Burnout 3: Takedown Review

By Kristan Reed Published 14 September, 2004

Pure racing insanity.

Version tested: Xbox

It seems utter madness that a game of the quality of Burnout 2 wasn't a massive hit outside of Europe. Maybe it was Acclaim's ongoing inability to compete with the big guns in the US that was to blame, or maybe consumers weren't that convinced about the original and wrongly assumed the quick-fire sequel would be more of the same. They couldn't have been more wrong, and the fact that it still stands out as one of the best looking games and most addictive ever says a lot. Acclaim's loss was very much EA's gain, and if any games publisher in the world knows how to sell to the Yanks, it's EA. If Burnout 3 sells less than four times what its predecessor sold we'd be very surprised indeed.

Despite EA already having a best seller in the racing genre in Need For Speed Underground, it was a no-brainer for EA to sign Burnout 3. Criterion has, over the last three years, carved a category all of its own, featuring a crash-based all-action style of racing that no other game has come anywhere near to matching. The question that troubled hardcore followers of the series though was just how evident EA's paw prints would be on the game. Would it be diluted for the masses, or would the Brits hold out and stick to their guns?

Burnout: Tricky

The influence EA has had on Burnout 3's gestation cannot be underestimated, but rather than being forced it's a mutual appreciation. You can see it, hear it and feel it everywhere, but given Criterion's love for SSX it was undeniably a match made in heaven when EA jumped the queue and snapped up the rights to publish the game from under everyone else's noses. EA was so impressed it then bought the bloody company only a few months later in as canny a piece of games industry business as you'll ever see. Now not only does it have the world's best arcade racing developer, but the industry's leading middleware provider. All it needed was the game to match.

'Burnout 3: Takedown' Screenshot 1

What did we expect from Burnout 3? More tracks, modes, cars, better graphics? Naturally. Online? Of course. Once EA inked that deal with Microsoft back at E3 we knew our Burnout 3 dreams were going to come true. We were fully excited, almost carried away with the idea of being able to translate the offline gameplay into six player racing, Party Crash and the rest. The only grey area was how long had Criterion been working on Live? Was it bolted on at the last minute? We'd been told in the past that there was definitelyno Live play. Not the ideal preparation for what, next to Halo 2 and PES 4, was the year's biggest Xbox Live offering. Nevertheless, how could anyone with access to PS2 or Xbox online gaming not feel a pang of excitement? The gameplay was so well suited to online multiplayer it would have been a heinous crime not to base the game around it.

But before we dive headlong into our online indulgence, it's important to acknowledge the fact that the vast majority of the people that buy this game will never play it online. Does that matter? Amazingly, no. For the thirty or so hours we were surgically attached to the TV playing this game, the vast majority of that was played offline on our own, unlocking all 100 crash junctions, attempting to battle through all 76 races and trying to scoop gold medals and headlines. It's an absolutely mammoth game, make no mistake.

What goes on tour stays on tour

'Burnout 3: Takedown' Screenshot 2

Although there are the usual Single Event and Time Attack modes, World Tour is likely to be where you'll spend most of your time. Crash Junctions or Races are accessed via global Sat Nav that enables you to visit three continents (US, Europe, Asia) in an epic series that places equal weight on both disciplines. Unlike before, the excellent Crash Junctions are accessible from the off (previously, the PS2 version of B2 only made these available some way into the game), and in truth this has proven to be a masterstroke; we became so hooked on them we devoted more time to them than any other area of the game.

In pure single-player mode, Crash Junctions have been fleshed out to provide often quite lengthy sections, which you can approach in a number of different ways. The premise of causing the biggest pile-up possible remains your goal, but this time Criterion has thrown in a number of new features that add a tactical edge to the proceedings. Chief among them is the new Crashbreaker ability, which kicks in once you've clocked up a predetermined number of crashes, and allows you to effectively detonate your car and then steer it with mid-air aftertouch in the direction of your choice, either into the path of other oncoming vehicles or the other collectables lying around.

With a bit of luck and no small amount of skill you can often engineer situations whereby you can explode your car in the direction of previously unobtainable score multipliers, or possibly another explosion. On the downside, the game also places an evil score-halving Heartbreaker near to goodies, often reducing triumphant performances to a miserable total. In truth, such is Crash Junction's appeal, we'd gladly buy the game even if it consisted solely of this mode offline. Quite often we'd spend half an hour at a time solely attempting new ways to conquer a particular junction: to take the boost or not, which angle to take ramp at and so on - and on top of that it's a beautiful visual spectacle with stupendous use of slow motion, only slightly marred by the lack of a more spectacular replay, or the ability to switch camera angles during it.

In offline multiplayer it's possibly even more riotous, allowing for the genius two player co-op Team Crush where you have to work together to cause even more insanity and the versus Double Impact mode, while Party Crash allows up to eight players to take it in turns on any of the unlocked junctions.

Look out! Cliff!

'Burnout 3: Takedown' Screenshot 3

Racing is just as much carnage as it ever was, and in fact has been ramped up to include six drivers in the race from the off, as opposed to the four of previous versions. Knowing full well that online play would be full of idiots driving the wrong way and trying to be annoying as they always tend to do in online racing games, Criterion struck upon the realisation that basing the entire racing mode on the concept of 'takedowns' would solve this annoyance.

Stuck for a 'language of crashes' Criterion has taken inspiration from Tony Hawks and SSX with each successful takedown given its own specific name, such as 'Wall Takedown' or 'Psyche Out', while each track gives opportunities to come up with your own Signature Takedown, for example sending your opponent down a cliff side or other unique, one-off spectaculars. Boost, as ever, is a key part of the proceedings, and can be gained from the usual dangerous manoeuvres that previous players will be well and truly familiar with, like driving into oncoming traffic.

In terms of the actual gameplay there wasn't much wrong with it before, and not a huge amount has changed in truth. It's certainly more in your face this time around in terms of the presentation, with unskippable tutorial videos played right at the beginning and load screens taking every opportunity to remind you of new moves and modes in true EA style. Even the enormously over-the-top exclamations throughout the game as you pull off new moves are perfectly in keeping with what is an utterly fast and furious experience - it's just a shame that Criterion takes it too far with the inclusion of a DJ so fantastically, annoyingly yankee that Anglo-American relations have just been set back twenty years. Honestly, we tolerated his excitable ravings for about ten hours before realising that sanity is a precious thing. The best thing that Criterion did was giving us the ability to switch him off. The relief was palpable.

Hang the DJ?

The soundtrack of any game is always a tricky thing, and you can't please everyone no matter what you do. Personally, we thought some tracks were terrifyingly annoying (the lead track, Lazy Generation, for instance, will burn in hell when the day of reckoning comes), and some were awesome additions (say hello Von Bondies, Franz Ferdinand and a few others we've yet to commit to memory), but it's hard to whinge about having 40 current tracks to choose from. For free. Besides, you can always customise the soundtrack in the Xbox if it really bothers you that much, although it's irritating to have to switch that option over every time you boot up the game. Some will hear a few tracks that don't fit their specific musical agenda and snort about the 'evil empire' taking over, but, frankly, sod them. Criterion deserves a huge mega hit, and if having a US centric soundtrack helps the company grow, all the better.

