The Burnout series has always been about one thing: pushing your limits
while driving in traffic with your engine spitting out nitro. This time
around, it's about making your opponents crash. When you for example
push an opponent to the front of a bus, "BUS TAKEDOWN" will pop up on
your screen while you see your opponents car being smashed in
slow-motion. However the camera will for a couple of seconds not
concentrate on your car, but your opponents car. If you were to crash
in a wall before the camera switched angle, your car would just park
with its nose against the wall. This can also happen if you were
heading straight to the front of a vehicle. But if you were going fast
enough, the vehicle would take off on your hood as if you were a moving
ramp. This is incredibly cool and definitely makes you feel extremely
lucky.
But if you do crash, you can pull of a trick called "aftertouch". This
means that you can steer your car in slow-motion by using your
remaining nitro. If you then make an opponent crash into you, you've
done an "Aftertouch Takedown". This can also save the section of nitro
you'll normally lose, while adding to your total takedowns.
Your amount of nitro is increased by driving like an idiot. Driving in
oncoming traffic, drifting, near-misses (barely dodging traffic) and
tailing (drafting) are some of the things you can do to add nitro. When
you do a takedown, your Nito "meters" limit of Nitro is doubled while
filling it completely. You can continue this till it's 4 times the size
you started with. When you crash you lose the last section of Nitro you
gained(from 4x to 3x, 3x to 2x or 2x to 1x).
Being lucky is another thing. It's the main aspect of the game. how you
can dodge several big vehicles while drifting in an corner, for
example, or managing to press your car under a huge semi-trailer while
crossing a junction because an opponent crashed in it before you so the
semi-trailer lifted a couple of centimeters above ground. Stuff like
that...
Another thing is the "Signature Takedowns". This is a normal takedown,
but you must do it in a special way. If you send an opponent flying
near luxury boats in the Vineyard, you'll get an Signature Takedown
called "Berth Trauma". There's 20 Signature Takedowns in the game, and
by doing all of these you'll unlock an NASCAR-looking car.
There's a total of 67 cars in the game. These are divided into
different series. You'll start off with a Compact car. As you progress
in the game you'll unlock more Compact cars and eventually unlock the
next series. This continues until you've unlocked the Super cars and
some of the Special cars. The special cars are cars that don't fit in a
series. Two of these are taken from Burnout 2, three are F1
racers(although one has different design). and then there's the
NASCAR-looking car. There's another series, but it's only for Crash
events.
Crash events are even more crazy and fun then in Burnout and Burnout 2.
In Burnout 3 there's several symbols you can collect. These range from
Instant Boost to 2x Multiplier to Heartbreaker (your score is cut in
half) to 4x Multiplier. Head into traffic and cause as much damage you
can. Yet another thing is the "Chrashbreaker". When enough vehicles are
impacted in the Crash, an single button will make a bomb go of in your
car, causing damage to vehicles around you. The Crashbreaker is also an
collectable symbol. There's a massive 100 Crash events in the game.
Causing enough damage unlocks cars in the Heavyweight series. These
cars range from a 4x4 to the extreme Fire Truck, which can be obtained
by winning all the 10 headlines. Headlines are won by getting a such a
massive score that you get on the frontpage in the local newspaper.
The coolest mode in Burnout 3 is the Road Rage mode. It's not about
coming first, but about doing as many Takedowns you can until your car
can't continue anymore. Your opponents boost when you boost, and do
there best to stay close to you.
The Live functions are great and all you need for a good experience.
The worst thing about the game is the standard soundtrack. Although the
Xbox version has Custom Soundtracks, the rest have no other choice but
to like the punk music. Unless you like that kind of music,
multiplatformers should choose the Xbox version.
The game is great for anyone who want instant fun, or a challenge for
those who want to complete the game. It's not as easy as it sounds, but
you can always take a brake and have fun in a Single Race. Racing games
that claims to be fun, will have trouble beating this racer.
