I can safely say that amongst the arcade racers out there
the Burnout series is one of the most critically acclaimed and intense of them
all. Boasting a fantastic sense of speed and excellent arcade handling physics,
the series is excellent even for players who hate racing games but just want
fun regardless.
While Burnout Paradise may be the high note Criterion has
hung their hat on for the series, Burnout 3 is considered by many to be the
best, myself included. But how does it hold up over ten years later and after
the majority of arcade racers have lost out to the likes of Need for
Speed(which the majority of Criterion staff have been merged with)? Is it still
a classic now, or just another game with immense praise at the time which has
lost its lustre?
For starters, I had to download a digital version for the
Xbox 360. My copy for the original xbox had sadly scratched itself into
oblivion, but another €9.50 for the game
seemed decent enough. The game immediately gets a bit of a downer look from me
as the intro screen loads and it becomes apparent that Burnout 3 clearly hadn’t
got HDTV’s or surround sound in mind when it was produced. Made before the
seventh generation, it simply does not make as big an impression as the 360
edition of Burnout Revenge, which nearly gave you eargasms at maximum speed and
had a lot more visual flair.
At least its not THIS bad
This was quite a surprise to me. The game when released
looked pretty gorgeous at the time. The Renderware engine showcased brilliant
destruction physics when a car crashed and the locations you raced on looked
the part. Now though, it definitely feels subdued. That is not to say that the
game is awful to look at, just that Revenge and Paradise really took things to
the next level (and generation) while B3 seems like it really does stay in the
original xbox and PS2 era.
A little touch that the xbox had which pits it above
sticking MP3’s on a memory stick was the custom soundtrack. This was a
necessity with B3 in particular, having fairly dated music. Most of the soundtrack
is the pre-youtube era alternative rock with some notable exceptions such as
the Ramones and Franz Ferdinand. Sadly the custom playlist feature is disabled
on the 360 version, so you must either play the soundtrack in the dashboard
before jumping in or get used to the year 2004 again…
However, incredible radio music/announcer and mind blowing
graphics are not what people remember from Burnout 3. They remember the pure
fun factor of racing aggressively and making their opponents crash off a bridge
and fly twenty feet in the air. Yes, the core gameplay is extremely simple to
learn, exhilarating to play and a challenge for high scores, all in one. The
driving controls are so slick that it’s hard to imagine ANY game in the future
from beating this game bar another Criterion entry in the series. The sense of
speed is amongs the best out there, despite being a little less flashy than the
360 version of Revenge.
Crucially, and this is my major gripe against Revenge, is
that the game tone is centred around a lighter form of madness, as if this is
made for those that are at a house party and want to play road rage while
having a few beers. The music may be dated, but it’s still got an air of upbeat
cheeriness while the thematic colour seems to be blue. Tracks are bright with
blue skies and the menu screen has the blue overlay more in line with a GPS
system. Revenge by contrast feels like it went overboard in making you hate
your rivals, and the aggressive tone just was not to my taste.
Even the cars in Revenge were angry nasty work
While on the tracks, they are designed superbly for the game
mechanics. Almost all corners cater to drifting around them instead of
conventional cornering. Traffic hazards litter the courses, from buses and
trucks to environmental ones such as bridge supports and clifftop routes. The
pacing is great too. Silver Lake and Downtown are great introductions to
general racing and road rage respectively. The Latter tracks in the far east
are a true test of reflexes as you careen down the motorway, and readjust your
brain to travel down the other side of the road.
Finally, something that really
gives B3 an edge on other fixed track games is that some routes connect a few
tracks together (kings of the road for example connects all the American tracks
together for one extra long rally track). This really gives a flee flowing
seamless world feel to the tracks, and makes them feel like they all exist
together rather than in isolated pockets with no connectivily (again, Revenge
is guilty of this). The European highway route feels like a long drive and an
enjoyable one at that, and it doesn’t hurt that you can throw your rivals into
big rigs if that’s your thing.
The route from the peninsula to the Golden city is brill!
Events are well suited to the game, although by todays
standards they may seem rather lean by comparison. You have your standard race
and time attacks, but the best addition here is the road rage events. There is
no need to win a race, nore beat a pre-set time. No, all you need to do is
obliterate the opposition, and the more cars you wreck the higher the score. It’s
a fantastic addition that really makes Burnout 3 stand out from the previous
entries and paves the way for the future instalments. Nothing relieves road
rage than, well…road rage.
And then there is the Crash Mode. While Revenge significantly
upgraded this mode with custom tailored events, Burnout 3’s is nonetheless an
entertaining addition (and it had to be, it takes up half the games events!).
The mode uses the same areas as the race tracks, but instead
the aim is to destroy as much traffic at a junction as possible. The areas tend
to have ramps and powerups as you try to beat the high score, and if done
right, are a spectacular thing of destroyed beauty that must be seen to be
believed.
This also showcases another mechanic new to Burnout 3, which
is the aftertouch system. When you crash, there is an option to enter bullet
time and slightly control the direction your wreck is hurtling. In race events
this can be a minor addition while doing the usual slo-mo crash with unsettling
ambient sounds, but in crash mode, it is a necessity if you want to get all
gold in all the events.
Aside from the strategy involved in choosing the right angle
of impact and the ensuing carnage, it isn’t what I remember most about the
game, which is strange since it’s a mode that differs so much from its contemporaries.
I do know some fans play this mode religiously though, so fear not, I still love
this mode as a whole, but the racing is my favourite aspect.
So Burnout 3 then. As a whole, it’s presentation has aged a
little, but the core mechanics still make this a masterpiece in gameplay, and a
classic of the PS2 era. If you have never played a burnout game, this may be
the best to start with, as it showcases so much of what makes the series
fantastic. The crashes, the sense of speed, the fantastic driving mechanics, the
reflex challenge of weaving through traffic at supersonic speeds. Pick this one up, your only regret will be seeing just how middle of the road arcade racers have become on the next generation since.
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