The rest of the game's audio, however, is without doubt a fine achievement, delivering full surround sound on both platforms in some style with a wide array of throaty engine noises, wince inducing crash impacts and the like. In conjunction with the spectacular visuals, it's hard not to be anything but bowled over. Has there ever been a better looking game? Whether you're lucky enough to see the game in progressive scan or not (something only US users and anal import gamers will be able to enjoy) it's simply a feast for the eyes. There's almost too much to take in, and other developers will have to go some to beat this in the current generation. With the exception of some very minor framerate drops in the PS2's crash mode, it really is the game that you feel is melting your machine.

What's there to fault? The vehicles look outstanding, featuring full reflections and a damage model to die for; the scenery is never less than first class ("that's how you do trees!"), with an excellent, seemingly never ending array of tracks with nods to the developers favourite games showing the purist's dedication that's gone into the craft. It could well take us a year to fully get to know each track well enough, and in terms of value for money it's tough to think of what more they could have done content-wise.

Inevitably, though, there are niggles that we'd love to one day see ironed out. The much-anticipated online play was the very reason we delayed this review, and frankly we're glad we did. On paper, you'd be hard pressed to imagine how there could possibly be any problems. 'It's on Live' you think to yourself, how could it be anything other than as slick as all the other games you've played before. Well...

Backwards step

'Burnout 3: Takedown' Screenshot 5

The first issue, and our over-riding concern, is that the single player game has - bewilderingly - not been integrated with the online. Unlike other racing games where your progress as a whole is always recorded online - Gotham 2 for example - Burnout 3 treats the two disciplines as entirely separate entities. The hollowness we felt when discovering our endless hours of effort couldn't be uploaded and compared with our online buddies was palpable. In a sense it felt like a bit of a waste of our efforts, and the fact that even Burnout 2 on Xbox featured high score tables made it feel even more mystifying. Sure, people can probably cheat their way to the top, but we're not really bothered about those idiots. We're more bothered about the childish fun you get from being the best of your buddy list, nothing more. No matter which way you look at it, it's a startling omission, by design. It's not as if Criterion couldn't be bothered to put this feature in, they just simply took it out altogether for reasons they have yet to go public on.

But even if we can accept that the game is still excellent offline, and get over not being able to compare scores online, the actual process of getting online remains less than enjoyable for many users, this one included. For starters, the service passes over the user to EA.com, and here's where the problems appear to begin. Logging into the service is less than smooth, with login failures common, and we had issues actually joining games too. For reasons we don't fully appreciate, there are a number of country-based lobbies to wade through before you can even join a game, and several times we were kicked out altogether when joining a friend's game.

'Burnout 3: Takedown' Screenshot 4

Apparently excessive demand has caused many of the issues, so it's very likely many of the Live issues will be solved quickly. Indeed, only this morning we received an email detailing server maintenance downtime - with luck, whatever the problems there have been in the initial stages, all this will be resolved before long. Log-in teething troubles or not, the actual EA-based Live interface needs a serious overhaul for future incarnations, because the fact is, as it stands, it lags seriously behind the standard system that has, to date, operated fairly flawlessly by comparison.

To give Criterion its dues, it wasn't given an ideal preparation for implementing Live, with the deal only being implemented in May, and the game being finished in early August. The fact that it features online play at all is a bonus. Assuming the teething troubles can be ironed out quickly, it stands as a very compelling online experience. Six player online racing. In Burnout 3. It doesn't really get much better than that does it? Whether it's Race or Crash, both work equally well online, the races appear lag free, meaning crashes actually occur in real-time as opposed to other problem-laden racing games that don't appear to know how to deal with the issue. The same basic modes appear online (so all the race and crash modes) and all work superbly well, with no glitches noticed when we actually got in the game. In a way we'd rather it was that way around than easy to get in but riddled with in-game issues.

A game of two halves

With a fully featured, properly implemented online mode, Burnout 3 had the right to be considered the arcade racing game to end them all. As it stands, it's the offline arcade racing game to end them all, with an online implementation that falls frustratingly short of expectations. The ingredients are all there for it to have been an unprecedented and sensational package, and in nearly all areas it really is. Most of it is, or will be forgivable, and will be fixed in the future - we all know that EA and Microsoft can't afford this kind of debacle to continue - but right now we're caught in this strange state of mind between celebrating what is undeniably a great game both offline and online. It's just the two areas should be part of the same game, not working against one another. Whatever. Justifiable niggles aside; it's one of this year's best games and an essential purchase, simple as that.

Order yours now from Simply Games.

9 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (126) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Tomo #1 8 years ago

    Revised score if EA/MS fixes everything?

  • Bezzy #2 8 years ago

    That's it. I'm taking a long lunch.

  • StixxUK #3 8 years ago

    Pffft...

    Overrated

  • #4 8 years ago

    It's a 10 dammit, even with the online flaws ;)

    Good review though!

  • Shinji #5 8 years ago

    For me, it was a 10 until I tried to play it online. Then it was a 9. EA have really blotted their copybook very badly with that aspect of the game...

  • Killerbee #6 8 years ago

    Dammit, I really don't need another racing game... do I?

    /goes to check bank balance

  • JDub #7 8 years ago

    Dropping the manual transmission lost a point in my book. Insane game though... :)

  • Mr_Whacker #8 8 years ago

    I enjoyed B2 loads but wrote this off when I heard about the focus on online modes. Now its back on the list if the offline side is a full game. And the cars look ace this time.

  • krudster #9 8 years ago

    How can it be a ten if there are annoying things that need fixing? I want an integrated online experience where I can compare my offline scores online, I want an online experience that works. I don't think that's too much to ask these days. Brilliant game, as Shinji says, that gets knocked down with its own inability to work online properly.

  • lost_soul #10 8 years ago

    How many tracks are there? I've unlocked 18 so far, is that it?

  • Whizzo #11 8 years ago

    Mr_Whacker, my profile indicates I've been playing for 22 hours since I got it on Thursday and I've not raced online once and I've still got a fair amount to finish yet, I'm at the Super car GP stage.

  • thesnowman #12 8 years ago

    I have got my tv and xbox to play games at 60hz and i cant believe that I cant play people who play it at 50hz. The opti match and quick match options are about as much good as a chocolate fireguard.

    Appart from that its a cracking game. I just wish ea would sort out the online thing.

  • CyberClaw #13 8 years ago

    a question, does it feature system link?

  • Ali #14 8 years ago

    Like the review said though, online is still a very small part of the game. Most people will be playing it offline, and in that respect, it's practically flawless.

    Only things that bothered me were the lack of tracks/cars/junctions available from the beginning (one of each, lame if you want to dive into multiplayer) and the oh-so EA 'Crash FM'. It's entirely unecessary, never tells you anything of interest and gets repetitive quickly. But, like the man said, you can turn it off.

  • gamingdave #15 8 years ago

    Wont be playing this online so glad to see the 1 player is worthy. Music and DJ will be switched off on first boot. Hows the split screen element for racing? Seems a shame theyve cocked up the live to an extent but im sure theyll be trying to sort it. Still bit peaved its not on cube, and their excuse, that it would be a lacking experience offline, really falls through now. Too busy to game at the moment, but ill be getting this soon.

