Genre: Arcade Racing
Developer: Criterion
Publisher: EA Games
Released On: September 7, 2004
# of Players: 1-8 (mode specific)
ERSB: Everyone
Supports: 480p, Dolby Digital
MSRP: $49.99
Also On: PS2
Website: www.burnout3.ea.com
Better Than: any other arcade racer before it
Before I get started here, let’s just get one thing out of the way. I am in no way an EA fanboy - not by any stretch of the imagination.
"...one of the best damn video games I have ever played..."
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And while some critics might write off a high scoring review of an EA game due to reviewer bias or "money hats" (though this one was technically developed by Criterion), that is just not the case here, not at all. Let’s just leave it at that. I’ll admit, I was more than a little doubtful that there was really enough room for Criterion to take it up a notch after Burnout 2 (a game I played more than my fair share of), and I will admit to letting out more than a little groan upon learning of the bullet-time crashes. But the end result is not only the best game in the series; not merely one of the best games of this generation; Burnout 3 is, simply put, one of the best damn video games I have ever played in my 20 some-odd year career as a gamer. But what makes it so good?
As in the previous versions of Burnout, the core gameplay is all about driving as fast as possible, dodging lots and lots of traffic, power sliding through turns and boosting your way to the finish line. Driving fast you say? Oh yes, quite fast. Some of the faster cars in the game go well over 200 miles per hour and they feel like it too. The sense of speed here gives even F-Zero GX a run for it’s money. The big emphasis is on the boosting - you can’t win without it - and in order to fill your boost meter you must take risks. These include near misses, driving on the wrong side of the road, sliding through turns, narrowly avoiding crashes, etc. The more risks you take, the more boost you get. Unlike the first two versions of the game, Burnout 3 is as much about racing as it is offensive driving. Ramming into your opponents, grinding and pushing against them, slamming them into guard rails and traffic - these are all ways to further fill your boost (as well as lose some of your own when your rivals return the favor). If you manage to wreck your opponents car, you have earned yourself a "takedown", and you’re treated to a cut-away slow-motion dramatic close-up of your opponents glorious wreck. And when you score a takedown, your boost meter grows in size and fills (just the opposite happens when you are taken down). Hang on, did I just say that the camera leaves the race to watch a crash? I sure did. But don’t let that fool you, it ends up working remarkably well. Using "bullet time" the camera sweeps back in no time at all, then treats you to 3 or so seconds of slow motion crash, then back to your car again. It’s about the equivalent of blinking in real time, and the game is even somewhat lenient on you when you’re back at the wheel when it comes to hitting an immediate obstacle. Also new is the way the boost system works.
"...sense of speed ... gives even F-Zero GX a run for it’s money."
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No longer do you have to wait until your meter is full, you can use boost at any time as long as you have some, enabling you to use it to power out of corners or get a quick speed boost to ram an opponent. Another major change is something called "crash aftertouch". If and when you crash your car, you will see the familiar 3rd person crash sequence seen in the first two games. However this time, holding the ’A’ button enters into yet another slow-motion mode called "impact time”, during which you can use the d-pad (or left stick) to steer the wreckage of your car into other cars, objects, etc. for big Tony Hawk style point combos, and if you happen to steer into a rival’s car, you automatically earn a takedown, which again grows your boost meter and fills it so you can speed off as fast as possible when your race resumes (these are called "aftertouch takedowns"). It’s kinda like having a mini crash game every time you wreck, and considering how often that happens, it’s a welcome addition. And with the new emphasis on offensive driving, expect the computer A.I. to be very aggressive. They don’t want to simply pass you, they want you to be a stain on the road. The word "ruthless" comes to mind.
Okay, we’ve gone over the main differences in Burnout 3. Let’s talk about the game itself. Burnout 2 fans will remember how that game was pretty linear in terms of progression. Enter ’World Tour’ mode. Spanning 3 continents and more than 173 separate events (100 of which are crash challenges - yikes!), Burnout 3 lets you jump around on a map from location to location entering whichever events are currently unlocked to you, earning medals and point totals that ultimately will yield unlockable goodies. Completing an event will unlock one or two new events, so you can choose which branching direction you want to go in from there. Events include:
Preview Lap: One lap around a track. Try to beat the target times to earn medals.
Face Off: 1 on 1 against a rival car; beat him and the car is yours to keep.
Race: You versus 5 rivals in a no-holds-barred fight to the finish.
Road Rage: Try to earn a specified number of takedowns in 3 minutes without taking enough damage to damage out of the race; unlimited supply of rival cars.
Eliminator: Race against 5 competitors; last place is eliminated each lap until only one remains.
Special Events: Generally they let you drive a car in a class you have not unlocked yet one lap around a track, similar to ’Preview Lap’.
Grand Prix: A series of races earning you points for your position, tallied up to determine the winner at the end of the GP.
Crash: Cause the largest wreck possible at a given intersection. Damage is tallied up and compared to target dollar amounts for medals.
