The third installment in the Burnout series, Burnout 3 is characterized by fast-paced arcade racing. A staple of the series is the use of boost, earned through risky driving, to rapidly increase a car's speed. The central mechanic introduced is Takedowns, which allow players to slam their opponents until they crash. Takedowns work in conjunction with the boost system by filling up and extending the boost meter. Aside from standard circuit races, the game features modes focused on performing Takedowns on rival vehicles and causing monetary damage at a junction occupied with traffic. Each game variant is featured in a single-player campaign mode called World Tour, which serves as the primary method for unlocking new and faster cars. The game supports both online (which has been unfortunately shutdown 20 years later) and split-screen multiplayer. Interestingly, the development team had drafted several subtitles for Burnout 3 including Fuel Injection, Crash and Burn, Seek and Destroy, Takedown along with some more ridiculous suggestions like See You in Hell.
With much improved gameplay focusing more on aggressive and fast-paced driving, beautiful graphics at a silky smooth 60 fps, an outstanding soundtrack, and even new gameplay mechanics like Takedown, this installment in the franchise runs on the awesome RenderWare engine, which Criterion Games themselves created before sticking with EA (at that time they were owned by Canon), also used in games and countless amounts of damned shovelwares and exquisite masterpieces available for the PS2.
It introduced a new game mode called "Road Rage", which involves smashing a certain number of opponents, as well as a completely new collection of cars. In addition to this, Crash Mode has been majorly revamped. Even the tracks are fun and original, and most of them connect into one track in some conditions. Another new feature implemented into the game is Impact Time, where you can control your car in slow motion after you crash into the opponent for a takedown.
And don't forget that there's Over-boosting, which is achieved by spinning out and driving in circles. It makes your car go over its top speed, and gain some impressive lap times, albeit being hard to control.
Although this is the most major release in the franchise, along with Paradise, not all of it has been made too easy. In fact, some events are frustratingly harder to obtain gold at, such as any preview laps that you must drive the U.S. Circuit Racer, the Dockside Special Event, the Special Event Grand Prix and the Gold Medal GP. Also, most Signature Takedowns are frustrating to obtain such as Truck Torpedo, Tram Ram and Riviera Roustabout, and some trophies for takedowns are harder to obtain such as Two tram takedowns in a race, Two trailer takedowns in a race and Two Bus takedowns in a race.
DJ Stryker can be somewhat annoying in a similar extent to DJ Atomika from Paradise. What also doesn't help is that the Impact Time sounds in addition are most likely to be in a Silent Hill game or a spiritual successor of the first Postal game, because the beta version of these can be SO DAMN EERIE.
If you want to take control of one of Burnout at their very best, make it this one. EA, despite their many flaws, has raised the bar for racing and driving once again.