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Burnout 3: Takedown ps2 Game Reviews
Burnout 3: Takedown
Critic Score
Metascore: 93 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
8.8 out of 10
based on 52 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 94 votes
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Rate this game

Burnout 3 takes the hit series even further, now featuring a unique "crash and burn" racing concept and a one-of-a-kind special effects engine that delivers spectacular visuals. The intensity heats up as players race, and often crash, their way through oncoming traffic in an attempt to claim the top spot. Boasting multiple single-player, multiplayer and online crash and race modes, Burnout 3 offers players the opportunity to race through busy city streets and be rewarded for taking risks that result in heart-pounding action and electrifying crashes. [Electronic Arts]

PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts
DEVELOPER: Criterion Games
GENRE(S): Racing, Driving, Action
PLAYERS: 8
ESRB RATING: T (Teen)
RELEASE DATE: September 7, 2004

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Gaming Age
Damn near flawless in almost every way shape and form. Brilliant visuals, ear pleasing audio, highly addictive game play, and enough modes and tracks to keep you busy for months on end.
Read Full Review
100
Entertainment Weekly
The combo of racing and combat is brilliantly addictive. [17 Sept 2004, p.25]
100
Sydney Morning Herald
The focus on opponent "takedowns" was a smart, natural evolution for the series. The gorgeous environments and detailed cars whiz past at amazing velocity, and the fender-bending carnage is spectacular.
Read Full Review
100
Maxim Online
It's a game that combines gut-churning speed and beyond-recognition wreckage to make road kill out of all others in the driving genre.
Read Full Review
100
Australian GamePro
The speed of the game is incredible and as the roads and lights blur past you, it feels more like you're flying in the Millennium Falcon than some street machine dodging through traffic.
Read Full Review
100
Stuff
You should buy it even if driving games rank somewhere between stepping on Legos barefoot and Saddam on your list of dislikes.
Read Full Review
100
Official U.S. Playstation Magazine
If you don't like Burnout 3: Takedown, there's something wrong with you...It has completely spoiled me, making it near impossible to enjoy other games in the genre. [Oct 2004, p.102]
100
GameSpy
The new king of arcade racers. Think about everything that was brilliant about its predecessors -- the whimsical take on the laws of physics, the gorgeous graphics, and the completely insane emphasis on crashing -- and multiply it by ten thousand.
Read Full Review
100
DarkStation
What is so amazing about Burnout 3 is not so much its excellent modes but instead its amazing gameplay.
Read Full Review
100
PSX Nation
The track designs are really what make this game worth playing. It reminds me of "Rush 2049" on crack with little details such as close calls and drifting that make the game a joy to watch.
Read Full Review
100
GameShark
Don’t buy this one and you’re probably passing up the most fun you’re going to have on your PS2 this season.
Read Full Review
100
games(TM)
Burnout 3 is special. It's not just another racing game, and despite lacking certain features car enthusiasts hold dear (such as customisation and ultra realism) it's easily the most fun we've ever had with any racing game. [Oct 2004, p.96]
100
The New York Times
Takedown is nearly flawless, with crisp graphics, a rousing punk-rock soundtrack and smart level design that keeps you on the edge of your seat. It is not just the best driving game I have ever played, but one of the best games of any genre this year.
Read Full Review
100
AceGamez
I have rarely, if ever, found a driving game that made my adrenaline pump, caused me to break out in a cold sweat and had me swearing violently at the screen while still gagging for more of the same - until now.
Read Full Review
97
Gaming Target
The most exciting and terrifying arcade racer in a good long while. The insane sense of speed, incredible depth, and constant feeling of accomplishment via unlocking stuff every time you turn around really adds to the addictive quality of Burnout 3: Takedown.
Read Full Review
96
TotalGames.net
