Burnout 3 Takedown Still Holds Up 15 Years Later – Busy Gamer Review

No Time Gamer isn’t the most generous when
giving good reviews to racing games.
You can look and see that quite a few racing
game reviews haven’t been that positive – I’m
looking at you Project Cars 3 and Dirt 5.
So, we decided to change things up a bit.
Today we are throwing it back a decade and
a half to revisit my favorite racing game
of all time – Burnout 3 Takedown.
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Before we even hop into a race, the nostalgia
hits strong with Burnout 3’s incredible soundtrack.
“Lazy Generation” by The F-Ups welcomes you
back after years away and your ears are later
graced by Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance,
and Yellowcard just to name a few.
This game set the foundation for my favorite
music genres to this day and it just feels
good to play again.
Unfortunately, we can’t play any of the music
for you here, but we’ll leave a link to the
soundtrack down below for your listening pleasure.
Striker, the ever excited, and probably under
the influence, radio host from Crash FM, keeps
you entertained while you pick out the event
you

want to partake in.
The three regions of play – USA, Europe, and
Far East – are set up in an almost open world
way that keeps races familiar but new.
There is no free roam, but all of the events
do use similar parts of the maps.
It makes the world feel alive and not just
full of randomly drawn tracks with no personality.
You’ll pass through the same intersection
but in the opposite direction or maybe turn
right instead of left.
It’s small and may not seem that impressive,
but I found it amazing when this game first
came out and still enjoy that aspect of it.
To date, there is no other racing game that
matches the madness that was Burnout 3.
Boosting, bumping, and takedowns make this
game’s fight for first a true battle to the
death.
You have to try to avoid getting taken down
while hitting drifts into oncoming traffic,
which will earn you boost to deliver a signature
takedown on the driver in front of you.
It’s almost like a rhythm game.
When you are in the zone, and perfectly connect
each corner while avoiding destruction, you
feel like an action movie star.
I think it also helps that the developers
positioned traffic to not spawn in great drift
zones, blind corners, or crests so you don’t
feel cheated into a crash.
Racing was always fun, but I think the game
really stood out in the more carnage-centered
modes.
In Road Rage, you don’t need to be in the
front of the pack.
Actually, you want to be right in the middle
of the pack, weaving left and right, slamming
opponents into whatever object you can find
to achieve the takedown medals before time
expired … or your car did.
You are constantly on the hunt while trying
not to get hunted down yourself.
It was almost like a battle royale game about
ten years before the genre exploded.
Maybe the best mode of all was the befittingly
named “Crash” mode.
There is one goal – cause as much destruction
as you could at a busy intersection.
The more wreckage you cause and the more medals
you achieve, the bigger and better vehicles
you unlock to cause even more mayhem.
For as insane as this mode is at the surface,
it’s also an intricate puzzle on the harder
levels.
You have to find the perfect path to follow
to time your crash breaker and chain it with
the Aftertouch feature to glide your burning
carcass of a vehicle into multipliers and
other bonuses.
Only with those pickups can you beat the level
and advance in the game.
Some of the big vehicles were just ridiculous
to drive, but add to the insanity of the mode
that was just chaos at its core.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have xbox live back
in the mid 2000’s, so I didn’t get to experience
Burnout 3 online.
I’m sure that added a whole other level to
the awesome absurdity of this game.
With the original Xbox Live down, I won’t
have that chance until EA decides to make
a new good Burnout.
Or maybe just remaster this one please.
I was not a fan of Revenge, and Paradise never
lived up to Takedown in my opinion.
As seen with many of our other reviews on
this channel, most arcade racing games released
these days, not named Forza, are ok at best
but leave more to be desired.
Three members of the original Criterion team
released their own spiritual successor to
the Burnout series called “Dangerous Driving”
in 2019 and planned for a sequel in 2020 before
it was delayed.
Subscribe now so you don’t miss our videos
on those two games in the future.
Maybe the nostalgia goggles are on too tight,
but even 15 years later, I think this title
is still Time Well Spent.
What is your favorite racing game?
Let us know down below.
Check out this racing game review to see if
it’s time well spent or try out this other
video right here.