Best Driving Game
Burnout 3 (PS2, Xbox)
Publisher: EA Games
Developer: Criterion Games
Read our preview from E3 2004 >>
Having been fed only the most basic details on the game prior to the show, we came into E3 2004 having never seen Burnout 3 in motion. We came in expecting a better version of the same vandalistic racing action that the Burnout name has become known for, and we got that, but we also got a whole lot more.
The Burnout games have always been about controlled chaos--creating the sensation that you're moving so fast that you're barely in control, living on borrowed time. The very first thing we noticed when we saw Burnout 3 in action was just how fast it seemed. The demo's rock-solid 60fps certainly made it look smooth, but it also used a cadre of slick visual effects to enhance the sensation of speed--there's a nice blurring effect around the border of the screen, augmenting that high-speed tunnel vision, and there's some color bleed off the edges of your car at especially high speeds. We'd be hard pressed to find any racing game that could match Burnout 3's velocity, which is a big part of why we took such a shine to the demo.
The folly of most racing games is that they try to ignore the fact that wrecks happen. Burnout 3, however, has a serious fetish for car crashes. The most satisfying moments in the Burnout 3 demo were when we just couldn't hang on any longer and ended up running into a wall or oncoming traffic. As we watched our car crumple up into a twisted wreck in slo-mo, we would try to nudge our car toward any nearby traffic, hoping to involve as many other cars in our mayhem as possible.
We've admittedly been looking forward to Burnout 3 since it was first announced earlier this year, but now that we've seen it in action, our enthusiasm is completely justified. The whole package--the graphics, the gameplay, even what little of the sound we were able to pick up--seems to be coming together, and what we saw of the game impressed us more than any other racing game on the show floor.
The other Best Driving Game finalists:
ATV Offroad Fury 3 (PS2)
Crash 'N' Burn (Xbox, PS2)
Forza Motorsport (Xbox)
Gran Turismo 4 (PS2)
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