Burnout 3 is as pure a gaming experience as we have had the pleasure of kneeling before for longer than we can remember and we've been doing this for a long time.
Read Full Review
96
Inside Gamer Online
Without a shadow of a doubt the best in the series and arguably the best arcade racer in history.
Read Full Review
95
eToychest
We’ve been driving computerised cars around virtual racetracks for years now, but in Burnout 3 you do it so fast, and the enjoyment from going so fast comes so easily, that playing another racer is going to feel like driving a bus after taking a spin in a Ferrari.
Read Full Review
95
GameBiz
Criterion's Render ware engine is hardcore, with a draw distance which is jaw dropping. The frame rate in the game stays solid through out and provides a brilliant feeling of speed you can’t get in any other game.
Read Full Review
95
Game Power Australia
Put simply, this is one of the best racing games of all time.
Read Full Review
95
TotalPlayStation
Everything it does, it does with aplomb, from kicking out graphics that just should'nt exist in this generation -- let alone on the PS2 -- to delivering a sense of speed, yet offering controls that allow you to keep up with the increasingly brilliant level design, to offering an suite of online modes that will make you fall to your knees in thanks of broadband. This is the very definition of a must-have game.
Read Full Review
95
GameSpot
Even if driving games aren't normally your thing, Burnout 3 is still right for you. It's that good. It ranks among the best racing games ever made...An amazing achievement that anyone with a pulse will probably love.
Read Full Review
95
Game Over Online
A wild, edge of your seat, white knuckle ride that fulfills any speed freak’s cravings. What’s more, it’s also one of the best games that’s been released this entire year.
Read Full Review
95
PGNx Media
A strong candidate for the coveted Game of the Year award, Burnout 3: Takedown is one of the best arcade racing games to come out in years.
Read Full Review
95
Gamer's Hell
Single-player alone is so magnetic you'll be constantly drawn back. However, all the rewards, plus the technical feat of 2-8 player online really opens it up for endless replay value.
Read Full Review
95
PSM Magazine
A masterpiece that every racing game fan must own. [Nov 2004, p.80]
94
Xequted
Perhaps one of the most enjoyable racing games we’ve ever been given the chance to play, mainly owing to the immense rush you get from the sheer velocity of game play.
Read Full Review
94
Next Level Gaming
This game does for the arcade racing genre what "Rallisport Challenge 2" does for the rally section. It's just that good.
Read Full Review
94
Warcry
Burnout 3 will remind you why you started playing games – not because of the competition, or to enter into some fifty hour experience grinding session online, but because of an experience that constitutes such pure fun that it’s impossible to stop a grin breaking out on your face.
Read Full Review
94
PSX Extreme
May very well go down in the books as the finest arcade racing game of all time, and one of the best titles the racing genre has ever seen.
Read Full Review
94
IGN
Offers up insane speed, unequaled crash sequences, and a truly new style of gameplay. It has reinvented the wheel, so to speak....Burnout 3 is astonishing.
Read Full Review
94
Armchair Empire
The type of game that appeals to the very basic of collective human subconscious. It isn't just a game, it fulfills a very basic need – the need to destroy – in the same way that we need food and water.
Read Full Review
93
Game Informer
With incredibly realistic damage modelling transforming every crash into a work of art fit to be framed and hung on the walls of Paris' Louvre museum, Burnout 3 is a visual dynamo that will floor players with its speed and gorgeous vistas. [Oct 2004, p.122]
Read Full Review
93
WHAM! Gaming
Even without the car crashes, Burnout 3: Takedown would have been a superb arcade-style racing game. But the incredible vehicular carnage makes it a thing of profound destructive beauty.
Read Full Review
92
Electronic Gaming Monthly
The speed is staggering, and the smashes spectacular...Burnout 3 blows the doors off its predecessors with bliteringly fast online play, a massive single-player mode lousy with unlockables, and all the right gameplay tweaks. [Oct 2004, p.100]
92
GameZone
Great graphics and jaw-dropping speed, and includes impeccable interactive crash sequences that you won’t find in any other game.