  • Whizzo #16 8 years ago

    Split screen racing is fine gamingdave, split screen Road Rage is even better! :-)

  • gamingdave #17 8 years ago

    don't let you do a vertical split

    always anoying, I take it its only 2 player?

  • baggs #18 8 years ago

    Shame they decided to go with the EA Trax music - I thought the way the music really kicked in when you hit the boost in Burnout 2 was a lovely touch.

  • Feanor #19 8 years ago

    It's weird that the DJ is so terrible because the DJ in SSX 3 was pretty good. I don't remember reading any SSX 3 reviews that hated the DJ.

    How does the style of music in Burnout 3 compare to the music in NFS: Hot Pursuit 2? I quite liked most of the songs in that game, even the ones I wouldn't normally listen to if they came on the radio.
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 14:59

  • Blerk #20 8 years ago

    I wish EA would keep their greedy mitts off Xbox Live.

    Heh. I knew that would happen! Everyone whines that EA won't do Xbox Live, then they do Xbox Live and everyone whines that they shouldn't have. :-)

  • pjmaybe #21 8 years ago

    Nothing about the crashes then, the system crashes I mean...

    Rare though they are...

    Peej

  • volb #22 8 years ago

    Are the XBox and PS2 versions compatible online?

  • Dizzy #23 8 years ago

    Good review. 100% spot on. The online part is a mess.. hence the 9/10. EA has no clue how to do online.... in a way MS was lucky EA implemented the PS2 Online world... no competition for the vastly superior Live. But despite EA, Burnout 3 is an immense game.

    And Neil.. hooray for more competion, especially if it means we get fucked and quality goes down.
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 15:03

  • Bezzy #24 8 years ago

    *Puff* *Pant*
    Got it. But everyone in the office is in crunch mode, so it would be unethical for me to use the XBox Devkit for a quick go.

  • dr_zoidthrob #25 8 years ago

    No mention in the review of the absence of Replays - a big mistake, they would look stunning

  • CyberClaw #26 8 years ago

    Does it support system link? Someone can tell me? Please? Pretty please? I'd like to know, really :|

  • bionutz #27 8 years ago

    Shame about the DJ thing. If there would be a good reason to make European versions of a game would be only to get rid of the ridiculous american culture tabus and trends.
    [Edit]-I means of course also the stupid DJ thing
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 15:08

  • Whizzo #28 8 years ago

    No system link for no apparent reason. :-(

    Not had a single system crash in the 22 hours I've been playing the game.

  • lost_soul #29 8 years ago

    No crashes for me, either - over 12 hours of play.

  • pjmaybe #30 8 years ago

    Yes yes Whizzo, we know!

    There are those that have though. I've had 2 total lockups (both during the "whoopee you've won a new car" scrolly annoyance)

    I figure it just affects older Xboxes or the dreaded Thomson drive types.

    A good review though, fair and even handed and pretty much nailed it - and should please the nitpickers and people who are pleased with it alike...

    Peej

  • mentat #31 8 years ago

    I have to say that's a fair score. I'd possibly be as cheeky to give it an 8.
    It's great, but there's something about that makes me think burnout 2 is still slightly better!

  • Shinji #32 8 years ago

    No system link, much to my immense annoyance. Apparently Microsoft have been leaning heavily on developers to drop System Link in preference for Live support, which is BLOODY annoying. Live is great and all, but I have two Xboxen and three decent sized screens - get a mate to bring around another Xbox and we could have had some awesome, lagless, 6-player. As it stands, we're restricted to 2player on one screen. Bah!

  • Whizzo #33 8 years ago

    Well some people were very quick to go on about it crashing! ;-)

    It's not crashed since I posted that either but as I'm at work and not playing it that's probably one reason...

  • Sid-Nice #34 8 years ago

    Are EA giving a different game out to be reviewed? I would say Burnout 3 is the best Burout game in the series. Graphically it's better, the cars etc; But the distant draw has become a vision blur effect making it difficult to differentiate between a cars brake lights and the cars marked red your chasing. The game is big and no doubt the time I've put into playing Burnout 3 I would of completed Burnout 2, yet I've only managed to unlock 65% . Some lighting effects ie; reflection on the road, are a tad overdone, so much so, that you can't see oncoming traffic. The menu system is a joke " Why do you have to reload a level you've already loaded? ie; The crash junctions. " The game is great but the flaws out weigh the good points, which in turn does effect my enjoyment of the game. If I were to review this game I'd give it a 7/10, but I'm not a gaming expert and I only paid £34 for the privilege to play it.

  • CyberClaw #35 8 years ago

    No System Link totally put me off :(
    I have 2 Xboxes, and I'd like to have some not split screen action. Damn.

  • groovychainsaw #36 8 years ago

    I'm sure there are replays - at the end of a race, just hit B, you can watch a crash replay or a race replay - you cant save them, but you can see them, at least....

  • Bezzy #37 8 years ago

    Ehn. My copy is in fucking Dutch.

  • Universal_Hamster #38 8 years ago

    I love the game, but i do have a few niggles...
    First is obviously the DJ. Im normally quite tolerant of such things, but this one was turned off in record time.
    Second is the soundtrack. Im not dissing the music itself, (Although there are plenty of clangers there) but the general tone just seems wrong, ya know? Too much angst, not enough fun tracks like "I wanna be sedated". B3 aint an angsty game, lets not have the angsty music. Plus, theres not much variety there, is there?
    Third are the menus, which are the standard EA awkward, slow, annoying shite you just have to put up with. Like having to change the soundtrack every time you load up.
    Also, the music changes every time any loading occurs, which is annoying. Why cant we have a similar system to Amped2, where the music plays constantly, even during loading?
    Next is, of course, EA/XBOX Live. Nuff said.
    As you can see, while these things are annoying, they arent anything to do with the game itself.
    The only little flaw I can think of with the game is the timed lap levels, which just annoy me... Probably more of a personal preference anyway.
    So, niggles all, nothing that makes me disagree with the healthy 9/10 score. The game seriously kicks ass. Upon ending my first session of playing B3, I could hardly stand from the adrenaline. Thats how good it is.

  • bionutz #39 8 years ago

    Got an idea: Any chance this game is coming on the PC now? It's already on Xbox and comes from EA. I would definitely hold back for the PC version!!!

  • Corben_Dallas #40 8 years ago

    SO does the PS2 divorce teh Online/Offline parts of teh Game?

  • C13 #41 8 years ago

    What's wrong with Dutch? :)

    I'm from Belgium and ofcourse we see the Dutch flag instead of the Belgian flag (who would bother for 6 million Dutch/Flemish speaking Belgians right?). But i can choose: i can also do it in English, Spanish or Swedish. I was kinda hoping for a different DJ, but naaaah...

    Anyway... it's a great game, really opens up new horizons (which storm right at you at huge speeds though).

    A lot of negative reactions... It's just like ppl only expect the perfect game, nothing less. And always the disappointment: oh now, they didn't do this, they didn't include that, OMG look what they've done!!! People, you should be happy with the great things u got!

    This was another public service announcement, brought to you by SMILE

  • Freek #42 8 years ago

    OH god NO please don't tell me they fucking localized the language??
    I swear to god if they did i'm going to EA Holland, burn the office down and ritaully sacrifice every single employee, right down to the janitors!!!!!!

