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Addictive and a High-Speed, BURNOUT BLAST

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 38 / 42
Date: November 05, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Look. I'll break it down for you:

Do you like to race cars in video games?
Do you like to see cars crash, explode, flip, and disintegrate?

That's all you need to absolutely fall in love with this game.

Some people complain about computer cars that throw themselves at you. Hello? It's a videogame! I suspect that those complainers simply don't know how to play the game to avoid these cars.

As for the music and the DJ, guess what? You can turn them off if you don't like them.

But AI cars and punk music are not the reasons to love this game. The real star of the game is the ULTRA-realistic crash animations. I swear, you will never get bored of watching these cars crash. Sparks fly, fenders pop off, hoods crumple, and cars split in two in the most amazing animated crashes you will EVER see.

I highly recommend this game. Is it the best RACING game out there? No. But it's not about the racing. It's about watching things blow up, going really fast, and not taking this too seriously.

Have fun and buy this game!

Great Game!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: November 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This is by far the best game in the Burnout series. I have all three. This game is great especially since EA decided to help produce this one. You get all of the special features of a big name game company (like actual songs from actual artists and online play) while still enjoying the simple fun of a small brand game. Don't get me wrong this game is very complex, but the idea is the same, do the best crashes and finish first. I know some people are complaining about the lousy soundtrack, and I partailly agree. Some of the songs are pretty good (like the ones by Jimmy Eat World and New Found Glory) but most of them are stupid garage punk rock bands that don't know the first thing about music. The other downside is that stupid Striker announcer guy. The graphics are great, but like some of the other reviewers noted, it's not the ultra-realistic gran turismo graphics, but they are still one of the better PS2 games for graphics. Oh and there is soo much more stuff to this game. 100 crash junctions, 40 levels, almost 60 cars and thats just the start of. It also comes preloaded with the Need For Speed Underground 2 demo, and it seems like a pretty good game. Overall Burnout 3 is highly addicting and fun.

Like Burnout 2... and a whole lot more!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 13 / 13
Date: August 27, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I spent over 100 hours of play time on Burnout 2. I couldn't stop trying new ideas for the crash modes. I kept trying to beat my old times on the races. Sure I'd get gold, but could I get all the races done without crashing?? It just couldn't get any better. Then comes Burnout 3. I'd been following the trailers for a while and now with the demo release.... well, the release date just can't come soon enough. I'll play my demo over and over till then. The graphics are awe-inspiring. The 'turbo' button also works as a slow-motion button during the crashes. Sparks and particle effects, broken glass, even paint flecks... it's fantastic! You'll find yourself crashing on purpose. I'm sure that the crash mode will be available again. Where it is THE goal to drive into intersections to cause as much damage as possible. I'll probably get the Xbox release version vice the PS2, but it's the same control feel of Burnout 2 that I'm familiar with. Go to the homepage and check the trailers if you want more as well. Enjoy!

Blinking need not apply

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 8
Date: September 11, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I'm a huge fan of the Burnout series. I've been playing since the original a couple years ago and I can't quite get tired of them. Some people had a problem with the first game's long levels, but I thuroughly enjoyed them, it added that much more time to make others crash. And now, in the new game, Burnout 3: Takedown, you will find the 40 or so levels to be perfect, along with everything else in the stellar title.

For one thing, the graphics, while not super realistic like Gran Turismo games, are still some of the best on the PS2. Everything is quite colorful and vivid, and you get a wonderful look at everything around you after someone has pushed you into a gaurdrail, causing you to flip around in the air while all the broken glass and flecks of paint and car part flaot around in slow motion along with you. But what makes crashing really fun, besides the awesome damage animation, is the fact that when somebody makes you wreck or you hit something and crash, you can hold a button to slow everything down, and you can actually move your crashed vehicle around to put it in the path of oncoming racers that may or may not have caused you to wreck, proceeding to cause of festival of twisted metal vengeance.

But one thing that was more noticable than anything is the artificial intelligence in the other drivers. For the first time in any racing game I actually felt bullied around, like I do when I'm playing with real people. Which is needless to say really freakin' cool. They ram you into oncoming traffic, tailgate, sideswipe, team up on you to sandwich your car, and coolest of all, they actually make realistic mistakes. They will literally misjudge a drift around a corner or get faked out by you or another car and crash. And that just blew me away.

