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Review: Burnout 3 - Takedown
- Title: Burnout 3: Takedown
- Developer: Criterion Games
- Publisher: Electronic Arts
- System: Xbox
- Reviewer: Zonk
- Score: 9/10
Let me say something straight off: I don't play racing games. I don't play sports titles in general. My enjoyment of Burnout 3: Takedown stems from the fact that it is only a racing game in the loosest sense of the term. What Criterion has done with this title is to make racing incidental to the purpose of the game. The purpose of Burnout 3 is twofold: Go Fast and Hit Stuff.
Burnout's premise is that in racing "Risk = Reward", a catch phrase the radio-style announcer repeats often. The reward in this case is Boost, the game's consumable go-fast juice that increases your rate of travel from merely jaw dropping to truly ludicrous speeds. You obtain Boost by taking risks such as driving on the wrong side of the road, initiating near-misses with other vehicles, catching air, and skidding around corners. The primary way that you obtain Boost, and the way you increase the capacity of the Boost-meter, is through Takedowns.
Takedowns are awarded when you take out another vehicle in a race. This can be accomplished in numerous ways, from grinding another car into a wall to tail-gating him into crashing (called a "Psyche Out"). These Takedowns fill and expand your Boost meter, allowing you to go faster and more effectively crash other vehicles. This leads to an amusing cycle of destruction that makes even a simple race through the Italian wine country into a Mad-Maxian experience. When you are taken out (or kiss that oncoming pillar) you're penalized some Boost, but the game rewards you for impressive flips and slides. Holding the Boost button post-crash allows you to view your explosive re-entry in Impact Time, a bullet-time-like slow-mo. Impact Time can even net you more Takedowns, called Aftertouches, as you direct your flaming heap into fellow racers. A Tony Hawk style breakdown of your crash ("Into Truck + Triple Somersault + 350' Sidewall Slide") can also net you some boost to refill your meter once you're done crashing.
The key is that Takedowns and being taken out, rather than things to be avoided, are the core of the game. Great looking damage is applied to the (non-licensed) vehicle models, with shattering windshields and flying debris the norm for any given race. Unlike some racing games where a vehicle can be thrown off of a cliff without suffering a scratch at the speeds you move in Burnout 3 you can twitch wrong and blow apart your vehicle on a fencepost. The sense of movement and danger is conveyed through excellent graphics and extremely responsive controls.
The overall mood of the game is accentuated by the music selection. Like many sports games they've done lately EA has opted to include a selection of name-brand music with their title, allowing you to race to bands such as The Ramones, Jimmy Eat World, and Ash.
Beyond the basic building blocks of the game, Criterion provides you with a panoply of cars, tracks, and things to run into. Events are spread out over three areas: the US, Europe, and the Far East. Within these areas are several themed courses which allow you to experience high speeds in places such as the California coast, downtown Chicago, downtown Rome, and a busy Hong Kong street-maze.
I say events because straightforward races are just one of the activities you can find yourself completing in Burnout 3. Road Rage pits you against other cars in a challenge to take out as many opponents as you can in an allotted time. Timed laps force you to traverse a course under a certain time to prove yourself worthy the gold, silver, or bronze. And then, most deliciously, there is Crash Mode.
Crash Mode is the stand out event type in the game as well as being the most straightforward. You start at the beginning of a course, rev up to speed, and throw your vehicle into traffic. Your goal is to cause as much destruction as possible and rack up as much damage as you can in dollar amount form. Spinning coin icons add to your totals and icons representing cash amount multipliers float in challenging positions on the course. These add a strategy element into the wanton destruction of all you see before you. This is accentuated again by Impact Time, which allows you to savor the metal crunching results of your careful planning and permits you to guide your vehicle through the air.
A Hong Kong based track was host to a particularly memorable crash for me. After the countdown I sped out of the start, laying down rubber behind me. Looking ahead I saw the Boost icon coming up quickly. In Crash Mode there are icons that instantly fill your Boost Bar and as I sped through it my speedometer leapt from 115 up into the 160+ range. Other racing games say you're going that fast, but the presentation of Burnout 3 really reinforces the awesome speeds at which your vehicle goes. Boosting hard I aimed directly at the small ramp they'd thoughtfully provided just before the busy intersection I was heading towards. I launched off of the ramp and Impact Time took over, allowing me to see the huge tanker truck plowing through the intersection at high speed. The small coupe I was driving entered the tank of the truck just behind the cab from above in a fiery conflagration that shook the room. Impact Time quit and the now burning and blackened coupe flew upside down through the air into a pillar, taking out a pair of the tiny TukTuk cars so common in this area. As my coupe landed the camera pulls back to reveal the devastation in the intersection, where the tanker explosion has ripped open the frames of several small cars and caused a few others to slide over into the oncoming lane. Another truck, this one with a long trailer laden with boxes, slams hard into the wreckage and adds flying cargo to the confusing pile. At that point the camera swings back to my already burning wreck and informs me that if I hit the B button I'll be able to use the Crashbreaker. After a certain number of wrecks are accumulated in a Crash Mode session, you're allowed to effectively detonate your vehicle to add more burning metal to the experience. This explosion also allows a second go at Impact Time and can be the key to hitting out of the way points icons. Always willing to destroy things, I hit B and with an explosive *wham* my vehicle goes from a burning cinder to a rapidly expanding vapor cloud. The largest chunk is the one I have control of and I guide it through the air with my control stick directly into a score multiplier icon, netting me a huge amount of cash.
