ve got to be crazy. It's all here in spades!

Let’s skip the preamble. Burnout 3 is easily one of the greatest arcade racing games ever made, seamlessly blending together all of the elements that have traditionally made the genre compelling, while managing to add an onslaught of unique nuances.

We’re talking awe, here; jaw-dropping, soul-elevating, electrifying gameplay. Just imagine The Fast and the Furious in videogame form and you’ll get a pretty accurate idea of what the game is all about.

For the uninitiated, the Burnout series has prided itself on creating the most spine-tingling, smash-errific crash scenes to ever grace your TV.

Although previous installments in the series have been burdened with minor problems, Burnout 3 smoothes over almost all of the bumps, delivering an almost unbelievable assortment of game modes along with tight controls and stunning graphics. In short, if you want more than this from an arcade racer, you’ve got to be crazy.

First of all, there are two main game modes, both of which take place either in the World Tour (the game’s equivalent of career mode) or in the form of Single Events. There are crash events (where you’re challenged to come up with the sickest, gridlock-inducing catastrophic automotive collisions) and there are racing events (which range from one-on-one competitions to takedown matches).

The action is split pretty evenly between these two modes and gamers will find themselves spending most of their time playing through them in the World Tour. The game allows players to switch between crash and race events at will - which helps keep things fresh.

The most exciting innovation in the game, however, is the takedown. A takedown occurs whenever you manage to physically annihilate one of your opponents by ramming them into walls, traffic, or anything else that will end their run as quickly as possible. Each time you perform a takedown, your boost meter is extended and fully charged, allowing you to go faster.

There are also signature takedowns, in which you exploit a particular geographic feature of the map for a particularly stunning kill. When you ram an opponent into a toll booth, for instance, you’ll be rewarded with a Polaroid photo of your exploits bearing the brutal caption “Paying the fare”.

Takedowns never get old, plain and simple.
But that’s not all. The game operates on a risk vs. reward system in which you can charge your boost meter by performing dangerous stunts ranging from power-sliding around corners to driving in opposing traffic (with an extra bonus to your boost meter for each time you come close to hitting a car).

If you crash (and crash you will) you have the option of going into a slow-motion, “aftertouch” mode which allows you to steer your wrecked vehicle into the paths of your opponents. If you hit one of them, it results in an “aftertouch takedown” which not only helps you keep your position in the race, but will also charge your boost meter.

To say that the action is fast-paced is an understatement; once you unlock the later series of cars, the tracks whiz by at an almost unbelievable pace. The crashes themselves are awesome, with nearly every part of the car mapped for multiple types of damage.

Tires will explode off your ride, glass shatters, front ends are mangled beyond recognition, frames bend, hoods pop open, and polygonal shrapnel flies everywhere. Witnessing large wrecks in races is particularly satisfying (especially when you’re not involved in them): multiple cars ram into each other, careening wildly through the air, flying into oncoming traffic where ordinary civilian cars attempt to bob and weave through their twisted wreckage.

It’s moments like these – as you try to negotiate the wrecks of your opponents – that really make Burnout 3 shine. And, as per the Burnout philosophy, the closer you come to the danger, the greater your reward.

The game is not entirely without its problems, however. There’s no replay mode in single player, so forget about showing off your sickest runs to your friends, and the camera can (at times) get a little confusing after takedowns, but these are all minor complaints when viewed in the context of an otherwise excellent title.

The game also comes ready for play using Xbox Live, and features more multiplayer modes than are worth going into here. The bottom line? Burnout 3 rocks. No fan of big crashes or arcade racing should miss this title. Buy now.


Review by Seth “Fingers” Flynn Barkan.