Need For Speed, Chaos, And Utter Carnage

By Saw Lidong • UrbanWire
email reporter • email story • print version

After having a couple of friends over to aid me in my review of Burnout 3: Takedown, I’ve concluded that the most interesting aspect of this Xbox title, isn’t the cutting edge graphics at break neck speed or the cars themselves, but rather the expressions of sheer ecstasy on their faces (and mine) as we watched car wreck after car wreck sail across the screen in bullet time. With Burnout 3, Criterion Games has come up with a gem of a racing game, which will fulfill every driver’s deepest darkest desire; to be able to break all the rules of the road and not only get away with it, but also get rewarded for it.

In the Name Of The Game, Crash!

Really, why hadn’t anyone thought of it before? All your conventional racing simulators emphasise more on taking the correct racing line, braking and hitting the apex of a curve at the right moment, and ultimately crossing the finish line 1st. Granted, that it does yield some amount of satisfaction, but it also gets boring pretty fast. Thankfully, racing simulators these days, such as Need For Speed Underground, are starting breaking away from these norms. Still, they don’t come as well executed and polished as Burnout 3.

In Burnout 3 , you get to pilot an impressive array of automobiles, and race/crash at locations around the world. However, you’ll only start off with a couple of basic compacts and coupes to mess around with at various circuits around North America . As you complete more races, more exotic vehicles, from modified minis to fire trucks to Formula 1 racers, will be unlocked and made available to you. Too bad they didn’t include a combat tank, what an impact (excuse the pun) that would make on the game. As you progress, you’ll also unlock new race tracks at exotic locations in Europe and the Far East.

As mentioned before, Burnout 3 isn’t exactly your conventional racing simulator, although in certain races, you’ll still need to reach the checkered flag in order to progress in the game. However, that’s about all the similarity there is. Whenever you start a new single player world tour game, you’ll hear the tutorial narrator chirp, “The more risk you take, the more rewards you get.” Damn right, as I found out. Driving properly alone isn’t enough, only risk-takers earn boast (the ability to increase the maximum speed of your vehicle for a limited period of time) to guarantee victory in a race. So what exactly are these “risks”? Let’s start with the less “serious” ones. Drifting your vehicle around corners or tail gating your opponent’s car does the trick. So does driving on the wrong side of the road or nearly missing a head on collision with an oncoming car. Oh yes, before we go on, I forgot to mention that you don’t really race on circuits. Instead, you race along public streets and roads with lots of traffic and busy junctions. Pretty exciting stuff, huh? The other boast acquiring maneuvers would probably have you locked up in jail if you ever practice them along our streets. They involve ramming your vehicle against your opponent’s or scoring takedowns on them. Takedowns, which garner the most amount of boast, can be anything from ramming your opponent against a wall to forcing him into an overpass pillar or oncoming traffic, just as long as he’s in a heap of twisted metal sitting at the side of the road while you’re streaking off into the horizon. Plus, on top of boast, you’ll also be rewarded with those spectacular cut scenes of carnage that had my friends and me in awe. However, if you crash, or get taken down, your boast will decrease. That isn’t the end of the story though. Once you crash or get taken down, you can activate impact time and guide/steer your wreck into the path of your opponent’s car to score an aftertouch takedown, as well as a small measure of revenge. Unfortunately (if you’re like us), you’ll be so engrossed with your own spectacular demise that most of the time you’ll forget about that option.

Other than race events in the Burnout 3 World Tour, there’re the crash events. Crash events are to cause as much destruction and mayhem on the roads as possible. It’s funny how the introduction to a crash event works. Without any narration, you’ll be shown your vehicle sitting in the middle of an empty street, before the view zooms forward to a ramp, and then a very busy road junction with big trailers and motor homes lumbering by. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to connect the pieces. There’ll also be items along the way, such as instant boast, and damage multipliers and reducers, for you to grab to maximise your mayhem. So after you’ve launched your weapon of mass destruction into that busy junction, and all the wrecks have come to a screeching halt, sit back and watch as the amount of damage you caused gets tallied into a score. Talk about being an arsonist, a vandal, and a nuisance to the Land Transport Authority (LTA), all rolled into one (without any of the repercussions, of course).

Dashboard, Steering Wheel And Clutch

Controls for Burnout 3 are easier to master than driving a real vehicle, naturally. It’s like driving without having gone through any lessons. Holding down the right trigger accelerates you, while the left trigger applies the brakes or put you in reverse. If you’ve got boast, hold down A to light those afterburners. Want to get closer to the action? Hit Y and you’ll be transported to a 1st person view of the road from inside the vehicle. Just remember to watch out for that oncoming 18-wheeler. It’s not a pleasant feeling getting involved in a major road accident from a 1st person point of view, even if it’s a virtual one.

To fully enjoy and experience Burnout 3 , get an Xbox compatible driving kit and wreck some serious havoc with a steering wheel. Then again, this isn’t really advisable for real drivers. We won’t want you mistaking the dashboard of your parent’s Mercedes for a cheap gaming wheel.

Traffic Watch

The only problem with Burnout 3’s graphics is that they’re too damn gorgeous! At times, you may catch yourself admiring the beautifully rendered environments, which range from busy city streets to quiet American suburbs to lush European mountain ridges, rather than paying attention to the road, resulting in your almost certain destruction. The graphics also give a breathtaking impression of speed as you zip by or plow into oncoming traffic. Activate boast and watch your surroundings blur as if you’re entering hyper speed. And have I mentioned the spectacular crash scenes yet?

Accompanying you throughout your journey of mayhem is DJ Crash on Crash FM. Other than occasionally making some corny, wisecrack jokes/comments, he’ll also egg you on if you’re not sending enough vehicles careening off the road. In between his talk sets, he’ll play you some up tempo music from various less renowned real life punk rock bands. Perhaps some of you might not like DJ Crash’s lazy stoner accent or the choice of music for the game, but it worked for me. Oh well, you be the judge.

The Checkered Flag

At the end of the day, Burnout 3: Takedown is an extremely well crafted and addictive title which will appeal not only to racing simulator fans, but also anyone out there looking for a truly enjoyable gaming experience. Better yet, it’s Xbox live enabled so you can pit your crashing skills against multiple players. Or else, just have a couple of friends over and watch their reactions as you mercilessly take them out. The image is priceless.

4.5/5 Stars

Images courtesy of Electronic Arts