Moments like these accumulate more lasting rewards as the game plies you with an endless string of medals, trophies, new cars, and (most amusingly) headlines in the newspaper. You can specifically go for these rewards but I found during the course of play that cool things(tm) would just organically happen, netting me accolades as a byproduct to my fun.
Beyond this rich tapestry of single player speed hedonism, the game is fully Xbox Live compatible. Though there aren't hundreds of games available like you'd find with Halo 2 there are still plenty of Burnout 3 players to be found on the service. Online games come in many different flavors, from straight matches to series of races, time trials, crash contests, and battle races where one team tries to take out the other team before they reach the finish line. The Xbox Live service does the game full justice with very little lag and extremely tight response.
The only complaint that I can offer up is that the game is extremely to the point. There isn't a create your own racer mode or any building features for the vehicles you're offered. It's a small thing, though, as Burnout does what it does very very well. I highly recommend this game to speed lovers, Hot Wheels aficionados, and anyone who has found themselves on a go-kart track saying "Maybe I'll give him just a tap."
Screenshots are from EA's official Burnout 3 site, ©2005 Electronic Arts Inc.
This is Slashdot 2005. Who would've thought it'd drop so low?
...doesnt the takedown happen after it's been posted to the P2P networks? Isn't this a bit preemptive actually putting it in the title? Do you get one free lawsuit with every copy?
Beep beep.
...are one of the best features of this game.
one time i had a fever and the only prescription was more burnout 3 - takedown......
... Playing if for a few months, great game, low morality, big fun ...
where have i been? is there a new slashdot editor?
...was ever made. Get Burnout 2, get used to that, play Burnout 3 and have a bloody good time of it. My friend purchased a PS2 purely for this game!!! LOL
I made those sounds with your Hot Sister (TM) :)
NO SIG
Reverse the Flow
-anonymous (feel free to copy, steal, add to any and all parts)
This morning Donald Beardslee was murdered by lethal injection by the state of California. Lethal injection has become a form of ritual used by the state to remind the population that it is only the state who may control death. Donald Beardslee was used as a reminder that the state has control over us. However, government is limited in how it is able to enforce its control. It is very rare when the state can actually force us to do something. Instead psychological means must be used; mainly fear. Fear of punishment. Fear of being imprisoned or murdered. This fear of punishment is the reason we pay attention to the law at all. This fear is what allows to government to hold influence and control over our lives.
The purpose of the state is to allow a certain group to keep control over all others; control over consumption, control over production, control over life and death. This control is rarely pure. We almost always have choices. For example, we all have some limited amount of choice as to which boss is going to exploit our labor. The state almost never destroys our ability to chose. Instead it creates a very limited, controlled set of choices. By allowing us this limited spectrum of choice the state attempts to mask its nature.
Likewise, with the death penalty the state is attempting to mask its own nature. In hopes of appearing just and good natured, the state attempts to create a less-painful form of death. Those who are to be murdered by the state receive a last meal, clean clothes, etc. This is all done in an attempt to make the murder seem more humane. The state attempts to convince us that the death penalty is not murder, but justice. Those receiving this justice are treated as well as possible.
This, is all done to allow the state to claim that there is no other option. Once all the appeals have been rejected, there is nothing the government can do but murder. As in all other cases of state control, it is not the fault of the government, that's just the way things are. The state will claim it does not want to murder, but someone must punish those who commit crimes.
The government does not care about Beardslee. The individual is not important in this case. What is important is keeping a monopoly on state control. It is imperative to the state to keep acts of murder flowing in one direction. From the state to the population. the state must be able to end the lives the individuals, but individuals must not be allowed t threaten the state. Those who are not a part of the state, who are not murdering on behalf of the state are a threat to the monopoly because they might revers the flow of murder. Those individuals who commit murder against other individuals are only a worry because they may turn their actions on the state. Beardslee committed murder. Again the state creates an illusion of caring about justice for those who were killed. The state does not care about justice. Its goal is to create fear in the hearts of those who may otherwise take up arms against the state; those who may revers th flow of murder.
We who stand against the state must not allow the government to hold a monopoly over our lives and over our deaths. Let us, in fact, take power over the life and death of the state. The idea of eliminating the monopolies which the state holds brings fear to the powerful. So much effort is being taken to ensure the safety of George Walker Bush during the inauguration. It is the reversal of control that those in power are afraid of. It is not the control of the state that we seek, it is the power to destroy the state.
To eliminate the state, we must assault the monopolies it attempts to hold. We must attack the state anytime it attempts to create fear or control over us. Abolishing the death penalty will most certainly not rid us of the state. Government has other ways, and will create other ways to hold onto its control over the population. But for every reform which creates a limit on state power, which slows the control over one aspect of our lives (or in this case deaths), we are one step closer towards freedom.
Translation: Focusing on driving excellence and solutions to further enhance home entertainment.
nnnyeeeeooowwwwmmmmm ffsssshhhhhtttt eeeeerrrrk!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
This is what makes front page news these days?
Man, anyone who gets a submission rejected today ought to feel pretty good.
The Willy on Wheels is a much better game. Its a Willy, on Wheels! It can penetrate at over 200 km/h!
Willy on Wheels!
Willy on Wheels!
Willy on Wheels!
Willy on Wheels!
Oh yeah fuck Fvw, Lupo, David Gerald, RickK and Rdsmith4.
