Here it is in a nutshell: Burnout 3: Takedown is, hands down, the best arcade racer ever made. Ever. If you're OutRun 2, or anything other than a Need for Speed collect-a-thon, fear the name "Burnout," because this is what the world's been waiting for. Like the name of the game suggests, your aim is to total the competition on the way to the finish line. How you do it is entirely up to you, and Takedown encourages offensive experimentation by way of walls, incoming trucks, and those pesky center dividers.
But why ram when you can just outpace the pack? For the almight burnout meter, of course, which--when filled--gives you an unbelievable explosion of speed through Takedown's dense, lively and diverse environments. With only a scant year and a half between Burnout sequels, the amount of content Criterion managed to squeeze into the game is amazing. Whereas previous efforts have come up short in terms of locales and unlockables, Takedown is masterfully paced, jetting you across three different continents to fulfill new objectives.
Get medals in road rage, for example, by taking out a fleet of fellow racers, or earn cash in the newly integrated crash mode, which lets you apply slow-motion "aftertouch" to your vehicular pileups for maximum collateral damage. Like its predecessors, Takedown is tuned for a perfect balance between risk and reward, often goading you to stretch for just one more boost multiplier or wall takedown--at the peril of losing your hard-earned lead. Even the brutal, trauma-inducing fender benders are rewarding to watch.
Those who venture on to XBOX Live with Takedown will discover the philosophy of the series goes hand in glove with online dashes. By playing on the fact that most multiplayer races devolve into running your opponents off the road, Takedown feels as gut-wrenchingly intense as it is a natural extension of your competitive instinct. Those who play the game for some time will find themselves faced with the inevitable question: Is there another racing game you'd rather be playing right now? To which the answer is a resounding no.
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