  • Eighthours #43 8 years ago

    I'm sure there are replays - at the end of a race, just hit B, you can watch a crash replay or a race replay - you cant save them, but you can see them, at least....

    I can see crash replays, but not race replays. Exactly how do I get a replay of the race? Anyone??
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 15:58

  • C13 #44 8 years ago

    Yeah... they kinda did localize it...

    But don't feel bad! See it as an opportunity to learn other languages :D

  • mingster #45 8 years ago

    Yup review is accurate.. well done for pointing out the online difficulties i knew you wouldn't skip over that.

    How anyone can possibly like the EA trax music is beyond me, but hey, each to there own.

    And system lockups i've experienced 3 in about 6hours of gaming on a new xbox, BUT only in online mode.

  • APHIZM #46 8 years ago

    I'm nearly 90% through. My one single gripe can only be the online screw-up - and WHAT a screw-up. Any other complaints are worthless within the context of such a great game.

    I've just heard that EA have announced a down-time to fix server problems. Maybe that 9/10 will improve by next week...

  • yegon #47 8 years ago

    For the first few hours this was a definite 9/10 for me. I've revised that to a solid 8/10 now though.

    Not because of the button presses - painful though they are, as long as the actual meat & potatos of the game is good, I'm willing to forgive it (didn't someone say B2's menus were worse? Bollocks, they weren't great, but B3's are a good deal worse).

    Nah, its dropped a bit for me because of flaws in the game design.

    Rubber band AI is reasonably acceptable in an arcade racer , but its *ridiculous* that if you take the lead and boost succesfully without crashing for 3+ minutes (theoretically amassing a huge lead), then crash, you drop to fourth or fifth place instantly. Yeah yeah, I know it keeps the races close, but the fact that its EASIER to win the race if you lay off the boost a bit, while simultaneously the WHOLE FOCUS OF THE GAME is to amass more boost.....stupid, absolutely stupid.

    I think its also graphically worse than B2 - the resolution, draw distance, overuse of blurring, and the lessened ability to spot traffic clearly in the distance is a step back in the series for me.

    Other downers are the lack of replays, and the crash mode is more about hitting the multipliers than devising a cunning crash.

    All in all, imo, a good solid arcade racer that is pleasantly different from B2 - but not necessarily better as I originally thought.
    Edited by 1 at 14/09/04 @ 16:07

  • yegon #48 8 years ago

    Eh? Thats what I said.

  • onyxbox #49 8 years ago

    EA have messed up with the Online implementation IMO.

    Every XBOX Live game does the whole lobby thing better... why did they mess it up?

    Like the review states, if you can get a game going and don't getted kicked for no apparent reason; the game is a lot of fun.

  • Vex #50 8 years ago

    Does it really play catch up with the losers, or rubber band AI as Yegon calls it? I take this to mean that the losing cars will be able to go faster than the winner to allow them to catch up.

    I hate that with a passion for exactly the reason that Yegon said. So many times in games like that I have driven outstandingly, to botch once near the end thereby costing me the race.

  • pjmaybe #51 8 years ago

    Ahhh THATS what they meant by rubberband AI.

    Yep that definitely happens. The most I've been "ahead" is about 16 seconds by my reckoning but still I crash and they're right on me in a hell of a lot less time than that.

    So yep looks like it happens. Which is a git.

    Peej

  • infoxicated #52 8 years ago

    The elastic band AI is exactly the same as that found in NFS Underground. No matter how well you drive, no matter how much you boost, you can never lose the AI cars.

    By the same token, when you're behind the game will deliberately sandbag, so that the AI cars are catchable.

    At least Burnout 2 felt fair - Burnout 3 might as well be called Need For Speed: Daytime, 'cos that's what it is now... 8/10, but could have been so much better.

  • Bezzy #53 8 years ago

    It's fair enough to hate rubber banding, but it sounds to me as if this compliments gameplay to some degree. The focus is less on "get around the track" and more on "screw over your opponents", so the rubber banding helps by always keeping an enemy nearby to poke for extra speed. Think of other cars as powerups.

  • yegon #54 8 years ago

    Yep, the catch up AI is very, very noticable. Doesn't bother me too much in arcade racers generally, but the catch up AI in B3 is a bit over the top and, like I said , kind of defeats the point of using boost when you're in the lead.

    /memories of the tawdry Mario Kart 64 *shudder*

    Oh, the selection of cars is a big dissapointment too - there is very little to distinguish between cars within the same class, both in looks and speed/handling.

  • Sid-Nice #55 8 years ago

    Blerk there's a song just for you in the EA trax called Saccharine Smile by The Donots.

  • yegon #56 8 years ago

    >>At least Burnout 2 felt fair

    Exactly!! Just to test to see if my memory was playing tricks, I had a quick blast on B2 the other day - the catch up is there, but only just enough to keep it interesting.

  • Whizzo #57 8 years ago

    The AI cars also use boost now which they didn't in the previous games, as far as I'm aware, so it's not impossible to believe they're not letting you get too far ahead by boosting as well.

  • pjmaybe #58 8 years ago

    What'choo talking about, Truthsayer!

    Peej

  • Sid-Nice #59 8 years ago

    The game is good and with the addition of Takeout and the online features it should of been a 10/10. But it's not, I agree with Infoxicated about the NFSU feel to the game, I did write something similar in the forum about a daytime NFSU. While using the boost the blurring effects are so similar to the NOS effect in NFSU. I still can't see how anyone can reccommend people to go out and spend their hard earned cash on a game with so many flaws.

  • Ali #60 8 years ago

    Best bit so far - having one of the AI cars scare the crap out of me by shunting me into a pillar on one of my first races. AI cars aren't supposed to do that!

    They've been granted the 'bastard gene', and it makes it so much more fun to be racing against AI cars that gun for you and even go out of their way to take you down.

  • BravoGolf #61 8 years ago

    Heh, good review :0

  • groovychainsaw #62 8 years ago

    Yeah, I agree, the aggressive AI and the crash-focussed raqcing just makes it that much more exciting - they steal boost from you when they hit you, and you can steal it back - the balance just feels right. And ive been ahead by a good 10-15 seconds, crashed, and not been overtaken. They ARE a lot closer by then, but they should be, they've had time to catch up. A crash must cost you at least 5 seconds. When they do overtake you though, it gives you a chance at more boost by ramming them out of the way! ;-)

  • Feanor #63 8 years ago

    You guys don't make deciding between Burnout 2 for the Xbox ($17) and Burnout 3 ($50) any easier. Too many valid but differing opinions!!

  • Khab #64 8 years ago

    Get BO2 first - after Xmas (and NFS2) BO3 should start dropping...

  • mingster #65 8 years ago

    Yeah i just realised that you can get the x4 multiplier without even getting the x2 multiplier first.

    This seems a bit stupid why even have the x2? your just gonna aim for the x4 everytime.

    I do think the old crash mode was better the way the multipliers worked rather than the new icon system. Definately removes a lot of the strategy.

  • markypants #66 8 years ago

    I still can't see how anyone can reccommend people to go out and spend their hard earned cash on a game with so many flaws.

    Ehhhhh?