You know, the guys that talk in-game and go "I'm da shiznit!. Yo dawg, theres some noobs I donno where but easy pickin! AIIIIIIGHT".
If none, then it's a good sign.
I know this is going to get modded down, but it has to be said. I'm all for more articles, but this isn't a very good review. I hope the rest of the year doesn't lead to more of these "reviews". The only thing worse is the April Fools "jokes" on this site. By the way, this game came out ages ago and you can find reviews all over the place.
Say, has anyone ever tried Gatorade? Slashdot should do a review!
Maybe we could hear about the latest X-BOX titles too.
Boycott RIAA/Sony/etc, but make sure to buy their latest game!
this sig limit is too small to put anything good h
WTF? This is news worthy?
MMORPG's and Burnout and FPS's??? That's all we're left with?
Darn it - I want a new x-com or MOO or MOO2 (and not that abortion MOO3 either)
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
you should be wurking not playing games!!!
Soundproofing Acoustics noise
Am I the only one who thinks that a 4-month old game doesn't warrant a front page review? Maybe in the Games subsection, but honestly now.
Stuff.
G4 didn't buy out slashdot too did they?!!!
I've been driving like that for years and I'd never even heard of "Boost."
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Cant go to sleep before 1AM most nights, my old ladie is asleep by 11am so it makes sex impossible, the speed and feeling you get from this game is impressive... it consume me... help !
The game is a TON of fun, I loved it.
Admittedly, it gets a little hard at times, I wish there were ways I could just skip a certain point (or points) and progress and come back them later. It's all a checkpoint system, where if I beat certain maps then others are unlocked.
Especially cool is the way the graphics blur when you hit turbo. The soundtrack gets old, the announcer is boring and very irratating. I still haven't figured out how to get the custom soundtracks working...perhaps someone could enlighten me.
This game will almost certainly have you hooked for weeks or more.
This game is fantastic. Since I got it my profile tells me I have wasted 165 hours of it and only got through 75% of the game.
The best part is the party crash mode where up to 8 people can pass a controller around and try to create the biggest pileups possible.
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this post is too small to contain.
No offense to anyone, but I don't think game reviews should be one of the 24 daily stories posted on slashdot.
*DrugCheese rants*
This is current, bleeding edge technology information that I love to navigate to Slashdot's main page for...
NOT!
Puh-leeze!
D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
This game is really fun. To me this is what console gaming is all about. Fast, great looking arcade action. Add in the great infrastructure of Live with a bunch of good players and you can't beat it.
Too bad the masses of Live have probably moved on. You'll find with many of the online console games that when two or three newer Live games hit people move to them. So, if you get an older (6 months) Live game you may have trouble getting bigger games going.
who made "psshhhh-kapoooo!" noises with your Hot Wheels
I played with Hot Wheels when I was a kid, and made lots of noises, but "psshhhh-kapoooo!" was not one of them. What the hell is that supposed to represent, anyway?
Also, what I enjoy about it is that it makes a good party game as well. Short moments of excitement, ability to take a break any time you want, and a good rhythm for handing off (after ever crash for example) make this a much needed addition to the PS2's party game lineup. Of course, its also fun to play by yourself, or while drunk or stoned, or all four..err.....three.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I really enjoyed the first two Burnout titles, but I'm sorry to say that while I'm sure that Burnout 3 is a fine title, it is also an EA-published title, and I won't be buying it for this reason.
All those people who decry the inhuman working conditions at EA, it's time to put your money where your mouth is. Stop rewarding their deplorable labor practices with your dollars.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
Hmmm, if I would be interested in the latest games, I would go to my selected gaming site. But this is far below the intended content of Slashdot imvho.
This is a replacement signature.
You'd think a game with a name like "Burnout" would have more pot-smoking-friendly game-play.
-Peter
"a four year old who made "psshhhh-kapoooo!" noises with your Hot Wheels..."
HotWheels? Bah! Everyone knows that MatchBox cars were better. I guess I wouldn't like this game.
Alex, I'll take keybindings not used by Emacs for $400....
Crashing for points sounds and looks cool. I saw them have a couple people play against each other on G4 (yes I'm ashamed I watched it). It would be fun for a little bit like the "push the man down the stairs" game for the PC, but would eventually get boring. Personally I'm really into Need For Speed Underground 2 right now. I think its the ability to customize your car with something new after every couple races. Plus its fun applying those enhancements to the other cars they have in there and. Just trying to see what little thing you'll get access to motivates you to want to complete the races. I'm still into it after two weeks of playing it - which is rare for me.
I'm a gamer, and even I think this is ridiculous as a frontpage /. story. I think there are a couple of games that *might* squeeze into acceptability for the majority of readers, such as the KoTOR games, but Burnout?! It's an awesome game that just about anyone can get into - but it's just not /. material.
/. is the sort of place where people boycott companies like EA.
Also, it's published by EA.
The first time I played this game was over thanksgiving week. My cousin made a point of getting me to play this game on the PS2. He did me a great favor by bringing this game to my attention.
Immediately after returning home from my trip, I ran to target and bought the game. My girlfriend was playing it within minutes and has been hooked since. Its really the greatest driving game ever made. The sense of speed is awesome, the scale of some of the wrecks is just amazing and the replay value is outstanding. Nice graphics and smooth controls made this the "must have game" of late 2004. I am happy to have played it, and I am even happier to have shared it.
