The game that put the boot in all other racers.
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Pros:
+ Speed: If you ever thought any other racing game was fast, this was the game to correct you: Burnout 3 seemed to run at warp speed! The really brilliant thing, though, was that it almost never felt unfairly difficult as a result of this speed, and once you were used to it, you could fly through the tracks in a deliriously enjoyable blur.
+ Addictive Crashing: The crashes are fantastic, both in the look and feel of them, and to have made them such an integrated and enjoyable part of the game that you don't feel angry when a competitor sends you flying is surely a sign of genius! In particular, the 'aftertouch' feature, which lets you steer your wreckage to take down opponents from the grave, is a big help in giving you some glee to pull out of a nasty wreck...
+ Varied Modes: While it all revolves around the same high-octane brilliance, there are still a good few different modes to play through, with Crash and Road Rage standing out from the crowd.
+ Big Circuits: There are only a few different tracks to race on, but they are all huge, varied and exciting, with different segments of them available for smaller races.
+ Local Multiplayer: The ability to play split-screen or in party modes with people in the same room as you is a feature that, sadly, seems to be slowly disappearing from games, and it's good to see it safely intact (and massively enjoyable) in Burnout 3.
Cons:
- Crash Mode Power-Ups: While it sounds like a nice idea to add special power-ups in Crash mode, in practice this means that you will almost always need to pick them up in order to beat the high scores, which reduces your options in how you approach the mayhem.
- Annoying Music & Commentator: Perhaps this is more subjective than most of my points, but the licensed music was so boring and generic, and the DJ so outrageously annoying, that I was forced them shut them both off completely after a short time playing. I fully recommend doing this whether you like the music or not, because the superb sound effects make the game far more exciting when there's no whiny guitar band in the way!
- Difficulty Leaps: When doing the main tour mode, for the most part you have a nice progression from slower (though still satisfyingly quick) cars to fully-fledged speed demons, thus getting you used to the stupidly high speeds well enough to compete happily. However, once in a while they throw you an absurdly difficult time trial with a car that goes faster than light, which can come as a nasty shock if you're going for gold medals: prepare to spend hours learning how to hurtle an F1 car the wrong way down a motorway without crashing or letting go of the boost once...
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Really, the few flaws in the game are pretty meaningless when compared to the greater picture: Burnout 3 is the very definition of a game that does one thing, and does it perfectly. No other racing series will do after playing this, and even if you don't usually play racing games, you owe it to yourself to try Burnout at least once - you definitely won't regret it!