Burnout 3: Takedown - Legal Road Rage

My youngest son just loves this game, he loves to crash cars in racing games and this one gives him the perfect opportunity to do so without being penalized. He got started on the Burnout series when we rented Burnout 2 and later bought it, so when he saw Burnout 3: Takedown came out, he bugged us for it. I like the Burnout series too, so it wasn't if we were buying it just for him, he plays it, I play and his older brother plays it, so it worked out well.

There really is no story to the game, you have different modes you can play by selecting which one you want from the main menu.

Game Modes

Burnout 3 World Tour - At first you'll only have a few locations to choose from, but as you complete the events and earn medals, you can unlock other events and vehicles and get trophys for certain types of Takedowns.

Single Event - Here you can choose from Race, Time Attack, Road Rage and Crash. Once you seem to get stuck or get a little bored with the World Tour portion of the game, this is where you'll probably spend a lot of your time.

Multiplayer - Here you can choose from Race, Road Rage, Team Crush, Double Impact or Party Crash to compete with your friends. This mode is OK, we don't play it all that often, we usually just switch back and forth on the single player mode.

Online - Here you can play online. We've never tried this part though, so I can't say how well it works.

Events

Race - This one is exactly what it says, you race other cars, trying to be the first across the finish line to win the Gold. Available on all modes.

Grand Prix - Here you'll compete in three races against others to try to gain the most GP points for the event. This one is my least favorite of all the events. My youngest doesn't do well on the races or this event and will usually have his brother do them for him. This event is only available on the World Tour mode.

Eliminator - Here you try and stay ahead of everyone else. At the end of each lap, the last place car gets eliminated, hence the name of the event. Only available on the World Tour mode.

Face Off - This one you'll face off with another opponent, if you win, you win their car. World Tour mode only.

Road Rage - This one really isn't a race, you try and take your opponents out, the event ends when you total your car. I love this one, the more takedowns you get the better your medal. You will be told at the beginning of the event how many takedowns are needed for each medal. I do pretty well at this one, but my youngest ends up totaling his car out before getting enough takedowns for the Gold. My oldest son and I basically compete to see who can get the most takedowns. This one is available on all modes.

Burning Lap - You've got to beat the times to earn a medal, not that easy if you're prone to wrecking. You've got to be able to control the car perfectly and boost at the right times to get the Gold in this one. My oldest son is good at it, but the rest of us are not. In the single event mode, this is called Time Attack, don't know why they named it two different things for the two modes.

Crash - Here you will crash your car and try to create as much carnage as possible. This is my youngest sons favorite part of the whole game, he will spends hours trying to better his score. You also have pick-ups in this mode that are mostly good to collect while doing the event, boost, dollars, crashbreakers and multipliers, just to name a few. While my son loves this mode, he does get frustrated at times when he can't get a medal and he'll ask me to try for him, but he just loves this part of the game. This is available on all modes.

Graphics and Sound

The graphics are pretty decent, they are not great, just decent. The cars, tracks, scenery all look OK, the only disappointing aspect was the damage to the cars. While they do show damage to your car during the events and after, it's just nowhere near realistic. I think that's part they could have done a better job on, but it doesn't really take away from the game, at least for us.

Sound effects are pretty good, the engines and the sounds of the crashes, even glass breaking. The background music isn't anything spectacular, it's nothing that will make you way wow or anything, but it's ok.

Controls

The controls are pretty good, you've got the standard setup for acceleration, braking and steering and you've got the use of the R1 button for Crashbreakers, which you'll use a lot if you play Crash events. Another tip is to remember that the triangle button changes your view and not to accidentally push it during an event, unless you are actually wanting to change your view. If you do, it can really mess you up, especially on Crash events.

OK, but is it fun?

If you asked my youngest son, the answer would be a resounding YES! Honestly, I do like the game though, I can't say it's my favorite game or anything like that, but it is fun to play. I think the Road Rage and the Crash events are the best. This is the type of game you can pull out one afternoon and just have fun with. At first, you'll want to get through that World Tour, but once you do, this will be one of those games that you will pull out one afternoon to just do some events. My youngest mainly does the Crash events, both in single and multiplayer, while my oldest son and I will usually do the Road Rage events, trying to see who can get the most takedowns.

The more you do, the more you unlock from cars, locations and events. The cars range all the way from little coupes to a firetruck, although it will take some time to get that firetruck. Sometimes it can get aggravating when you keep missing that Gold medal by a couple of points, but you keep trying until you do, or move on to a different event and then go back to it. As you move further into the game and more events, they do get more difficult and what you have to get in the Crash events sometimes seems impossible, but it's not, you just have to get those multipliers.

The World Tour part really doesn't have a lot of replay value, but the other events do, especially the Road Rage and Crash ones, mainly because you'll be wanting to better your score or beat someone else.

Conclusion

If you like racing type games but you like to wreck, or wreck out a lot, this is definitely the game for you. The Crash and Road Rage events would make the game worthwhile even if it didn't have all the other events to choose from. This isn't a game you will play for weeks on end, it will be one of those games that once you beat it, you'll find yourself pulling it back out from time to time to beat those scores you set.