The soundtrack and ultra cool dj for this game makes me want to crash a real car. However, if you play with the volume down and make your own sound effects, its a lot of fun to play.
Gotham racing has been out forever on Xbox no less. It has the same basic premise. Power slides, air time, clean sections all provide extra points. Some "missions" require that you reach a certain point level rather than pass cars or beat a certain time.
My thumbs and forefingers were so sore from this game that I needed to take tylenol. It is just amazingly addictive. The multiplayer part is very well done, and there's *zero* learning curve.
I don't know why so many reviews I've read say it's for the Xbox and not the PS2. It's equally as great on the PS2 and the online play is free no less. What the hell?
It's a great game none the less.
Looks like Gran Turismo, plays like Mario Kart on lots and lots of amphetamines.
I don't need a compass to tell me which way the wind shines.
Has anyone played all 3 burnout games? I saw Burnout 2 at a LAN party on a 15 foot projection and was totally drawn to it. I recently got a gamecube and just realized that burnout 3 isnt on that platform yet. I can pick up a copy of 1 or 2 for cheap so I'm wondering if there is any major differences, or is it simply better graphics and more maps?
I'll probably go out and pickup a copy of burnout 2 today. Thanks.
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
Why is this Palbum even posted here?
Several paragraphs saying "the game is fun." wow. Several paragraphs to explain an apparently simple concept ('boost'). The writing is so boring it makes me want to avoid the game. The most basic information like how many cars there are, how many courses there are is left out. I'm not going to spend $50 on something that will give me 6 or 7 hours of entertainment.
Lame, Lame, Lame. You know, the people who run Slashdot had a real opportunity to build something interesting, and they failed miserably.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Oh, ho ho. But when you realize just how completely amazing and awesome this game is, you won't mind interrupting your regular Slashdot broadcast with a break containing a review of one of the greatest (non-rpg) games ever!! =P
RTJKJAS
I am a huge fan of Burnout 2, but my copy of Burnout 3 for the xbox will not play music during two player race mode.
Does anyone else have this problem? I have googled it to death with no results. It's hard to believe that no one has mentioned it if it's not an isolated problem.
Also, Burnout 3 lacks the arcade style stats and scores after each race. That's a bummer.
I just found this game a few days ago, and have been playing it quite a bit. It's great fun, and doesn't require a lot of time consuming linear movement through the "storyline" (such as it is).
It's definitely worth the money. However, the sound tracks get old after the first 10 hours of play or so... they need a lot more music. The music is good, don't get me wrong, but hearing only the first 1/3 of each song before it's changed to something else gets tiring, and also wears out the playlist that much faster, because you only hear part of the song, then the next song, then the next, and eventually it all starts to repeat.
You start to savor the moments when one of the songs you like comes on during a race, so you can actually hear the whole thing. If you could choose which songs were playing during the race, or better yet, use your own music, that would be killer.
Definitely a good game though.
Morality? Considering that 9 out of every 10 games available right now involves shooting people, I'd say that a game with some cars crashing and some speeding is pretty damn tame. Especially since death is never depicted... cars just magically re-start after a crash.
I always save my last mod point to mod up a good troll. You people are too serious.
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Answer "NO" to all survey questions so you don't have to deal with junk
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However, i see burnout 3 as a perfect exmaple of what happens when an awesome idea gets subverted by a marketing team gone wrong, and a loss of focus on actual GAME PLAY.
While the many new game modes are fun and worthwhile, this game makes four egregious errors that are so bad as to cause me not to play it as much as its prior two iterations.
1 load, load, load, load.
The single greatest fault of the game is the continual loading... unlike the prior two this third burnout likes loading everywhere, with an interface that requires more menus and pointless confirmation screens than a instalation of windows, expecialy nice is how a song loads up to show you the race results, gets about 10 seconds into the song, before loading a nother song for the menu screen. This is greatly affected by the very very short race times, in combination with the even shorter times for the other modes.... which means, a lot of loading, a lot of intermissions.
2 music for teenagers .... PUNK ROCK jukebox.... i hope you like circa 2003 punk rock people, cause thats all your gonna get. I can somewhat respect the idea of making a whole theme out of the game, but in all honesty.... its terrible, at first it was cool... i like punk, but then after about... oh twenty minutes, its gets real lame, and you start to feel like the game was designed for twelve year olds who wanna rebel against their parents.
While the previous two games have excelent sound tracks derived directly from a more ubiquotous racing sorta trancy background sound with special boost music for each track (boosting gets the heartbeat and running out of time gets a modified music track)... this new version comes prepackaged with the most irritating marketting music package ever, can you say PUNK ROCK. cause theres a ton of the cheesiest, mill factory bands pumping through this game, complete with your own
3 online too short
as if the continual loading times werent bad enough, playing online is just an exercise in excrutiating pain. EVERYTHING takes forever, to be rewarded with a race that barely lasts a minute or two... now wait to find a new race to join, now wait for the players to fill in, now wait for the game to start, now race!!!, now wait.... you get the picture.
Totaly not worth the online play unless you have a serious hard-on that can withstand the long delays enough to put a short 2 minute bruising on someone.
4 racing blur
Why? gofds almighty why? who came up with the idea of making things HARDER to see, when they are already fucking hard to see on a TV's pitiful resolution?
