Retro Racing Game Review - Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2)

Time to feature another game of my childhood. Burnout 3: Takedown was released in 2004, and was the third instalment in EA's Burnout series. The game encouraged players to drive dangerously and crash into other cars to earn cash and unlock more cars to use in the game (including supercars and a fire truck!).

The game featured several game modes such as:

- Single Race: where the player competes against five other AI in a three lap race around a certain section of the Burnout world. Crashes, takedowns, near misses with traffic and drifting around corners are rewarded with boost, which can be used to gain an advantage over the AI.

- Crash Mode: the player crashes into oncoming traffic, picking up money bonuses and multipliers along the way by using the slow-motion "Impact Time" - be careful of the heartbreakers though, as they will half your total score.

- Road Rage: the most popular game mode, where the player has to crash into four other AI to earn a number of "takedowns" before their own car is totalled. See if you can beat my record of 55 takedowns on Silver Lake in one of the supercars....

- World Tour: basically all three of the previous game modes mixed into a single mode, where the player goes to locations all around the world and earns medals for competing in the events. Try going for all gold medals, I dare ya (it's impossible!).

"WE ARE THE LAZY GENERATION, NO MORE STANDING OUT IN LINE..."

Sorry, just had to get that song lyric in there.... but it's relevant to what I'm gonna talk about - the game's soundtrack. It's a brilliant selection of rock tracks from the early 2000s (the second best era of music for me, just behind the 80s) - and they fit the game perfectly. As a kid, there was nothing better than listening to The Ordinary Boys's song "Over The Counter Culture" whilst smashing an AI to a wall at 180mph.

This is a trick that I reckon most video games today are missing. Sure, it's easier and less expensive for studios to produce their soundtrack in-house - but to have a truly authentic licensed soundtrack accompanying a game such as Burnout 3 is a key to its critical success. The soundtrack has become memorable to me, and has introduced me to a few bands purely because of the songs in Burnout 3.

I've linked a personal favourite of mine below:

FINALLY, A GAME THAT REWARDS SMASHING INTO OTHER CARS...

The best part about this game is all of the fun of being able to let loose and not worry about rules. Every game mode has its own charm, with Crash Mode in particular being an enjoyable experience - what's not to love about crashing as hard as you possibly can into oncoming traffic? Well saying that... in real life it'll cause a lot of trouble, but oh well. You get my point though. No other game at the time rewarded you for doing that sort of thing.

With the vast range of locations made available - such as packed city centres, highways and seaside resorts - it's obvious that the developers put of a lot of thought into the game world, which is always a good thing. It kept the game exciting and fresh for players such as myself.

The game's physics weren't anything too groundbreaking, just a standard arcade racing engine. Still didn't take away from my personal enjoyment of the game - the physics made the game playable for even the novices amongst us. The AI were quite slow and clumsy to say the least - but made it easier to ram them into walls and score more takedowns....

FINAL VERDICT

I love this game. I still play it to this day, and immediately the feelings of nostalgia kick in when I hear the soundtrack and perform takedowns on rival cars. If I ever have kids, I'm introducing them to Burnout 3, rather than sh*t like Fortnite or whatever the hell is popular nowadays.

YOUR OPINIONS PLEASE...

Do you agree with my views on Burnout 3? Have I missed anything out? Let me know in the comments below. As always, cheers for reading - and I'll see ya later....