Burnout 3: Takedown, and Burnout: Revenge

You just got home. It was a busy day and you were stuck in traffic for longer that you care to think about. To top it all off, you have this case of barely suppressed road rage which is eating away at your soul. Well, I have a game for you. Actually two games. The people at Electronic Arts and Criterion software have given us Burnout 3: Takedown and, more recently, Burnout: Revenge. Both offer the best road rage relief possible on a game platform.

I’ve played both these games now on my Xbox (they are also available on PS/2) and I love them both for many of the same (and different) reasons. The racing is more arcade style (like Need For Speed) than true simulation (like Forza Motorsport). Each also has many of the same types of races which include:

1. Races – This is a fairly simple concept – beat the other racers.


2. Eliminator Race – The car in last place gets eliminated after each lap (Burnout 3) or after each 30 second interval (Burnout: Revenge)


3. Road Rage – Take down as many of your opponents’ cars as possible in the time available


4. Crash – Not really a race. Try to incur the most damage with your car in a given scenario and time


5. Burning Lap – (Also called Preview) These “races” are basically you against the clock.


6. Traffic Takedown – How much traffic can you destroy before time runs out (Burnout: Revenge only)

Both games provide great locales and tracks to race on. All of the tracks are street and highway tracks (no traffic-free racing here) and take place in North America, Europe and Asia. The Asian tracks are especially hard to get used to since they drive on the left hand side of the road. Burnout 3’s tracks are linear – there is only one path, but Burnout: Revenge adds shortcuts and jumps (which give you points for air time and enable the new and very satisfying “vertical takedown”. There is a wide variety of cars in both with both games differentiating between race cars (light and fast) and crash cars (much heavier and somewhat slower). There are no licensed cars in either game but I would imagine that there are not too many auto makers that would like to see their top-end vehicles being used for taking down opponents in whatever way possible.

Moving up levels and unlocking more vehicles and races in the games is a mixture of driving skill and risk. The higher the risks you take, the more you will be rewarded. If you win a race driving aggressively and causing your opponents to crash (i.e., taking them down) you will get many more points and rewards than if you had run a clean, crash-free race. And don’t forget, your AI opponents are coming after you. Take someone down and they come after you. If someone takes you down, they are flagged as a revenge target.

Since they are racing games from EA Games, you can always be sure of a great soundtrack with a lot of licensed songs. Between the two, I would have to give a nod to Burnout 3 when it comes to the music. It’s loud and infectious and fits right into the whole game. I find that the music in Burnout Revenge does not really stand out like its predecessor.

My only real beef with both of these games is that Criterion only developed them for consoles and did not offer them on the PC. I’ve played most of the Need For Speed series on my PC and have enjoyed them immensely as well (Underground 2 is coming this fall!!!).

Both game offer multiplayer (2 players split screen and via Xbox Live) where you can compete in all different types of races against up to 6 opponents.

If there is another Burnout game on the horizon, I’d love to see it combine the soundtrack style, navigation and reward mechanism of Burnout 3, and the racing, takedowns, tracks, and trophies of Burnout: Revenge.

For now, I’m going to vent a bit more road rage.

Burnout 3: Takedown gets a 9 out of 10
Burnout: Revenge gets a 9 out of 10