  • IronGiant #67 8 years ago

    Hmmmm.. i need to have a good play on Burnout2 to see what the 'old' crash mode was like, i do like the one in Burnout3 but as others have said in the forum i'm getting gold scores on nearly every crash without much difficulty or actual strategy required at all.

  • OnlyMe #68 8 years ago

    Burnout is a fantastic game. The first one, I mean. In that one, you must concentrate really hard so you don't hit anything. That's the most intense and adrenaline pumping edition so far. Burnout 2 "fixed" the crashing-detection so that you can scrape along walls without the car crashing and giving you a crash-replay. It's harder to crash which again lowers the difficulty a lot. Burnout 2 is generally Need For Speed, the original one, with more speed and excellent crash-effects. The crash-mode was introduced in Burnout 2, and was impressively fun to play.

    Then came Burnout 3. The game have been "EA Big"-ified, although that's not necessarily a bad thing. It has that EA feel to it, and the presentation that was lacking in the first two games. The game looks better than ever, and the crashing is even more impressive. The fact that the crashes looks so great, and sound is also a lot better in this, makes the crash mode in B2 look a bit lacking. Shame the gameplay isn't the same. However, Criterion have made, in my opinion, three very different games, all worth owning. Don't buy Burnout 1, 2 or 3. Buy all of them.

  • Stevas mkII #69 8 years ago

    As far as the multipliers are concerned, there COULD be a reason for both the X2 and the X4 to be there. Then you have options on which way to go.
    Option 1: go for the X2, where all the expensive motors are.
    Option 2: go for the X4, where the motors aren't quite so pricey.
    Most will go for the X4 - believing it to logically lead to a higher score - while those in the know went for the X2 that was surrounded by cars that cost a shitload.
    Not sure if this is the case, though.

  • markypants #70 8 years ago

    Burnout 3 = Most overrated game ever.

    Would you like a brush to go with your sweeping statement??

  • APR #71 8 years ago

    Next week, you will all be bored of this game, and wonder what all the fuss was about.

    Overated. Yes.

  • red_shift #72 8 years ago

    i love this game!! its great, not at all over-rated, should be playing on live next week, see if its still good then

  • #73 8 years ago

    Putty Man!?

    What do you mean:

    "Manipulation of music tracks - mid race"

    If you mean, changing the track during the race, then you can do that by pressing the black shiney button...

  • inpHilltr8r #74 8 years ago

    Live patch in 3, 2, ...

  • APHIZM #75 8 years ago

    Offline integration is pointless. Really, what would the point be exactly? I'd rather see how I fare against other gamers, not Action Replay.

  • Tiger_Walts #76 8 years ago

    H4RDC0R3 G4M3Rz PL4Y T3H F1R57 8URN0U7 0N 5URV1V4L M0D3!!!!!1

  • Whizzo #77 8 years ago

    spick the maths is right, although it does look a bit odd. When you do an event all your scores that you've accumulated before you hit the "continue" option, say doing the same Road Rage event lots of times, get added to your final total. If you hit restart during an event it warns you that all your points tally will be wiped out.
    Edited by 2 at 15/09/04 @ 00:32

  • Merefield #78 8 years ago

    Rubberband AI - damn!!! One of my two main criticisms of Burnout 2.

    Number Two was that in Burnout 2, the traffic always appeared in the same place, which reduced the tension for me when coming round a corner or over a hill on the wrong side of the road - anyone care to comment on traffic placement in 3? Thanks

  • Royal Fool #79 8 years ago

    Ok, been playing it a bit, have done about 1/3 of the USA golds and a bit of the Europe ones.

    So far I think the game is absolutely excellent, and is by far the best arcade racer I've played for a long time. It rivals Need For Speed 2, Daytona USA and other arcade classics. The sheer sense of speed is crazy; much better than in the ill-begotten Need For Speed Underground.

    However, some things annoy me:
    -The whole affair with how you have to Continue to have points added, and having to wade through the save thing.
    -The "New Car" presentation is exactly the same each and every time and how it forces you to sit through it can get boring.
    -The AI is very, very dumb (Not really something I was expecting anyway from an arcade racer, but these guys are really dumb, just fast).
    - There's no System Link mode (A result of Xbox Live, of course). It makes me feel I'm missing out on fun gameplay features that I effectively have to pay extra for, despite them being in the game to begin with.
    - The Crash system in Burnout 2 was mostly better than the one in Burnout 3. I like the cash pickups and aftertouch feature, but the multipliers should never have been included as they really break the system.
    - The Crash Nav is confusing at first, but you do get used to it in the end. Still, it is annoying having to flick through each and every zone and see if there are new events or not available. Why not a more simple navigation system?

    Anyway. I really do like this game, and graphically and feature-wise it blows Burnout 2 completely away and dumps the corpse in a trash bin. It's that fun.


    "It's not always in the same place on each lap now."

    No, but I've noticed that the traffic is more frequent in some places than others. It seems that the game just randomly decides if the pre-determined traffic spawn points should create a car or not this time around, instead of them always appearing no matter what. A good design choice.
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/04 @ 02:24

  • 3william56 #80 8 years ago

    "It's not always in the same place on each lap now"

    Hallelujah! PRAISE THE FRICKIN LORD!!

    Has the boost been done properly this time? In BO2, the boost sped up EVERTYTHING - even your opponents and the traffic - with only a mild speed differential added to your speed over theirs - which was bloody weird, and meant that boosting was rarely worth the trouble in the later races as the relative speed increase wasn't worth the increased chance of a crash (it also contributes to the perception of elastic AI - boosting didn't actually make you leave the opponents in the dust).

    Also - does the damn thing remember your preferences this time around? I still get damned sick of the 60Hz test music - after fifty plus games, I'm pretty sure the 60Hz works, thankyerverymuch.

    /realises that on 60Hz, I'll only be playing Septics online

    Aaaarrggghhh!

  • speedjack #81 8 years ago

    'The first issue, and our over-riding concern, is that the single player game has - bewilderingly - not been integrated with the online.'

    I can kind of see the point of this comment - yes there appears to be no on-line scoreboards. But the points you accumulate online can be used to unlock additional cars etc (just like PGR2).

    Got to say I love this game, but anyone think Burnout 3 looks better on the PS2 than the Xbox ? I've got the Xbox version but I dunno... it just looks 'crisper' on the PS2 demo.

    ...And before you ask - yes I am using RGB leads for both.
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/04 @ 09:55

  • C13 #82 8 years ago

    I don't see what's wrong with the rubberband AI.

    It work pretty honest really... Say you are in the lead with about 10 seconds (quite a lot). Then you crash, and ofcoure this crash takes some time. When you see the crash, you see it in real time (not like the takedowns, which are played in slowmo in some other time space continuüm). This crash in real time takes about at least 5 seconds. And then you get your new car and you you boost up again.

    All together a crash will cost you about 8 seconds in real race time. So you are left with 2 seconds. And two seconds in Burnout 3 is nothing, especially when u use your boost continually. You can close a gap easily to a car which doesn't boost.

    So my conclusion. If you crash u don't boost. When u start again you are not at top speed. So you loose a lot of time and the other cars catch up really quick, certainly with boosting. Al is very logical and it's not cheating. It makes perfect sense!

    Futhermore. As you may have noticed it's not great fun racing around with a lead of 10+ seconds. The only thing you do is dodging traffic. The real fun begins when other cars catch up and you can do some takedowns again!