The previous games have their own racing blur, which is hard enough to deal with, but well done enough not to screw the game entirely, but Burnout 3 doesnt just blur your vision, they fish-eye you too while moving at ridiculous speeds. I found this added "effect" to be totally and irrevocably one of the dumbest ideas to hit a racing game in a long time. Its like saying your game designers couldnt figure out how to make a game more challenging without hindering the players already impaired vision.
The underpinnings of this game were astoundingly well done, the new game modes ingenious, the overall quality would have been excelent. But some middle manager got their hands on some BS market analysis and decided to cheese the game out with punk rock, and add a "cool" fish eye effect, and someone in the interface department was sleeping at the wheel when the decision to load anything anywhere and everywhere somehow slipped through.
As a major fan of the series, id say this game is a perfect exmaple of how to ruin a great game by forgetting that if its not about the gameplay, then it aint worth shit.
--VISION
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
Well, you should try fucking her around 10pm. Then you'll probably be asleep by 11 as well.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Best the XBOX has to offer!!!
If you have not played this yet, you are missing out!
Your post was more informative then the entire review.
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
I haven't played BurnOut 3, but it's on my radar.
-M
Why can't I ever get any of my submissions posted? CmndrTaco couldn't command much else.
You are a complete idiot. You're definately on the level of Michael Sims and Jon Katz.
/. has been spewing at EA, I find it hilarious that they're running paid "review-vertisements" for them.
Where, exactly, did they find this retard?
This does not belong on the front page news.
And for all the hate
As others here have mentioned this article seems out of place on the front page of slashdot. When there is other much more relevant new items that can be posted, even in the games section.
EA has been getting alot of bad press for their working conditions.. I wonder if they are laying out the dough to the slashdot editors for a little grassroots discussion of their titles.
I predict this wont be the last time we see this....
Bet this
Anyone else no longer feel safe on the road?
It's also fun because it's real easy, you don't have to be super-precise, and you don't end up getting killed constantly.
This version is a great improvement over #2, which was fun for the crashing part, but wasn't as interesting as #1 for the racing. #3 combines the best of both ealier versions, with much, much more racing venues and gameplay.
Definitivly a 'get-it' item, but if you're into racing games you should also look into #1 if you havent' already.
AC comments get piped to
I remember renting a racing game for the Gamecube where you earned boost for dangerous driving; it was probably the original Burnout. It was a good game. By default the tracks had traffic, which made the racing more interesting. The sound and graphics were good.
:)
I remember one race in particular. A large part of the race was down a busy multilane freeway (aka turnpike). The only way you could complete each lap in the alloted time was to hold down the boost button on this freeway, and the only way to replenish your boost supply was to drive on the wrong side of the road. So you had to drive at maximum speed directly into oncoming traffic
This is one of those games like Katamari Damacy, that I can show to all my non-gamer friends and they get really, really into. Plain and simple, this is a GOOD game. This review really sums up what's great about it. Although I don't think he put enough emphasis on how good the game is at making you feel like you're going FAST. When you hit the boost, the edge of the screen gets a blur effect that is less novelty, and more essential for giving the impression of ridiculous speeds. But um, front page? Isn't this what games.slashdot is for? Especially when you're this late on your review of an EA game ;)
In related news, EA has agreed to pay the automotive industry $12.5 billion for the exclusive use of automobiles in a video game format for the next 10 years.
-G
www.g.pix.com
-G
www.pixelstatic.com
ps: sorry about the spelling (must learn to use preview)
A game developed by EA Games, running on an X-Box, reviewed on Slashdot?!?! Wha, wha, what!?!
+1 Insightful, -1 Troll. What can I say, I'm an Insightful Troll.
This game has one of the most fun console multiplayer games that I have experienced. I don't usually like the online console games much, mostly due to their lack of depth and modding and such compared to PC games, but this is quite fun. It plays without much lag (racing games always seem to have a bit, but this is extremely mild compared to others), and taking down friends online is a blast.
The game modes are pretty fun too, like the team game where one team runs and they other tries to catch up and take them down. I've managed to find a few games with really sensible people, and we set the runners' cars on the lowest class and the rest of us on a class or two higher. Terrific fun.
These 2 wheels allowed us to race against each other in Burnout 2, which is the ONLY thing we ever did.
In Burnout 3, these 2 wheels do NOT work. Only one works. I AM LIVID.
What the fuck is EA doing? Removing hardware support from previous versions? Trying to participate in a conspiracy to get us to spend another $150 on steering wheels?
If anyone has ANY information on how to get 2 wheels working, I'd love to hear it.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
I always had the impression that nonlicensed vehicles would be very dull and make the game unrealistic, however the GTA series has proven me wrong. Even cars in the original 2D Top-Down Grand Theft Auto were exciting. Their names are so creative, and it's relatively easy to determine which 'real' car they're imitating.
My favorite vehicle in Vice City is the "Faggio" scooter. This closely resembles the Piaggio scooter http://www.piaggiousa.com/
Maybe you should have spent more time learning grammar and less time making weird noises with cars:
"...may be the furthest thing from the minds of some readers if you were ever a four year old..."
The grammar totally sucks!
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Unfortunately, the 1967 F1 cars in GPL are so difficult to drive and one gets tired of the same tracks in NFS-PU. In a perfect world, Papyrus would open source GPL, EA would release new tracks for NFS-PU, and Microsoft would release the full specs for the Sidewinder force feedback API, so we would get Linux drivers.
