Generation 3: Takedown

Burnout 3: Takedown

The third generation of the series was ushered in with the release of Burnout 3: Takedown on the 7th of September 2004 in the US, on the 10th of September 2004 in Europe and Australia and 14th of October 2004 in Japan. The third generation in the series brought with it something which all BurnoutAholics had been waiting eagerly for ever since the series started: Online play! This expanded the horizons of the game to dazzling new heights and has made Burnout a household name all over the world. Sadly, it was also the start of a new era in that Electronic Arts had taken over the franchise from Acclaim, and of course putting their brand all over the product. This made several hardcore BurnoutAholics severely depressed as it commercialized the game to the extreme. Burnout 3: Takedown is regarded to be the baseline of gameplay features for the third generation of Burnout games.

Gameplay changes compared to Generation 2

• Burn meter renamed to Boost bar and is now expandable – now comes in four different sizes
• Burnout chains removed from the series, but you can now hold a boost indefinitely if you can keep the Boost bar filled up while you boost
• Race score renamed to Burnout Points and there are even more offensive driving abilities as criteria for increasing score (rubbing, grinding, trading paint, takedowns, shunting, time in the air, etc)
• Takedowns introduced to the series (make an opponent crash to get several benefits: fill up and extend your Boost bar, get Burnout points, increase your Takedown count)
• Your Boost bar (if not already smallest size) will be reduced in size if you crash or are taken down
• Races no longer have checkpoints
• Can now use boost even if Boost bar is not full
• Gameplay difficulty greatly reduced
• Road Rage mode introduced – game mode where you must achieve a pre-set number of takedowns in a race, but be careful, this is the only game mode where you can actually destroy your own car. Damage Critical warns you that the next crash will be your last.
• Eliminator mode introduced – game mode where the driver in last place is eliminated from the race each lap until only one driver remains
• Burning lap mode introduced – game mode where you race against the clock to beat a pre-set time for the track
• Pursuit mode removed from the series
• Offensive Driving 101 has been removed from the series
• Crash Nav menu navigation system introduced – events now placed in three different world zones: USA, Europe and the Far East
• Championship mode now renamed “Burnout 3 World Tour” and consists of single races, Grand Prix events, Eliminator events, Face off events, Rode Rage events, Burning laps and Special Events, as well as Crash Junctions – all through the new Crash Nav menu navigation system
• Cars and World Tour now organized in series: Compact, Muscle, Coupe, Sport, Super and Special series, as well as Heavyweight for Crash Junctions
• Driver details introduced to the series – check your achievements and progress here
• Takedown trophies introduced – each trophy has several goals to achieve in order to unlock the trophy
• Signature Takedowns introduced – takedown a rival in special places to unlock snapshots of the takedown
• Special Event postcards introduced – special unlockable race events which award a postcard if you get gold
• Crash headlines introduced – newspaper headlines unlocked if you reach pre-set “insurance damage” goals for each track (crash junctions are set on portions of the different tracks)
• Impact Time introduced to the series – if you hold down the boost button while crashing, the crash happens in slow motion
• Crash Aftertouch introduced to the series – you can now steer your wreck while in Impact Time, enabling it to be used to score special takedowns on rivals called Aftertouch Takedowns
• Crash pickups introduced to the Crash Junctions – you can now pick up boosters and penalties in the form of crash pickups when you play a crash junction  (2x and 4x multipliers, Heartbreaker, Bronze, Silver and Gold medals)
• Crashbreaker is introduced in Crash Junctions – you can now blow up your vehicle after it has crashed to wreak more havoc at the crash-scene
• Team Crush on-site multiplayer mode introduced – 2-way cooperative Crash Junction
• Double Impact on-site multiplayer mode introduced – 2 player Crash Junction mode where the player causing the most damage wins
• Party Crash on-site multiplayer mode introduced – 2-8 player solo or cooperative Crash Junction mode
• Road Rage on-site multiplayer mode introduced
• The tracks are now rigid – no shortcuts or alternate routes (except on Kings of the Road where you can take the flyover)
• Xbox Live integration taken one step further:
  • Players can now compete against each other over Xbox Live (2-8 players – 8 player only available to Party Crash mode)
  • Online scoreboards
  • Online lobby
  • Online ranking
  • Friends-list integration
  • Support for voice communication through the Xbox Live Communicator headset

Burnout Legends

The third generation of the series was the first generation to spawn a side-step; Burnout Legends. This was the first of the series to be released on handheld platforms. The game was first released on the Sony PSP on the 13th of September 2005 in the US, on the 16th of September 2005 in Europe and the 20th of October 2005 in Japan. The game was also released for the Nintendo DS on the 29th of November 2005 in the US and the 9th of December 2005 in Europe. Burnout Legends is essentially based on Burnout 3: Takedown, but is marketed as a “best-of-Burnout”. Approximately two-thirds of the game is content from Burnout 3: Takedown while one-third is content from Burnout and Burnout 2: Point of Impact.

Gameplay changes compared to Burnout 3: Point of Impact

• Pursuit mode is re-introduced (for this game only)
• No Xbox Live integration as this game was never released on the Xbox platform
• Support for Wireless Multiplayer Ad-hoc mode for 2-6 players added
• Several of the Crash pickups are removed (score multipliers and penalties)
• Legendary cars introduced, unlocked by achieving gold in a special Legend Grand Prix event at the end of each series (for this game only)
• Collectable cars introduced – each player can unlock 1 (one!) randomly chosen car of 6 collectable cars for each series, but a player can gain all collectable cars for each series by racing against other players who have unlocked the other collectable cars (for this game only)

Next page: Generation 4: Revenge