    So i say, thank God for the rubberband AI!

    Yeah, sure it's sometimes frustrating loosing a race once and while due to a crash. But hey... if you improve your racing skills, you will crash less. Don't be a weenie! It's a game: you win some, you loose some. You didn't expect them to make it all easy, did you?

  • krudster #83 8 years ago

    Xbox RGB is arse for PAL users -this is why certain PS2 games look crisper. Plug a debug, US or modded Xbox into a progscan enabled TV and try telling yourself the PS2 version is crisper. The difference is staggering.

  • Talha #84 8 years ago

    B3 on PC? That is not a clever idea, i am afraid. See, I have the feeling that no racing game EVER would touch 60 FPS on a PC, even if u have a P5 5.0 GHz, 3 Gigs of RAM and a 1024 MB graphics card.

    PC gaming has beckoned its own death by increasing system requirements inexplicably with every version of a game. You just have to see all those forums and articles instructing as to how to get the fucking Doom III play at anything better than a slideshow on your rig. And that includes ANY RIG!

    ATI and NVidia, (and Intel), can play all they want on the PC, but count me out. So, sir, I advise you to get a $100 XBOX or PS2, and START ENJOYING LIFE. Hell, the ATI X800 alone costs $500.

  • C13 #85 8 years ago

    @Talha

    'hear hear'

    But i guess that's not an issue for either of us here is it... It's the same reason why i bought my xbox...

  • speedjack #86 8 years ago

    Thanks Krudster, that would explain why the screenies look so good. But is there no other way us mere mortals can clean up the image without buying an import Xbox or new telly ?

    I've noticed the same with the my Gamecube too - far better image than the Xbox. (I'm running all three at 60hz).

  • pjmaybe #87 8 years ago

    Glad it's not just me that thinks that about Xbox games.

    I did wonder why the PS2 demo versh looks crisper than the Xbox versh..

    Peej

  • C13 #88 8 years ago

    Kevf123

    I agree totally: it's not a sim... it's just about racing fast, wrecking cars, enjoying the violence...

    To me Burnout 3 a heir to the fabelous Carmageddon... The same spirit is alive... it's just without the ppl walking around...

    Damn you you puritains!

  • C13 #89 8 years ago

    Yeah... Dreamcast...

    Well... you know... Anyone here ever heard about the famous automake 'Tucker'?

    It's the same song i'm afraid...

  • Royal Fool #90 8 years ago

    I thought it was a brilliant twist to start a race on a Far East track and suddenly realize the traffic was reversed!

    EDIT: I haven't woken up properly...
    Edited by 1 at 15/09/04 @ 12:43

  • mingster #91 8 years ago

    The geezer that keeps asking how to unlock multiplayer.

    Try putting a second joypad in the other controller port that should do it!

  • mingster #92 8 years ago

    O and the patch to servers online.... did bugger all.
    connecting to a game is still totally random to whether you get a lost connection.

  • Stevas mkII #93 8 years ago

    "Xbox RGB is arse for PAL users."

    How come?

  • savant #94 8 years ago

    This game has far too many flaws to garner a 9/10 in my book:

    - The DJ. Shoot him please.
    - The music. Apart from a couple of tracks, it's awful. Being able to use a custom soundtrack isn't a valid excuse.
    - Having to spend ages clicking through menus just to try a race/crash junction again. Quite simply, there should be a button to go straight back in and another to replay the race/crash junction intro.
    - You can't skip the tutorial movies, the unlockable movies or the special event movies. Grrr.
    - Rubberbanding AI is unfair. This is a matter of opinion, I know, but it seems even more apparent in 3 than 2, and when you crash on the home straight and end up in fifth, it's more than a little bit annoying (especially if you're competing in a multi-race GP series!).
    - No System Link. Wha? This is a startling omission and I just don't see why.
    - No race replays. These were in Burnout 2 (at least on the Xbox), so what explains their absence here?
    - The presence of bonus collectables in crash junctions just spoils the purity of the mode. Instead of multipliers based on the number of vehicles involved in your pile-up, it's just a case of aiming for the 4x every time until you get it. In my opinion Burnout 2's crash junctions + the ramps and aftertouch of 3 would be ideal.
    - Not being able to trade replays online is an awful omission.
    - No high-score tables for your offline plays sucks, too.
    - No ability to alter the angle of the crash replays. It's the same every time. Being able to switch between cameras, control the playback speed and upload your finished work to EA online would be a great addition.
    - EA's advertising all over the place. For chrissake, I get enough banner ads for Tiger Woods surfing online; I don't need them in a game I paid 35 quid for.
    - The Nav screen doesn't show where you've just come from. Unlocking a new car forces you back to the Nav screen, where you have to trawl through the available spots to find where you were.
    - The score calculations are sometimes just plain wrong. Admittedly, it's not all the time, but this should have been spotted in QA.
    - EA's online service is woeful. I'm not online myself, but reports from all over the Net confirm that EA shouldn't be hosting Live services at the moment. After all the fuss they made about not wanting to go through Microsoft, it's shameful that they'd muck things up this badly.
    - No Burnout chains! How can they have taken these out? :( The best part of Burnout 2 was trying to get a complete lap while Boosting the whole time.
    - Opponent AI is useless. They try and get you at the same point every lap and the rubberbanding only works in their favour. Crash a couple of times after boosting for the entire race and it's likely that you're 15 seconds behind fifth place already.
    - Sound effects for the bumps and scrapes are weedy or non-existent.

    OK, rant over. As you can tell, I don't think this kind of missed opportunity could possibly account for a 9/10 score. If they'd held this back a couple of months to iron out the niggles it could have been truly great. I guess I'll just have to wait for 4! :)

  • Twisted #95 8 years ago

    What you people who are nitpicking don't seem to realise is games are supposed to be fun Burnout 3 delivers this in spades, Ok its not perfect but what game is, In my book its at least a nine for the sheer enjoyment factor.

  • C13 #96 8 years ago

    @ savant

    You must have a lot of free time... or you spend your time NOT playing Burnout 3 for writing this... Reading all, it must be a terrible game... with all the things they forgot putting in!!!

    Still i have a few remarks for you...

    - the tutorial movies only appear when you start your World Tour, not before every single race or crash junction you take part in.

    - the rubberbanding AI is not unfair - see my previous post. It's totally logical and if you think it's unfair you are weenie. The title of Burnout 3 is 'Takedown', and that's what this edition is about. It's not about chaining burnouts during a whole lap and arriving at the finish a half lap in front of the second. It's about wrecking cars!

    - the 'purity of the crash junctions', lolz... Well i don't think it's easy to get those multipliers every time... the 4x is pretty hard mostly. If i'm not mistaken, the goals for reaching medals are a bit higher now than they use to be... so it's only fair to add some bonusses and multpliers!

    - EA advertising? What do you do during the racing? Enjoying the scenery? You must have three eyes. I certainly can't look at the advertising everywhere around or i'll crash... And even then... who cares... i didn't know gamers were so anticapitalistic or against publicity.

    - Wrong calculating of the crashes... How are you able to count everything you wrecked? I admint, the sweeping cam could go over the wrecks less quickly for me too, but even then, how can you add everything and contest the result in the end?

