Some Stats For You
Yesterday I said that I would put up my progress/stats so far in the game. I didn't write every single thing down, just the major stuff. This is how much I've done as of 3:10 am on September 17 (yeah, that's pretty late):

Percent Complete: 39%
Burnout Points: 505,995
Crash Damage Total: $23,407,411
Takedowns (offline): 573
Slams (offline): 557
Gold Medals: 34/173
Longest Oncoming: 5,587 ft.
Longest Drift: 1,140 ft.
Overall Gameplay Time: 10 hrs. 13 min.

Not too bad for about four days work. I also finally unlocked the Far East race events last night. I'm pretty much everywhere in the crash events, but I'm a bit behind in the races. I've also managed to find a couple of new Signature Takedowns (again, by accident), and a new crash headline (one of the stages was in excess of $1.7 million in damage I created!).

Can't really find much else to talk about now, so untill the next post!

Oh, if you're reading this outside of my website, why not visit my website: 9x Digital Entertainment ? There you'll find many reviews written by me for all current platfroms, as well as special features, including the Burnout 3: Takedown fansite!

For those who have visited my site, and are wondering when the hell I'm going to write a review for this game, it won't be much longer. I actually want to play through a little more of it before I have a review. Less than a week from today. Hopefully.

More Things To Do, More Things To See
Mood:  accident prone
Well, another day, another accident. Actually, more like yesterday. I seem to write these things the day after my last playing session. Like anyone would notice anyway.

During the races, I've slowly been finding the Signature Takedown loactions. I'm finding these by accident, actually. So far, I've found three. And I've gotten a couple of crash headlines unlocked, too. Those are unlocked by reaching a certain crash total for a designated course. It actually tells you in the records menu. I've also managed to get a couple of postcards, too. Those seem to be the hardest to get, because you really can't screw up on the special Burning Lap events. You really can't crash into anything, and you need to keep a pretty good line.

It's a pretty tough game to put down once you start playing. Plus, I keep going from the world tour to single race events, so that really keeps the game going longer. I've also gone back to a few courses and crash stages I haven't played, or improving the medal I had won prior. There is a lot to do in this game. It seems like there is something that is always unlocking after each event.

My completion rate so far is 32% (I think) and my overall time is a little over 8 hours. That's quite a bit in three days. I really don't remember the rest of my stats off the top of my head. I'll try to have them up tomorrow.

Not much else to say for now.

Holy Crap!
Mood:  on fire
Even though you have to do a lot to unlock it, you can actually get a taste of the F-1 style car on one of the special event stages. This car is FAST. It's like the game is on fast-forward or something! Even with some of the cars I unlocked within an hour or two had some zazz to it. I would say that this game is as fast as Nintendo's own F-Zero GX, and just as smooth. In terms of the sense of speed this game has, it will be one that few can touch in the coming months. I think EA may need to start worrying about the NFSU sequel, since the last one wasn't as smooth as Burnout 3 is, and I think the sequel to NFSU will be no different.

And I have to say something about the degree of difficulty in this game. While not aggrivating, it is more challenging than Burnout 2. Maybe it's because the AI is more aggressive, or there's more hazards, I don't know. But in a few races, I've managed to fall behind pretty far. So to those who felt that the last Burnout was a bit easy, it's not that way anymore. And the crash mode is much more challenging, since there's a lot more skill involved in the pick-up bonuses and even where to start the pileup.

One of the best modes of the game has to be the Road Rage mode. It's the one mode where you can hunt down those bastards and make them pay. It's a lot like the death race mode in F-Zero X, except it's a lot more fun, and you can play on more than one course. It's even fun to play outside of the world tour, as just a way to vent off the daily frustrations on happless AI opponents. So far, the most amount of Takedowns I managed to achieve in a road rage race is 20. Not too bad, really. It's a mode I do pretty well in.

So far, at the end of this day, I've put in a little over 5 hours into the game. That's just within two days! I wonder if I'll surpass the 40 hour mark I had in Burnout 2 and Project Gotham Racing 2.

If you haven't picked up Burnout 3 yet, you might want to do so now. I think it's one racing game that fans of the genre, or even ones who aren't, shouldn't miss.

Today Is The Day
Mood:  a-ok
Well, I finally got my hands on Burnout 3: Takedown. In case if you're wondering which version I picked up (like it wouldn't be obviuos when the review came out), I got the Xbox version, since the custom soundtrack function gives it a slight edge over the PS2 version.

As excited as I am to play Burnout 3, I feel as if I were a little spoiled by the Burnout 3 demo on the September OPM Demo Disc. Sure, it didn't have all of the features the final version had, but some of the crashes weren't as suprising. One thing that did suprise me is that the cars can ACTUALLY explode now.

Burnout 3 is much bigger than Burnout 2, in every area. The Burnout World tour is bigger and has more options than the championship mode of B2, there are more crash junctions and there are more cars. This is a game that's surely able to keep me busy for a long time.