Burnout 1 is a fairly straight racing game with excellent crashes, and a few extra game modes. Burnout 2 has more game modes, and focuses more on driving dangerously to earn boost to win. Crash mode makes an appearance here, great fun. B2 is about halfway between 1 and 3, where Burnout 3 is all about the crashing and driving dangerously, almost making the racing itself secondary a lot of the time. In fairness, 2 is good, 3 is the best :)
Disclaimer - I worked on 1 (ports to XBox and GC) and 2 (PS2), but not 3...
Game dev and music blog
Why am I not suprised that the review for a Video Game called Burnout 3 was posted by someone who refers to themself as Zonk.
>
There is something truly magic about this game. I realized this when a bunch of us hardend paper-pushers were captivated by, "who could make the best pile-up". Mix in a litter beer... goog times for everyone.
/.-games-are-news-flamebait-bitches out there... -1 Troll for you. This is news for Nerds. And this really does matter.
For all those
Oh no. Double Troll wammy for me!
Sadly not available for the PC or gamecube, or anything else for that matter. I played it at a friends' place, and it is a great game, so I'll probably pick it up when Xboxes are $40 in a year or two.
and really hate the load times on the xbox. That alone has made Crash mode (my house's favorite on the predeceding game) not nearly as fun. The best part of the game is the revamped pursuit mode, now known as road rage.
There are a lot of little interface odditites too. You can't jump into another crash mode via the menu, you have to go backwards and it takes as long to choose to play as it does to actually play the mode.
Wow, that is one long post for slashdot. Not that I've actually read the "article" since I already have the game, but it seems like it would have hurt to get it rejected.
Karma: 2.71828182846 (Mostly due to small, fun pills)
This game kept me from going to bed at a decent time last night. Now I'm dragging my a$$ at work.
Thank you very much for the review/comment. I actually have not yet bought an Xbox, but I must say that the release of Burnout 3 and the realization that it would not be released for the Gamecube definition made me starting thinking seriously again about getting an Xbox.
In fact, it is our plan to get an Xbox anyway, mainly because we're getting tired of feeling like we're on the stepchild system when looking at the rental shelves. I've also heard awesome things about the Xbox and like a lot of the games, etc, etc.
Anyway, had I still been thinking about getting an Xbox just to play Burnout 3 -- see, my son and I absolutely LOVE the first two Burnouts -- in fact, it will probably be the first game we get anyway. My point is that your review really hit on points that I needed to hear. They've sold the franchise up the river, apparently -- lousy music, too much loading, stupid "effects" like the fish-eye blur. The first Burnout was awesome, the second one took some getting used to but now I like it a lot also. Sounds like the third one will be a disappointment (like Star Wars and The Matrix and Back to the Future -- OK, I kind of liked the 3rd Back to the Future) -- oh, and the worst of all -- The Godfather Part III. Shudder.
Anyway, thanks for the comment. I appreciated it.
Loved the crash mode, but is it just me or are the races freakin impossible?
-R
The posting of the whole review makes it disgusting and blatant advertising. It is just pathetic that main-stream media including non-profits are so involved in this kind of shady deals like paupers. Were they born with spines or were they born with something else? Such artifical word-of-mouth makes me sick.
Well, I'll probably rent the PS version at least and see if I like it. Gotta have something to kill time with before GT4 comes out :P
ReadThe ReflectionEngine, a cyberpunk style n
Burnout 3 : Takedown has been on the shelves for quite a few months.... its a blockbuster.....we're after christmas.... and we get a review now ???
/. makes a few bucks with it but.... WTF.... MONTHS after ??
It's ok that
I mean, I played the game, beaten it, unlocked what is godly possible to unlock and now I get a review ?
LOL, this is almost fun.
I've been trying to get the word out on one of the best games this year. It's called "Super Mario Brothers". Nobody would publish my review in the past, but it looks like slashdot may.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
This may seem a bit obvious, but can anyone compare this console game favorably to the original Carmageddon, circa 1997? And if you mention better graphics, may I point you to Carmageddon II?
This guy summed it all up eight years ago:
http://www.skierpage.com/carma/loving.htm
"Bet that hurt."
I submitted something about Family Guy being censored by FOX when they re-aired it, even though they never received complaints the first time around. They did it preemptively. I titled it "Chilling Effect:"yadda. Nothing.
I didn't even expect it to be front page news, but damn, pretty lame it got ignored.
The game's been out for months. Why does this constitute front page item? Yeah, it's great- but most of us gamers have beaten it months ago. Looking forward to review of Halo 2 now, I guess.
My good looks paid for that pool, and my talent filled it with water.
Excuse me, where are the guns?
Racing games are tired. Sure, they vary a bit from one to another, but they are, in essence, the same: go around a track. It's worse than FPS games in terms of repetitive gameplay.
I want something along the lines of "Rock 'n' Roll Racing" but with a modern game engine and graphics and additional gameplay modes. Is that too much to ask for?
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Cam.
do this in real life, killing and maiming so that we can have more room for athletic people. (read: kill the fat slow obese people) fuck you all
Check journal for info on Anti-TextBook, an idea by me.
there was one that was such a close tie with this.
"King of the Road" on commodore 64 was the point of my life between bard's tales..
Then Silent Storm is for you.
n
http://www.silentstorm-online.com/main.php?lang=e
I see, you'll post his burnout 3 review, but not my Super Mario Bro's review. They're both about the same age....
It's a description.
By the way, games publishers release screenshots to the press, these are easily obtained and don't need to be credited.
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Who the fuck cares? This game has been out long enough for a lot of people to have enjoyed the game.
