It has fast cars, intense tracks, and probably the most realistic crashes I’ve ever seen in a video game. Burnout 3 is like a demolition derby thrown into race from. You can tell the game has a lot to offer just by reading the back of the case: forty racetracks, seventeen game modes and sixty-seven cars. What more could you ask for? The game shows a great deal of detail on the cars when they crash. Although it is a racing game, anyone that has played either of the first two Burnouts knows that it’s really all about the destruction.
The game offers some crazy mini games to rack up quick points to unlock more vehicles of chaos. One of them is called Road Rage, and the only goal here is to mess it all up. Run your opponents off the road, scoring takedown points to unlock new events and new cars. The only catch is will your car stay together long enough to do enough damage? Though this doesn’t tend to be something to worry about. Your car selection, after unlocking some secrets, is wide and awesome-ranging from compact coupes to prototype sports cars, even a passenger bus. There are over sixty-seven cars; you’ll never run out of the fun. Only two things really matter, weight and speed. So if you want to be an unstoppable force, then pack on the weight, but if you want to stay ahead of the gang, bring on the speed.
The graphics in the game are great. You get three different areas of the world to race in: United States, Europe and what they call the Far East. It’s really hard to take in all of the details, like the very large Tiger Woods Golf ad that they put in on one of the racetracks. Its almost impossible when your zipping and weaving in and out of cars at around one hundred and sixty something mph. Diffidently take a look at the surrounding environment, it’s not too shabby at all. The tracks range from back road racing, down through a homegrown downtown, to a high scale highway tearing off through the busy streets of a mass city.
The game offers a lot of cool features that I was impressed with. One is called “After Touch.” This is cool because even though you might have totaled your car, you still get a chance to steer the wreckage into your opponents to score extra points. This is impressive because it puts everything in slow motion, so you really get the damage going. Another feature, although this may be lame to most, is you can have a custom soundtrack, so if your not digging the music, it can be changed with the click of a button. I normal wouldn’t be impressed with this, but the game has an awesome range of music, featuring bands like Finger Eleven, My Chemical Romance, New Found Glory and much more.
The game also offers a lot of multiplayer capabilities, although most are for online play. You can still go head to head with a friend, either one on one or with some computer opponents to mix things up. This isn’t a bad game for a get-together, because it’s not all about the racing. One of the multiplayer games featured in the single player mode is called Crash Event. The point is to pick up as many bonus icons as you can before ramming your car full tilt into oncoming traffic, trying to cause the highest amount of financial damage. Now the amounts they give for destroying some things may seem kind of crazy, but when you think about it, it actually works out. I’m not much of a race game fan, as the game play is usually so short, but you can surely get a long lasting game out of Burnout 3.
Reviewed on: X-BoxPlatform: PS2 and X-BoxGenre: RacingRating: 8 out of 10
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