Read Full Review
91
Ferrago
The most intense online racing experience? You'd better believe it.
Read Full Review
90
Total Video Games
Every aspect comes together to create a gaming experience that is one of the most polished and perfected we’ve ever seen, regardless of genre – you simply need Burnout 3: Takedown now.
Read Full Review
90
GamePro
To say that this game is "fast" is an understatement - it absolutely blazes, so much so that blinking becomes a liability. [Nov 2004, p.96]
90
Cheat Code Central
I absolutely hate the music which is a mix of cheap-sounding alternative and punk.
90
Edge Magazine
It still possesses the series’ trademark ability to deliver Tempest-like ‘in the zone’ moments of remarkable intensity unlike any of its contemporaries, but now comes with a confidently revised dynamic, marking this as Criterion Games’ finest hour. [Oct 2004, p.100]
90
GMR Magazine
The only missteps are a super class of cars that are almost too fast for the courses, an abundance of loading screens, and a mostly terrible soundtrack--the latter two problems solved by the Xbox version. [Oct 2004, p.111]
Read Full Review
90
Worth Playing
It feels good to turn something as hopeless as a wreck into something at least slightly useful. I’m surprised other racing games haven’t tried to employ something like this before!
Read Full Review
90
Yahoo! Games
An eye-opening, awe-inspiring psychotic arcade racer with addictive, high-energy and often hysterical gameplay. EA and Criterion really hit it out of the parking lot with this one.
Read Full Review
90
Thunderbolt
This game takes the tried and true racing game formula and refreshes it with a system that rewards you for bad driving and poor sportsmanship. You can drive into oncoming traffic, cause accidents on purpose, and mess with anything that tries to get in your way.
Read Full Review
90
1UP
The Takedown system is what makes the already pretty good Burnout series amazing... Burnout 3 delivers the purest hit of awesome so far this year.
Read Full Review
88
Jolt Online Gaming UK
At the end of the day, Burnout 3 is a little too simplified for our tastes.
Read Full Review
88
netjak
If your first Takedown doesn't get your blood pumping, then find a job as a bomb squad technician or try and get a spot on the Olympic Air Rifle team, because apparently nothing affects you.
Read Full Review
88
BonusStage
The game’s controls are simplistic and some of the tightest out there.
Read Full Review
83
Game Revolution
With outstanding physics, an unmatched sense of speed and a wealth of game types, it easily blows the doors off the competition. And that’s all the realism I need.
Read Full Review
80
Times Online
The graphics are sublime — smooth and detailed even on the increasingly humble PS2, yet with enough gimmickry to make the replays delicious feasts.
Read Full Review
75
Play Magazine
A dose of high-quality gaming fast food that tastes fine but leaves you wanting something that sticks. [Oct 2004, p.77]

What Our Users Said

Vote Now! The average user rating for this game is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 94 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jamie R. gave it a10:
Absolutely stunning. One of the best games there are on the PS2. It gives you a real sense of speed (even the slowest cars) and the fastest cars make you feel like they're doing 300! I don't see how you could improve on this game...but still let them try.

Sam gave it a10:
Hat M., what're you smoking? We play this game to get the thrill of doing something we never get to do, which is destroying every vehicular thing in our path.

Joe J. gave it a10:
This is a great game because it has good graphics, good music and its fun to play.

Jonny B. gave it a9:
Not as great as the xbox version. The better xbox graphics make the game have a little more realistic looking crashes.

Andrew P. gave it a10:
This game should be compulsory for every ps2 console sold, just to show everyone what is possilbe on ps2. Unfortunately it's not possible to give this a 100 out of 10, becuase that's what it's truly worth. As close to perfection of a game you can get.

Chad C. gave it a10:
One of the best racing games ever.

Luke T. gave it an8:
Brilliant move from the previous games in the Burnout series. "Road Rage" mode is the best part of the game in my opinion and I do recommend going online.

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