Now, onto the thing everybody likes to talk about, the speed. Even when not using your burnout meter, your screen is still blurred around the edges as you are pushing a minimum top speed of 150-160. Without your boost. That's insane! Then, when you actually get some boost (which you can now use even when your meter isn't full) you hit speeds closer to 200 mph! And you really take your life in your hands then, because by the time you actually see that car up ahead coming right at you in the oncoming lane, you've already smashed into it with tremdous speed. Note: this is not a complaint, it's just a really cool idea pulled off superbly. Sure, you can race the entire level going mach speeds if you like, but you'll probably crash more that anybody else too. So, unless you have Elven vision, I'd just wait till you find a good clean patch of road with little to no traffic on it to really hit the gas. Or if you're a second behind somebody, and hitting them at turbo speed would mean a pretty crash for them, then by all means use it. You don't have to listen to me, just race and win your own way.

I'll wrap up by saying that I have not beat this game yet. I've put about 9 hours into it so far and still haven't unlocked a third of the games unlockables. And I haven't even touched the multiplayer yet! So my advice to you is this: If you want the best arcade racer ever created, buy this game. If you're not a racing fan, or if you don't have a PS2 or XBOX, then don't bother with this game. But if you're capable of playing this game, be prepared to let that itch on your face go until the race is over...

Graphics-5
Sound-5 (except the soundtrack is new wave punk/pop, so I just turned it off. But the in game sound effects are much better than any of that crap anyway)
Control-5
Overall-5

Best... Arcade... Racer... Ever!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 22, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I have been waiting for this game since I finished Burnout 2 several months ago. It is just awesome. The graphics are great. About on par with Gran Turismo 3. The best part about the game, though, are the crashes and the takedowms (hence "Burnout 3: Takedown"). Run your opponent into other cars or walls, and they get taken down. The game is fast! Faster than any other racer I have personally seen.

Now for the bad. I find too many times takedowns aren't happening when I believe they should have. Plus, there are too many crash games in B3. I loved the crash games from B2 and wished there were some more, but this is just ridiculous. I am so far in the game, and have been doing nothing but crashes for a few days now. I would prefer to race. Heck, since this is "Takedown," I would even do the Road Rages (where your objective is to takedown opponents in the time given without wrecking your own car). The load times are longer than the previous two games, thus the races and road rages are more rewarding than the crash games.

Corpses not included

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: September 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

EA takes over the Burnout series and does exactly what you want: make the game faster, longer, more fun, and more violent. Unfortunately, EA also insists on playing a song at EVERY menu in the game, just like they did with all of their sports games, bringing corporate synergy to a new level. You'll hear one bland rock band after another--it could all be the same band. Awful.

The game? The game is excellent. The same buttons, the same concepts, and then some. The game is much, much faster, insanely so. The crashes feature more parts flying, more paint flying, tires, ripping metal, etc, etc. And the more cars you wreck, you get a chance to blow up your own car and cause even more destruction. Nice.

They also value 'takedowns', meaning just taking out other racers (running them off the road, ramming them, causing more wrecks, etc.)

Basically, if you liked the Burnout games, this is a no brainer. Same deal, only more insane. Again, the only thing missing is the bodies flying through the windshields at 200 mph.

Fun Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 6
Date: December 02, 2004
Author: Amazon User

We rented this game just to see how good it was. My son and I argured over who's turn it was to play this, we had so much fun and some laughs too. They made this game teen rated, only to have the some foul language, nothing you don't hear on TV. But they could of made this game without it and it would have still been fun.

Burnout 3

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 8 / 11
Date: August 13, 2004
Author: Amazon User

August 12, 2004. I get my Official Playstation Magazine in the mail and with it is the monthly demo disc packed with tons of video clips, exclusives, demos, etc. When I come across "Burnout 3: Takedown" in the Demo section, I had to try it out. It was totally awesome!!! Tricks include such things as Takedowns, drifting, oncoming traffic, slamming into the sides of the road, etc. Hopefully, it will come the way of the Xbox although a PS2 release is all that is planned now. Your boost meter also multiplies(gets bigger) when you take out opposing rivals, which means more boost, which means first place!! Burnout 3 looks to be an awesome game so far, but is a lot more on the Arcade side of the gaming spectrum, so those looking for a really top notch simulator, although the game is good, probably won't appeal to this game. Overall, it's a great game and I can't wait to play the real thing!

Best racer out there...til GT4

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 10, 2004
Author: Amazon User

