Burnout 3 screenshots   The Final Say! Gameplay 9.6 Graphics 9.7 Sound 9.0 Value 9.5 Burnout 3  Review Date: October 2004 Review Score: 9.5/10  Distributed By: Electronic Arts

It's official, Electronic Arts is now the definitive company for the best car games available on the XBox gaming console and what better way to ensure that this gaming giant remains on top than by releasing Burnout 3. Originally Burnout was an exclusive PlayStation 2 game but since then, it has come a long way in the gaming world and simply said... Burnout 3 is a phenomenal game! Burnout 3 isn't your stock standard driving game but rather one of the most entertaining car games on the market that combines Too Fast Too Furious with the World's Most Dangerous Drivers. The game also features a variety of gameplay modes that includes single-race, career mode and of course my personal favourite, the crash-mode that allows you be involved in some of the world's most horrendous pileups. The title even supports XBox Live that allows you to have some high speed crashes with some of the best XBox drivers from around the world. Unlike most arcade driving games, Burnout 3 awards the player for driving dangerously and the more "close calls" that the gamer experiences, the more boosts they receive to allow them to engage in turbo which is quite a breathtaking experience in the game. Although you can get award points for narrowly missing oncoming traffic or missing inanimate objects by a hair, you are also awarded boosts for takedowns. Unlike the previous games in the series, Burnout 3 has a new addition to the legend called takedown that basically allows you to knock your opponents out of the race for a little while. For instance, when you cause your opponent to crash by either cutting them off or nudging them in the wrong direction, it causes them to crash and sometimes they crash into more of your opponents so you can receive multiple takedowns. As with all good things, there is also a cost at receiving boosts, if you find yourself in a crash by another opponent, your boost dramatically drops. What really makes Burnout 3 stand above the other games in the market is the beautifully designed crash physics that are littered throughout the title. This game also probably features some of the world's most realistic crashes without actually being in a crash yourself. When a crash occurs, the game basically slows down so you can get a matrix-style effect of the crash which is one of the most amazing things that I have seen on the XBox. All I can say is that this has to be seen to be believed... wow!

Another impressive feature of the crash dynamics is the "crashbreaker" that can only be used in the crash-mode and basically allows the gamer to explode their car on command but in order to achieve this option, you must cause a few cars to crash on their own without being involved. This is a really awesome feature that looks spectacular in the crash-mode.

Graphically, Burnout 3 is easily the most impressive looking driving game on the XBox that also contains a variety of special effects from the beautiful dynamic lightings in the game, reflective surfaces and some of the most enjoyable game physics that have ever graced a car game, thanks to the particle effects system that allows everything from the car to be torn asunder. The developers have also included motion blur to help the gamer get that true sense of speed. For gamers with the right television setup, the title also supports progressive scan and 16:9 displays for that true arcade experience. It should also be noted that the framerate of the title remains silky smooth, even when the traffic is banked up.

Burnout 3 also features a pumping soundtrack that suits the game perfectly and match that with some realistic car sounds from engines, tyres and cars impacting other cars at over 150 kilometres an hour and you have a game that almost appears to have been directly taken from a Hollywood action movie. The only downside to the audio of Burnout 3 is the tacky radio announcer that sounds like a reject from the Ridge Racer series on the Playstation. Speaking of the Playstation, the XBox is the only version of the market that supports Dolby Digital 5.1.

In conclusion... well... it's a bit hard to sum up this game because it must be played to be experienced with this being the only advice I can give gamers... go out and buy this game NOW!

- Andrew B