Ooooh my review. Yeah right.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yeah, I love this game. Even my father can be found playing this from time to time, and going up against him in 'Road Rage' is so much fun it should be illegal. We have a pair of Logitech GT-Force racing wheels that we got off ebay for cheap, I decided to plug them in on a 'what if', and it turned out Burnout 3 loves them almost as much as I love Burnout 3 :)
Recently, I was talking to some friends about how awesome it would be to play Burnout 3 on the DLP Projector/'10-foot wallscreen of Doom' I'm putting together, one of them hadn't heard of the game, and after showing him a crash mode video I'd recorded (You can find it on my site), he immediately ran out and bought it...which no one knew until he popped onto IRC a day later and said he hadn't done anything but play Burnout 3 since then... (I should note that if you want to buy video games and stuff around here, you're pretty much committing yourself to a 20-30 mile drive)
My father gets no end of enjoyment from forcing me infront of oncoming semis and buses... It's just not right. *shakes head*
Oh yeah, and the soundtrack is awesome. Nothing beats causing freeway mayhem to 'I wanna be sedated'.
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
On the PS2, this game is:
- Fun
- Addictive
- Not really realistic, but still very cool
- Addictive
- Addictive
- Addictive
- Addictive
I usually hate these games, but Burnout was some serious business.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
I've had this game roughly since it came out and find that I still put it in the ol' Xbox to play, despite the other top-notch games in my collection (Halo 2, MechAssault 2, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow). The graphics, gameplay, cars are all designed with quality in mind by people who obviously have a passion for gaming. The included EA Trax could definitely use the old "heave-ho," but otherwise I am very impressed with this game.
;)
The most amazing thing about this game, however, does not stem from its AI or unmatched feeling of speed or even its dazzling visuals when coupled with an HD-ready TV. The most amazing thing is:
My wife can't get enough of it.
The only other game that my wife has even remotely enjoyed playing on my (now our) Xbox is Fusion Frenzy, which gives me bad-voice-acting-induced headaches and nightmares of ascending the threads of an infinite corkscrew, jumping and ducking to save my life, all to the tune of bad techno. Needless to say, when my wife picked up and played Burnout 3 with unmatched fervor, I couldn't have been more happy. You know, thought I, maybe this will be my wife's "gateway game"; I'll have her hooked on Halo 2 in no time! *evil laugh*
Of course, it was I who got hooked on Burnout 3, and gaming with her has never been better.
Thanks, Criterion Software and EA... well, maybe just Criterion Software.
"The gods do not protect fools; fools are protected by more capable fools." -Larry Niven's "Ringworld"
....and now i feel like loading it up.
I got just over $2.2 million worth of damage by jumping a city bus across the divider of a bridge into the oncoming lane. You'd be surprised how often I think about that while driving to work.
free online diet tracking.
...I guess it means we like EA this week.
you wonder why you can go any faster into oncoming traffic
you explain to the cops that you were only trying to get gold in road rage
you find yourself wondering if you boosted over a ramp into rush hour how much crash cash you could win
Did you know you can be apathetic to apathy? Not that I give a shit...
Yes, he's freaking annoying. After a couple of hours of play you've heard everything. Go into the menus and switch him off. It's not that hard ;)
I have a GameCube you insensitive clod!
...so that argument doesn't really hold water.
Yes, the original Carmageddon is on my "best games of all time" list, and Burnout 3 is the first game to recapture the fun I had with it. You mention Carmageddon 2, but it while it had much better graphics, the controls and the damage felt...stiff and clunky, not anything like Carmageddon 1, I hated it. Carmageddon TDR 2000 came closer to the controls of the original but not quite...nothing beats the original.
and you really have to check it out on a 100" front projection screen in dolby digital!!
I am not even a big game fan and I love this game.
Although the game was overall pretty fun, the blatent cheating by the AI really ruined the game for me. I could knock out a car 3x in a row, filling my boost meter all the way up, but yet the same car could catch up with me almost every time even while I was constantly boosting. If I have earned a 15 sec lead let me keep it! Even worse, the rubberbanding was only one way... If I fell far behind there was no chance of catching up.
Chika Chik-ah... do-e ow ow.
Indeed, the C64 'Drive Music' was a horror to behold!!! I remember being round a freind's house and looking through a box of disks he had borrowed and came across 'Drive Music'. We thought it might be a demo disk with great music from Outrun or whatever and slapped it in...... LOAD *,8,1 (or whatevrr) later and the drive started to play Happy Birthday. we chuckled for a few seconds before we realised it was the heads making the noise!!!!! ARRRRGH
This games has been out since September 2004. Why on earth is this review being posted here? Why does this review get posted over the thousands of others that probably get submitted?
Has anyone noticed the sea-change in acceptance of the XBOX? I remember the attitude when it came out was somewhat dismissive of it as a "PC in an ugly box", but now it seems that the ugly duckling is sprouting new feathers. Is it the LIVE experience? Is the PS2 passe? Is it the supposedly better graphics? Are newer games finally more robust than initial offerings? Is it the fact that everyone can hack it? OR is the bxo finally coming into its own as people realize some potential?
What IS going on?
Supposedly the reason why Burnout 3 wasn't ported to the Gamecube was because because of the online play, though that wouldn't make sense for why they didn't do a PC port. I have the PS2 but I haven't played online because I don't have a network adapter, so if they had a Gamecube version sans online play, that'd be ok by me.