    - Oh you don't think it's fair to be behind after a few crashes. Well the game is about good and fast racing. That means: making little mistakes. It may be an arcade racer, but it behaves like a sim on this point. If you race well and don't crash, you will win ahead of other races (just a few seconds). If you crahs to much, you loose. And it's not that the other racers make NO mistakes at all: i see them crashing a lot on their onw!

    How strange you didn't complain about the bad graphics. Because as you know, it's almost impossible to see traffic coming with all that blur. Oh oh, did you notice how square the cars are? Terrible, isn't it.... NOT!!!

  • yegon #97 8 years ago

    To PAL Xbox users - have you tried using a (high quality) S-Video lead? I use one and the picture is significantly crisper than the RGB output (and I'm very picky about such things).

  • savant #98 8 years ago

    C13 - there's no need to be personal. I was expressing an opinion. The game was a serious disappointment for me, as I said. I'm a fan of Burnout 2 (although its longevity was poor).

    To clear a couple of things up:

    - The movies I was referring to are:
    1. When you've unlocked something (special event, new car, new race series).
    2. The introductions to each crash junction, where it reloads and tells you what points you need for the medals (and where the DJ says the same things over and over again).

    - The medal requirements for the crash junctions are higher because of the new collectables. You won't be able to get a Gold on most of them unless you get a 4x multiplier. It's not about crashing into cars any more ;)

    - As I said (and you seem to have ignored), my _opinion_ of Burnout 3's rubberbanding is that it's unfair. If you think it's OK to drive 100% through an entire series of three races, then lose the entire GP because of a single crash on the last bend, then I admire your patience. There are degrees of rubberbanding in many games, but in Burnout 3 it's especially poorly implemented.

    - The wrong calculations occur sometimes when your crash junction score is added on to your total, not when it's totting up the individual crashes.

    You know, it's OK to disagree. Chill out.

  • C13 #99 8 years ago

    I just remember, a strange thing happened to me during one of the Alpine races. Normally they roadblocks and sidebars keep your car in the track, even in high speeds. And if not, you crash. But when steaming up a mountainous curvy road i used my burnout and somehow managed to fly over the sidebars of the road... WITHOUT crashing. And i came down a bit lower, under the road and was able to drive a bit. But since there was no way out, i had to drive in the river there. And then you like drown... which is the same as crashing. But be carefull when this happens. You see yourself underwater and it says 'Under water: 1 sec, 2 sec, 3 sec ...' and goes on counting a few seconds. You loose a lot of time here...

    This happened to me two times already. I guess it's not a glitch because everything down there is beautifully worked out...

  • C13 #100 8 years ago

    @ Salutatious Gent

    Maybe you should check out the game first before imagining what the Mediocrity Monster looks like... and exactly what size it is this time... even if it's there... ;)

    Nice writing though

    Has gotten me hungry lolz

  • OnlyMe #101 8 years ago

    Well, you don't drive 100% through a series of races if you crash in the last minute, did you? The pressure got to you and you couldn't handle it. Simple as that. When you crash you crash, you're supposed to be punished for that. You can't walk up to the referee after a football game and demand to be declared winners because that last injury time goal scored by your opponents were just a lucky strike and yours were the better team throughout the whole match.

    If you make a mistake, you're punished. Is that really so unfair?

    oh, a "series" of three races? Wow, you must not like a game much when you can't stand playing through three little races because you didn't win the first time. You're saying you won't ever play that same tracks or with the same cars ever again? What's the big deal? I would have understood if it was a 5 hour endurance race, but a GP that takes what, half an hour in total? Probably way less too.

  • krudster #102 8 years ago

    I've no real technical insight into why Xbox PAL RGB is so bad next to PS2 or Cube, but it just is. Plug all three into the same TV and the PS2 wins hands down for crystal clear signal output. You only really notice *how* bad Xbox Scart is on a plasma display, and it's very poor indeed. Once you can get an Xbox that can output in 480p or higher (as opposed to the default 480i) the difference is very very marked. Seeing B3 in progscan is like looking at a different game.

    The few games that support 720p, like Soul Calibur II really shine.

    This isn't much of an issue at the moment over here as so few gamers have prog scan TVs, but as the prices come down you'll really see the difference.

  • savant #103 8 years ago

    Only Me - I think you're missing the argument. The whole negative point about the rubberbanding in BO3 is that you can drive pretty much without boosting and win races by not crashing, but if you boost like mad you'll never get enough head-start on your opponents to win first place if you crash.

    And, yes, when it spoils a half hour Race GP you've been concentrating on it's frustrating! Especially when you get shunted into a pillar by the guy in second place! It's not all mad driving skillz you know, there is a certain sense of luck ;)

  • Stevas mkII #104 8 years ago

    Have you tried it through S-Video, like what some guy up there said? If so, did you find it improved things?

  • savant #105 8 years ago

    krudster - the "Advanced SCART" cable gives you a much better picture than the one they give you in the box. It's fully-wired RGB as opposed to the composite jobbie, and you get optical out to plug into your surround system.

    http ://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005TRYX/qid=10952581 58/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl/202-2149471-3943048

  • Merefield #106 8 years ago

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but the whole "Rubberband AI" (don't really think that's an accurate title, but hey) started with Nintendo, e.g. Mario Kart, generally for the opposite purpose, to give young children/crap adults a chance against the computer controlled drivers's, so if they suddenly drive well for the last 10 seconds, they win the race! (even if they crashed on every corner for the first 9 laps)

    Generally I hate it, with a passion, and there should be an option to switch it off.

    And I want a patch to implement it, dammit!

  • OnlyMe #107 8 years ago

    ManicMinerUK: I certainly didn't mean to disturb you... I understand what you're talking about. But it seems to me the only way the difficulty is raised in this game is the rubberband AI system. I don't mind that much, but I agree that it's a bit annoying at times. But it's not enough to screw up an otherwise excellent game. It's weird, this game is probably one of the most perfect games to hit us in a very very long time, and for some reason people complaint about small, maybe even pointless design errors. What does it take for people to just shut up, enjoy the game and accept that nothing can be perfect (but this one is very very close to being that).

    Even weirder is when people gets an average title they tend to ignore these little thing and suddenly they're happy with what little they got. It's like people like mediocre or average games better than the close-to-perfect ones. I'm not saying, don't complain. Just saying enjoy, buy the game, and we'll get a sequel that could be even better. If these little errors will make a guy just "wait for Burnout 4", there may not even BE a Burnout 4. Why? Because nobody bought Burnout 3, so why should they release a sequel? The whole waiting-for-the-sequel logic escapes me.

    Anyway, enjoy the gaming.

  • APHIZM #108 8 years ago

    The damn server's down again....

  • posh_geordie #109 8 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • posh_geordie #110 8 years ago

    Post deleted at 18:45:04 02-01-2012

  • OnlyMe #111 8 years ago

    I'm not finished with the game but it certainly isn't hard. Burnout 1 was hard. Burnout 2 was a a bit challenging when it came to the Custom series. Burnout 3 is a breeze so far. I'm 50% through, more or less.

    Burnout 1 was a real challenge. The cars crashed as soon as you touched the sidewalk. The tension was incredible. Didn't move nearly as fast as B3, but damn it was a challenge to keep these cars from crashing at all. I love all three games equally.

