Burnout 3: Takedown is the greatest of the Burnout franchise, and one of the best racing games of all time. The Burnout series sets itself apart from other racing games by encouraging highly aggressive driving and causing as much destruction as possible. Burnout 3 sets itself apart from its predecessors by taking all the good parts of the previous games and making them better.

The game play of Burnout 3: Takedown is as simple as it is innovative. Gas, brakes and boost are all there, as is the steering, but the way that the game actually plays is fantastic. The game can get to blistering speeds, and it actually gives the sensation that you’re flying down the road at 200 mph in the opposite direction of traffic. Driving dangerously will gain boost for players, which has its obvious advantages of going faster, and can be used to accent the turns that you will drift around. Crashing your opponents off the road will help out too, as it increases the capacity of your boost gauge. Driving into opposing traffic, drifting, drafting, airtime and wrecking opponents will all go towards the cause of earning boost, though not without its consequences. As it turns out, the AI doesn’t like to wreck, so it does everything that it can to get back at you. The AI does get pretty darn difficult as you progress through the World Tour mode, as do the challenges.

The core meat of the game can be found in the World Tour mode. This is the single player mode where players unlock all the different stuff: cars, tracks, crash events and such. The way that the World Tour works, is that it’s set up like a map with different points marked, each with a set of events that are unique to that location. There are several different locations on each of the three different continents where the game takes place. Europe, The Far East, and the good ol’ US of A. Events consist of race, road rage (where the goal is to smash into and crash your opponents), time trial, and, of course, the signature crash mode. World Tour will consume a good portion of your time with Burnout 3: Takedown, and that’s not a bad thing. All the challenges are loads of fun and can get quite challenging, at that.

The primary challenge that you’ll be facing down is the signature crash mode. Each crash event is set up for the optimum amount of destruction, which can be obtained with precise movement. This is where Burnout shines the most. Crash mode is, and always will be, fun and the reason why we play Burnout. The graphics and physics in Burnout 3: Takedown make experiencing crash mode glorious. Every single piece of shrapnel, every car, every explosion is orchestrated to perfection. The beauty of crash mode is the amount of difficulty that comes with it. Careful timing, driving and patience can make for a huge payoff, with even bigger destruction.

One thing that really stands out about Burnout 3 is its impressive soundtrack. It’s a combination of punk, rock, and various other tracks of that nature, that all fit the pace and tone of the game. Fast, furious action. My Chemical Romance, Go Betty Go, The Ramones, The Von Bondies, and Jimmy Eat World, to name a few. The only complaint about the soundtrack is the fact that there are those obligatory bad songs to go along with all the rest, and the soundtrack isn’t entirely customizable. As in, you can’t turn every song off.

All in all, Burnout 3: Takedown is a brilliant game with a few short comings, but they’re negligible. It’s a fast paced, good looking, and fun game that should be in the collection of any respectable gamers library. -A