A couple Thanksgivings ago, I had probably my most enjoyable "impulse rental" ever. What I initially expected would be a game I'd pop in as an afterthought, and get a review out of ended up being a game my friends and I were clamoring for control over for the next 5 hours. Burnout 2: Point of Impact was one of my surprise picks of the year, and ever since playing the demo, I've been waiting to get behind the wheel of the full Burnout 3: Takedown experience. So, with no further ado, (I think we could all do with a little less "ado") let's step on the gas, and see what this baby's got.
Modes
There are a ton of different race variations, but basically, it all boils to 3 that are distinct; Race, Road Rage, and Crash.
Race
This is basically your standard race. You'll be going up against either 1 rival, or 5 rivals, and you're simply trying to cross the finish line first. However, if a car happens to cross your path, most of the time you're going so fast that you can't possibly avoid him in time, and you have no choice but to ram him into a tanker, creating a fiery ball that’s visible from space. You feel bad for the guy, but don't worry...he comes back...and your Boost Gauge fills up. This is most effective way to replenish your Boost, so always be on the lookout for potential targets.
Variations of the race in Burnout 3 include Burning Lap (Time Trial), Eliminator (Last place after each lap is dropped.), GP (Circuit of races), and the Face-Off (1 on 1). Completing goals in the races earns your Burnout points, and these are used to unlock some of the event areas, and tons and tons of generic looking, 3-color variation vehicles in the game. You can also achieve Takedown Targets by performing Signature Takedowns, or just meeting the goals found in the "Driver Display" area.
Road Rage
Road Rage is race deathmatch. Your car can take a certain number of hits (the only time damage stays persistent in the racing) and so can everyone else's car. Your object is to be the guy that dishes out the most takedowns before his car gets blow'd up, or before time expires. This is a pretty fun mode: one that I could see only existing in a game like this.
Crash Mode
Crash Mode was introduced to Burnout fans in the last incarnation and in my opinion, it was the biggest reason to be playing the game. This time around, they've tweaked it a little bit, adding coin tokens to pick up to boost your score, as well as score multipliers. The multipliers lamely overlap each other, so managing to pickup both the x2 and x4 doesn't net you a x8, but rather just a x4. The 1/2 will take priority over either of those, which I suppose is fair. You're also given a “Crashbreaker” to use after X number of collisions occur; think of it as a "suicide bomb" strapped to your car. You detonate it, and you can use it to create extra havoc. Even more, you're able to control your car a bit while in mid crash to determine when it ends up. This is called Aftertouch: just in case you collided at an angle you didn't quite want, you can use Aftertouch to guide the car into further accidents.
Also new to Burnout 3: Takedown is the fact that stuff now explodes: hit a tanker hard enough, and FOOM! Devastation. If you do enough damage to your car, you'll explode, but you're always exploding with the Crashbreaker. I take credit for this improvement, since it was one of my beefs about Burnout 2. (Why call a game "Burnout" and not have explosions?)
Once again, the controls feel really nice for the game, and are very responsive. I'd like some better camera control in the replay and in Impact Mode when you're trying to apply Aftertouch, but that's the way it is, I guess.
Graphics
Burnout 3: Takedown is visually stunning and runs at a high frame rate. Once again, the cars are generic nobodies, and the crashes are what the game's all about. Crashing looks just that much nicer, and the Takedown camera just allows you rub the devastation into your victim's face that much more.
Some of the crash modeling is a bit weird, you'll never see a car compact past a certain point, and the generic cars don't look right in some areas. However, unless you're really hung up on that kind of thing it's not going to detract from the enjoyment of the game too much.