  • mad_caddy #112 8 years ago

    i waited for this game, i really waited.....
    When purchased i hastily slapped in in my ps2, played for a few hours over the weekend, when i say a few i mean i hit about 10 hours

    racing = ok, fast and frantic, takedown cam is a cheat, in the background i spotted my car slam into on coming traffic and it didnt crash me yet if i'd have had the takedown cam turned off it would have killed me

    road rage = good

    elimination = designed by the devil

    and crash mode = rubbish, try this.........dodge the speed pick up, drive carefully to a junction collect the x4 multipler and then crash slowly......GOLD MEDAL!

    the crash mode is no longer about the crash but it's all about the pick ups!

    and my fianl winge is about the rubber banding.....people hated mario kart double dash for it, but being as this is burnout 3 it's allowed to cheat!

    not long after, this was returned for something more fun, like asking the cashier to shove a brick up my backside sideways
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/04 @ 13:38

  • Merefield #113 8 years ago

    Yeah, agree

    Crash Mode has been ruined by pick-ups. Its no longer about being creative and trying a multitude of the different ways you can approach the other traffic to improve your score - now your options are reduced as you are almost forced to use the same route as governed by the placement of the pick-ups - CRAP!

  • Whizzo #114 8 years ago

    and crash mode = rubbish, try this.........dodge the speed pick up, drive carefully to a junction collect the x4 multipler and then crash slowly......GOLD MEDAL!

    There by proving you've not actually done many of them then as that won't work on most levels.

  • Nillsens #115 8 years ago

    Never played B1 or B2 but I recently picked this up in a 3 for 2 deal.

    Without being critical (because I can be) I can honestly say I love this game. Sure, it can be inconsistent with it's mechanics sometimes and the AI can feel slightly cheap on occasion. That doesn't mean that I didn't laugh at every single crash for the first 9 hours of gameplay.

    I often wonder if the people who dislike it (however valid their argument may be) get frustrated more easily. I know my mate certainly does, shouting and cussing at the screen and all.
    Even after losing at the same race for the 10th time I still enjoy trying.

    Hmmm... lack of point terminates comment. Bye bye.
    Edited by 1 at 17/09/04 @ 17:33

  • Lovemoose #116 8 years ago

    and crash mode = rubbish, try this.........dodge the speed pick up, drive carefully to a junction collect the x4 multipler and then crash slowly......GOLD MEDAL!

    There by proving you've not actually done many of them then as that won't work on most levels.

    That tactic is working so far for me, and I'm about 75% of the way through the game. Got to agree with Mr Caddy on this one.

    It's an average arcade racer with a typical layer of EA polish (or way too many button presses, as I like to think of it). It's a crying shame, as they've wasted Burnout 2's legacy. Ho Hum.

  • masterson #117 8 years ago

    "Xbox RGB is arse for PAL users -this is why certain PS2 games look crisper. Plug a debug, US or modded Xbox into a progscan enabled TV and try telling yourself the PS2 version is crisper. The difference is staggering. "

    Hear hear! Strangley an NTSC xbox via RGB SCART also seems to give a better picture than a PAL one (either at 50 or 60Hz).
    Bear in mind the PS2 version also supports 480P though, not sure how that compares to 480P on the xbox?

  • spindizzy #118 8 years ago

    Okay, I finally have it and I'm very pleased that I didn't (as I usually do with sequels) trade BO2 in first. They're basically very different games - in this it seems to be much less about speed (which I think is a bit of a shame). No more chaining boosts and winning by sustaining insane speeds, so fast in fact that you dare not blink. No, it now seems to be much more about keeping some boost in reserve if needed, and to concentrate on trashing the opposition.

    Road Rage is fabulous fun though, and Criterion obviously decided that they had to seriously tweak the boost mechanism to make the Takedown approach work. Fair enough, but I'll definitely be going back to BO2 for the odd go ... and the lack of race replays is a real shame.

    Is anyone playing online with a PS2 by the way? I'm wondering if it's worth buying the network adaptor.

  • JDub #119 8 years ago

    Well after playing it for a few days (and being a huge fan of B2), I've gotta say I'm really disappointed - and really don't think it's worth a 9.

    First, there is no manual transmisson like earlier versions, then you NEED to buy a Dualshock2 for two player games - a Dualshock1 won't cut it for some reason, even though the controls are now simpler (very crafty way of generating a ton of revenue)...and from what I hear (and read) the online play is not worth buying an adaptor for. The music is pretty lousy and the rubber band AI makes the selection of cars pointless - they all behave similarly in relation. Also, pointless loading from CD takes place, making you wait at times when you shouldn't be...

    On the plus side, when you're actually in a race, the game looks good and is pretty fun, but...

    This is a 9?!? More like a 7. EG, shame on you.
    Edited by 1 at 19/09/04 @ 10:31

  • bloke #120 7 years ago

    30 odd hours in, 500K Points - still mildly disappointed.

    That 'Need 4 Speed' feel just doesn't do it for me. Still fun, but more like an 8 than a 9. Burnout 2 - still a nine ;-)

    JC

  • Mr_Whacker #121 7 years ago

    What is the with the enormous KER-CHUNK sound everytrime the car moves? Is somebody mucking about with the door? 'Ooh my coat is trapped!' perhaps?

  • mad_caddy #122 7 years ago

    I'm pretty sure i know what that it, it's the sound of the gameplay getting out of the car and leaving!

  • Mr_Whacker #123 7 years ago

    Ha - yeah, along with the menu usability and after hearing that crap DJ, integrity.

  • GTBurns #124 7 years ago

    "I got some great scores in Burnout 2 using techniques I'm pretty sure that developers hadn't forseen. No chance of that now."

    You're sure about that are you, Bivith!?!

    Anyway, aside from the rather anal commentary here; I think Burnout 3 might be the most fun I've had with a driving game since halcyon days of blowing endless pocket-money on Chase HQ! I'd also wager that even the most pedantic posters listed here are still playing the game come Xmas.

  • spindizzy #125 7 years ago

    frod: the reason that I'm a bit disappointed with BO3 is basically that I wanted BO2 with better graphics, and what I've got instead is a different game. BO2 is a bit like wipeout, in that when you know a track you get this sort of zen feeling of calm as you shoot through cars at unbelievable speed. There *is* rubber-banding but when you're chaining boost after boost together, you don't see it.

    With BO3 it's basically a fighting game in cars. There's no point racing as fast as you can, because it's almost impossible to get boost without doing takedowns.

    It's a completely different approach, and I much prefer the first one. BO3 is still fun, but I haven't finished it, and I haven't played it once since San Andreas came out. With BO2 it barely ever left the PS2. ;-)

  • paullondon #126 7 years ago

    extremely overrated sorry but i really don`t like this game

  • bodcod #127 7 years ago

    Great game, some aspects r better than p.o.i some not.

    Where is the widescreen mode? is this an E.A thing

  • Obiwanshinobi #128 3 years ago

    Hey, it plays The Ramones' song! Which is, I daresay, something to cherish. Shame EA had no guts to use Bad Religion's 21st Century (Digital Boy). It would fit perfectly both the rest of the soundtrack and the game itself.