It's difficult to talk about Burnout 3 using words. My initial plan was to compose this review entirely out of emoticons, using a lot of D and XD and that would be the most efficient (also the most annoying) way to get across how much fun this game is to play. Even not playing Burnout 3 is more fun than playing most games; I'm sitting here trying to write while my coworker is alternating between Road Rage and Crash Mode, and let me tell you, you ought to consider the mere existence of this writeup as me doing you a favor. Such is the hypnotic power of Burnout 3. It's the rare racing game these days, in fact, that's so good that you don't have to like racing games at all to enjoy it -- I don't. If you are a racing buff, then you can derive some amusement from knowing what all the fake cars are modeled after, but that's the least fun to be had here. All that's important is that they move fast and look real nice when crashing. Actually, "real nice" isn't nearly strong praise enough to describe how good this game looks. The car models are a little lumpen, and obviously low-poly when compared to the next crop of hyper-realistic games, but Burnout 3 smokes those titles in other, cooler ways. Holding down R1 to activate slow-motion after you've taken a spill is a great way to bask in every single spark, dust cloud, and chunk of car flying around. They're all present in normal speed, too, but you'll be too busy ramming cars and trying not to be rammed to notice much. The increased offensive focus comes from the system that Burnout 3's subtitle is taken from. In past Burnout games, the way to replenish your turbo "Boost" meter was to drive recklessly -- in the wrong lane through incoming traffic, or drifting as far as possible, or catching lots of air as you went over hills. In Burnout 3, though, by far the best way to earn Boost is to take out other cars. You can nudge them from behind so that they spin off into an oncoming truck's way, or force them into the wall hard enough to flip them over -- you can even take them out during your own crashes by guiding your own flight trajectory in the slow-motion Impact Time. The Takedown system is what makes the already pretty good Burnout series amazing. The most outrageously fun mode in the game, Road Rage, revolves entirely around takedowns -- you get what amounts to an unlimited amount of Boost as you go on a crusade to takedown as many cars as you can before your own vehicle is totaled or time runs out, whichever comes first. Other modes such as 1-on-1 races and Crash mode are enhanced in various ways by the new features; guiding your flaming wreck through the air so that it manages to pick up the quadruple multiplier is an incredibly satisfying feeling, as is being secure in the knowledge that taking down the only other driver in a race, and then using that extra Boost to outdistance him even further, gives you a pretty solid lead. At least for a little while, anyway. Burnout 3 does have a couple of noticeable flaws which prevent it from reaching perfection: the rubberband AI is fixed more obviously than a Tammany Hall election, and we challenge you not to snicker when you are simultaneously told that you're "5 seconds ahead" of your foe, who is also "right on your tail." More glaringly, though, are the times when the game forgets itself and lapses into comparatively boring racing game tropes. The 1-on-1 races don't really belong in a game that rewards offensive driving this much, and the "beat the best lap time" courses are almost entirely incompatible with what makes Burnout 3 fun. But with over 170 individual events in the World Tour mode, there's so much to do that you can pretty much ignore what bores you, and once you've exhausted the single-player tour there's still a multiplayer mode, both online and off. Burnout 3 delivers the purest hit of awesome so far this year, and by way of thanking Criterion for the game I'd just like to say.

Pure speed, a complete rush!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: September 28, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I own the XBox version and my girlfriend has the PS2 version, which is what I base this review on.

The XBbox and PS2 versions are pretty much exactly the same, except for 2 things:

1) The XBox uses the analog triggers for gas & brake while the PS2 version uses the X and square buttons. Not a big deal to me, but some people might have a preference one way or another. I prefer the PS2 controller to the XBox's by far, so this is a plus for me anyway.

2) The XBox lets you rip your own music to the HD, and you can use this music in the game. Considering most of the music is kind of lame, this is a definite advantage. Not all of the music is bad, but if I have to hear "Shake that Bush Again" or "Lazy Generation" again I'm going to go postal. At least you can de-select tracks you don't want to hear.

On to my review.

One thing: SHUT THE DJ OFF AS SOON AS YOU CAN. Trust me, if you don't, you're going to be wishing you tied him to the bumper of your car. And I don't mean your car in the game.

This game is pure speed, adrenaline, and white knuckle racing taken to the extreme. I bought Burnout 2 some time ago and didn't think it could get much better than that. I loved that game for its insane speed, graphics, and especially the crashes. Crash mode in Burnout 2 was so much fun it was unreal.

Burnout 3 makes 2 look primitive by comparison. There is such a sense of extreme speed in 3 that no other game I've seen has come even close to having. This game feels dangerous. The addition of takedowns was a genius move: its added a layer of aggressive strategy that I can't imagine playing without now. I'm not going to go into detail about every little bit of the game, you can go to official magazine or website reviews for that.

There are a number of play modes to choose from, all of which are fun. The world tour mode (which is where everything is unlocked) is excellent, combining every aspect of the game into a system of increasing difficulty, but also variety. Some have complained that the crash mode levels are not all unique, with some being extentions or other minor changes, but I have to disagree. With all the additions made to crash mode, changing anything on a level changes it completely. With the ability to steer your wreck after a crash you are able to destroy more vehicles or obtain more power ups, and in fact this is often required in order to meet the requirements for the lowest of medals.

This is not a game to read about. Like intimate encounters, its all about the experience. Secondhand information is good, but its all about the experience.

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