Audio
This is where EA comes in and mucks everything up. I commended Burnout 2 for its lack of licensed music, because the majority of tracks the game maker can get a hold of are usually no-name bands that blow, and aren't something you want to drive to. So EA comes and buys out Criterion and then what do we see in Burnout 3? Licensed no-name crap music. How am I supposed to get amped for driving while listening to Franz Ferdinand? I mean, I am the Kaiser and all, but that doesn't mean I want to be listening to the dead Archduke as I'm trying to barrel around the course. Most of the other music is just painful, and even tracks by some of the bands I found tolerable in SSX 3 are intolerable. The Jimmy Eat World track is good, but not driving music. The same can be said for the one by Go Bonny Go. Also, I'd rather not be listening to the Ramones after Johnny Ramone just passed away, but you can hardly blame EA for that. Within an hour of play I cut all but 8 tracks from the in-race playlist. (because in another lame EA-style move, you can't shut them off completely.) Games with awful soundtracks like this almost make me want to pick up an XBox. (Except I dislocated my shoulder and there's no way I could deadlift that much weight anymore! Ha! ZING!)
The one low point about the audio in EA games is usually the "DJ". Take for example, Joe the Show from NBA Street. I turned that guy off after 2 games. So, EA got smart and hired someone cool...Stryker from The World Famous 106.7 KROQ FM here in California. (If you don't like him, just be thankful EA didn't decide to go with Jed the Fish instead.) He's good up until you've heard all his quips, and that's not his fault at all. Maybe EA should get him back in the studio and release a new audio clip pack you can download online.
Gripes
EA, you've got all the money in the world to license out Local H, Autopilot Off, and the aforementioned dead Archduke, but you can't get real cars in this game? Psh. Color me unimpressed. The generic cars were something I was irked about in the last game, and now it's just tired. This is especially noticeable when you get to unlock 10 or so different varieties of "coupe", "muscle" etc. If you're not going to give us real cars, at the very, very least, take the time to come up with some different names for the cars. I know all the horrors of the American educational system (I work with people who can't find their "Start" button in Windows 5 days a week), but I think even THEY are smart enough to know that if they're in the "Coupe" section of their car list, that all the cars listed there are classified as Coupes. Why the need to include it in the name?
EA also ran out of creativity with their race loading screens. "Have you tried getting Gold?" No, I hadn't! I was just setting my expectations low until now, but since you mentioned it, why don't I give it a shot? I'm surprised I didn't find, "Have you tried converting Oxygen to Carbon Dioxide?" Things like this really piss me off because they're such simple, easy things to do. They have the lowest possibility of causing a bad compile, and hence, not putting any effort into it shows that you basically didn't care.
Next on my list is Crash Mode. With the multipliers and the coins, the mode is WAY too easy. The Crashbreaker and the Aftertouch only simplify it more. I much preferred the Crash Mode in Burnout 2. I'd also like to see the passerby cars take some realistic damage too. Aside from dislodging freight and busting the tanker, the worst that happens to any other car is it loses tires and breaks windows. Not cool. That was the most enjoyable part of Burnout 2 for me, and now I find myself looking forward to the race modes more than anything else.
That doesn't mean the race modes aren't without their share of problems, though. There's nothing more annoying than being in a 1-on-1 race and encounter the annoying rubberbanding problem. This occurs when you blow by someone, put him into a pillar, and then 3 seconds later when you hit a checkpoint, he's on your rear bumper trying to push you into a wall. I know you want to keep the game interesting, but this isn't the way. Let the player have his blowout victory.
Overall
If your first Takedown doesn't get your blood pumping, then find a job as a bomb squad technician or try and get a spot on the Olympic Air Rifle team, because apparently nothing affects you. Critics of video games are always claiming that the rush from video games just leads people into trying out the same actions in real life. Well, the rush from Burnout 3 is greater than the rush you'll feel from nearly any other game, and you don't see kids propelling their car through red lights trying to blow up gas tankers now, do you?
The feeling of speed is depicted better in Burnout 3 than in any other racing game I've ever played, and that combined with the takedowns makes it my favorite racing game of all time. If Crash Mode weren't so neutered this time around, I would love the Team Crush modes and all, but I'm just not feeling it as much as I was last time around. I'd also like to see building damage next game, and the ability to get the car underwater.
If you're going to race against friends, online or off, Burnout 3 is a must-have game. If you don't plan on doing that, or don't like the crashes for whatever reason, then it's just a rental. Now if you'll excuse me, I have some guys in Europe that are going to be in need of some body work after I’m through with them.