"Our opponent is an alien starship packed with atomic bombs. We have a protractor."
I loved Burnout 2. I liked Burnout 3 at first, but only played it for about a week.
Crash mode is truly the most fun part of the game, and it was ruined by the addition of the Heartbreaker icon, which would take your score and divide it by 2. What a pointless thing to do! Actually, all the icons were pointless, because passing a crash level went from finding the best angle and time to boost (Burnout 2) to finding the best way to hit all the icons.
Other things that were lost so EA could publish this game by Christmas of last year was the addition of a replay mode for Crash (it's an Xbox with a Hard Drive, let me save my best replays dammit) and the horrible camera. The camera in Burnout 2 was actually better.
I hope someone from Criterion who can influence Burnout 4 is reading this. Get rid of icons in crash mode!
How does Flatout compare? A similar game that is a real laugh with your mates :)
Sounds fun! Just like Sega's Crazy Taxi. A car game with a twist and lots of meyhem.
For those who haven't heard of Crazy Taxi, well, you're a taxi driver of an indistructible taxi. You pick up fares and take them to where they want to go. The faster you get them there, the more money you get. This leads to just driving like mad, weaving through traffic, and pulling off stunts. You get points for dangerous driving without crashing, which just slows you down.
One of my all time favorite games. Too bad it's hard to find good arcade machines for it, due to the abuse they get because of certain techniques used in the game (putting the card in Drive, and then slam on the gas a split second later gives a speed boost).
As a huge fan of the two first games, I was really looking forward for this third one only to see they ruined everything that was great in part 2. Here's why: 1) Crashing mode. They spoiled the ingenious idea in Burnout 2 with silly extra 'features' that ruin the idea of having to plan perfect speed, direction and timing to have the perfect crash. Just straight forward crashes where you become a passenger after the first impact. Now it's all about collecting bonuses, steering in mid-air and aftifically exploding the car afterwards. Boring and utterly stupid. 2) The graphics aren't improved at all, in fact Burnout 2 looks better to me. Horizon becomes blurred in distance so it's impossible to predict the oncoming traffic. 3) Physics have taken a turn for worse in crashing mode. Wildly oscillating buses that bend like they've made out of cardboard. Sigh. 4) Most annoying rubberband effect ever. No matter if you drive with normal speed or boost perfectly for three laps straight, they're still on your tail. 5) Don't get me started about the soundtrack and the annoying announcers. Go marketing, go! 6) Unlocking system that takes all the fun away from unlocking stuff. 'You've unlocked three inferior cars you don't need anymore. Congratulations.' End of rant, I'm off to play Burnout 2. /jizmo
I don't follow their online play reason, either. There's an ethernet adapter in my gamecube. If they have netcode in the other versions, I can't imagine a port would be that difficult. Especially given their experience developing Burnout 1 and 2 on the 'cube-- they clearly have some experience gamecube developers handy.
:)
But I'm just whining since there's a good game that's not available for the gear I have-- the answer is just to pony up, or keep mooching on my friends' xboxes.
You nailed several of my primary beefs with B3...Aftertouch camera woes topping the list. If I had to summarize my other complaints into one, though, I'd say "Lack of Consistency in the Rules." (Don't get me wrong, though: I love this game.)
You mentioned lack of after-crash immunity...but sometimes it is there -- your car moves laterally to avoid trucks, cars, walls, etc. But then sometimes you just smash right into one of those objects -- or one that wasn't even visible when the game went into autopilot mode. (After a couple hours, the takedown photo op is just a distraction that often causes you to crash for reasons beyond your control -- just give us the option to turn it off -- like the damn DJ.)
The amount of time alotted for crashes varies without clear rules, too -- sometimes you're back on the road immediately; other times you crash and stop...wait a second...a truck hits you...more waiting...then a car...then you restart only to find yourself gone from 1st to 10 seconds behind 3rd. But I've lost track of the number of times a CPU racer has been barreling directly toward my car -- too close to steer away -- only for me to be teleported at the last instant to my restart, simply to watch through my windshield as the CPU player blazes on at top speed.
Takedowns are scored very poorly at times, especially if multiple vehicles are involved: forcing one vehicle into another often results in no takedown for me. I'd advocate some kind of system where A hits B which runs into C and both crash scores two takedowns for A. (Sometimes I get credit, but as often as not I don't. Especially if walls are involved.) On the other hand, if B crashed after being hit by A -- and would have missed C entirely but steered toward C, hit it, and caused it to crash -- then A and B ought to get a takedown each. The worst (and most common) event along these lines is trying to ram a racer only to have them crash a split-second before you hit them -- because it means you crash (and probably lose boost) vs. score a takedown (and refill your boost meter).
One last gripe: - Why do I consistently get the "You are five seconds ahead" message just half a second before the "He's right on your tail!" message?! And if I'm 10 seconds ahead, how can a five-second accident result in me not only losing two positions but being so far behind I can't even see the other players? A Mario-Kart-style map w/ position indicators would do wonders here vs. the inconsistent (and irregularly timed) updates written on the screen. Or maybe the DJ could be put to good use and announce relative positions of players...
...but the deal to purchase Criterion went through (publically, at least) shortly after Burnout 3 was released, although EA's involvement in the project began some time before then. But as far as the developers are concerned; it was made by Criterion, not EA (although we can thank EA for their brand-centric placement of the EA Soundtrack ticker, and the focus group skaterawk soundtrack).