At the end of a race, the number of takedowns and total number of race points (style, crash points, etc) are tallied up. Reaching certain thresholds will help you unlock new cars; a total of 67 unlicensed, original creations . New this time around is the way the ‘Crash Mode’ is integrated into the main single player experience. No longer a separate beast of it’s own, you will find crash events dotted along the map along side the regular race events, and they too have changed quite a bit since Burnout 2. Not only are you given the ability to use crash aftertouch to steer your wreckage (and of course impact time), there are now various cash prize icons and point multipliers littered throughout the crash sites to help you pad your score. Also new is the "crash breaker" that allows you to destroy your car’s wreckage in a grand and fiery explosion at the press of the ’B’ button - that is, if you are able to get 8 cars to wreck (not hard to do) or manage to snag a crash breaker icon. Crash breakers can yield you some big points, or simply give you a means to fly your heap into a nearby bonus icon. In addition to the World Tour mode, you can practice each event in ’Single Event’ mode, play split screen with a friend in ’Multiplayer’ mode, even play with up to 7 friends in ’Crash Party’ mode. To make a long story short, there is enough here to keep you busy for a long, long time, with an easy enough learning curve for novice gamers and enough depth to keep the hardcore thoroughly challenged.
As if the game couldn’t get any better, EA has given Criterion the green light to make Burnout 3 a full-fledged online game. Unfortunately, this is where something gets seriously lost in the translation, as the online game isn’t quite as fun as the offline game. Maybe it’s the fact that the bullet time and slow motion crashes were removed (for obvious reasons); maybe it’s the 6-player limit for racing games; maybe it’s the irritating bugs that the game shipped with (can’t hear some players speaking some of the time, dropped games, inability to send player invites some of the time). I give credit to Criterion for being able to keep the game’s traffic completely intact for the online game, something certain other city racers weren’t able to do in the past (cough MM3 cough), but what sounded like a party waiting to happen in my head turned out to be the source of a lot of frustration, and consequently the reason for hearing a lot of four letter words in my headset. The traffic makes for a lot of random crashes and almost throws out the competitive nature of the racing aspect entirely. And crash mode aside, there are really only two race modes: ‘Race’ and ‘Road Rage’, which is transformed into a team game for online play where the blue team makes a mad dash for the finish line while the red team tries to make sure they don’t make it there. It’s definitely not a bad online game (sans the bugs which will hopefully be fixed soon), it’s just that there are better Xbox Live games out there to play instead.
Graphically speaking, Burnout 3 is gorgeous. Criterion’s Renderware has gone from the "little engine that could" to a force to be reckoned with, easily comparable with Sega’s highly acclaimed Outrun 2, and with draw distance I would have never imagined possible a few years back. The car models are only average when you get up close an personal in the garage but in the game they look great, as do the generous spoonfuls of motion blur, flying debris and sparks. There’s so much eye candy going on that I made an appointment to see the eye dentist. Top it off with a rock solid 60 frames per second frame-rate (it dips slightly in split-screen) and you have one damn beautiful game.
"...so much eye candy going on that I made an appointment to see the eye dentist."
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The sound effects are nearly just as good, with gut wrenching crash sounds and appropriate engine noises. I would have liked to have had more emphasis on the tire squealing sounds personally, as well as louder rival engine sounds so I could hear them before they pass me. Otherwise it’s pretty typical of what you would expect. The music though, that’s another story. Sadly the dynamic soundtracks of Burnout 2 are missing this time around; you no longer hear the music distort and amplify when you’re boosting. Instead, the soundtrack consists of 44 licensed tracks, primarily punk, punk, alt rock and more punk, with bands such as Pennywise, The Von Bondies, Yellowcard, Jimmy Eat World and even a Ramones track. Unlike other extreme sports titles (if you can call this one; I’m going to), there aren’t any hip-hop tracks to balance it out, and I personally find that punk rock doesn’t represent the spirit of the game despite what EA’s focus group might have told them would appeal to the target audience. Lucky for me EA has finally allowed for custom soundtracks, so I can rock out to my trance music while I crash out my competitors. A minor annoyance though, your current soundtrack settings aren’t saved along with your profile, so every time you load up the game you have to switch it back again. But hey, if that’s what I have to put up with in order to have custom soundtracks in my EA games, then so be it.
Perhaps words cannot convey the excitement and energy produced when playing this game. Burnout 3 is the kind of game you sacrifice going to the bathroom for just to play one more race - just one more race. No, I mean it this time - just one more! With so many single player events, unlockable secrets, multiplayer modes and online gameplay, it’s nearly enough to make your head spin. And while the multiplayer experience might have fallen short of my expectations, the single player game is just too damn fun and exciting for any gamer to pass up. I simply cannot wait to see what Criterion does next with the Burnout franchise. If you are even remotely interested in racing games, exciting action games, or hell – just a fan of video games in general, at the very least give Burnout 3 a rent. You will be glad you did.
