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Late to the Party - Burnout 3

Got the PS2 version at Fry's for $17.

I'm not much of a PS2 player, as even the better-looking games on the system (such as this one) still look like crap. Until you know the track, it's hard to know what those blobs of pixels are ahead of you. A divider? Part of the road? A tunnel? I often can't tell until I crash into it.

Pressure-sensitive acceleration. Whoever uses the pressure sensitivity of the face buttons for anything is an idiot. Especially when you have to mash the button down pretty much constantly.

The "EA Trax" (or whatever it is called now) info covering up the boost meter during gameplay is pure stupidity. So is the absence of a music-off option in the main menu. You have to turn the music off from within the game itself.

The game was pretty fun for the first few hours...driving around at breakneck speeds is always good. But after I finished the newbie races, I got tired of having to restart every time some car was lurking around a corner waiting for me to crash into it. For some reason, I can take out the AI car 6 times and use all my boost, and I'll be a second ahead of it, but I crash once and the race is over.

The Crash Mode is just trial and error bullshit (not that the racing isn't, but it's not even disguised here) that takes forever to re-try because there are so many screens and load times between them are too long. This mode got old very quick.

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed.
 
Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version

Open Source said:
I'm pretty disappointed.

I think this sums up your little essay.
 
Yeah, I've heard the Xbox version is better. My friend came in while I was playing and said, "Oh, hey, Burnout, good game...wait, why does it look like shit?"

I'd imagine that most of the stuff I don't like is better on the Xbox, except for the cheating AI.
 
Open Source said:
Yeah, I've heard the Xbox version is better. My friend came in while I was playing and said, "Oh, hey, Burnout, good game...wait, why does it look like shit?"

I'd imagine that most of the stuff I don't like is better on the Xbox, except for the cheating AI.

There is rubberband AI definitely, but if you don't suck, there shouldn't be a problem. I've crashed on SEVERAL occasions and still came out on top. Dunno what your deal is. Just use the nightmare car or whatever, with the flames. All you need.
 
Open Source said:
Got the PS2 version at Fry's for $17.

I'm not much of a PS2 player, as even the better-looking games on the system (such as this one) still look like crap. Until you know the track, it's hard to know what those blobs of pixels are ahead of you. A divider? Part of the road? A tunnel? I often can't tell until I crash into it.

Pressure-sensitive acceleration. Whoever uses the pressure sensitivity of the face buttons for anything is an idiot. Especially when you have to mash the button down pretty much constantly.

The "EA Trax" (or whatever it is called now) info covering up the boost meter during gameplay is pure stupidity. So is the absence of a music-off option in the main menu. You have to turn the music off from within the game itself.

The game was pretty fun for the first few hours...driving around at breakneck speeds is always good. But after I finished the newbie races, I got tired of having to restart every time some car was lurking around a corner waiting for me to crash into it. For some reason, I can take out the AI car 6 times and use all my boost, and I'll be a second ahead of it, but I crash once and the race is over.

The Crash Mode is just trial and error bullshit (not that the racing isn't, but it's not even disguised here) that takes forever to re-try because there are so many screens and load times between them are too long. This mode got old very quick.

All in all, I'm pretty disappointed.

sorry to say that, but you suck at racing games and you have no good tv.
 
The biggest problem I had with it is that you can't drive with the first person view. The camera is just too low. You barely see the traffic. And I hate racing in the third person perspective.
 
Burnout is fun as hell, but it's got to be one of the easiest racing games out there, the nice thing is that there's just tons of content so it keeps you interested for many hours but I don't even remember it getting remotely hard until you had to be that F1 car. Great kind of popcorn no-worries game, here's hoping the next is even more innovative because I'm sure it'll be entertaining.
 
Solid said:
The biggest problem I had with it is that you can't drive with the first person view. The camera is just too low. You barely see the traffic. And I hate racing in the third person perspective.
I'm pretty sure it's like that so you don't get t-boned, because you've got no peripheral vision.



And yea, the rubberband never bothered me asides from the coupe dominator face off and the F1 races, because 1 crash would put you like 18 seconds behind :/
 
i love this game, and own the xbox version, which is why.

i have no complaints. i hit stuff sometimes but not all that often. one or 2 whips around the course and you know it.


nothing to hate.
 
O_o I guess I'm one of the few who prefers the ps2 version if only because I like having the gas and brake on face buttons for Burnout. There's really no point in having an analog gas for the game. The only other differences are the customizable sound track you you want to set it up everytime you start the xbox version and different online communities. I can ignore the soundtrack and I don't play online. All the ps2 hate is just from elistist xbotists or from people who hat the sound track SO much, they'd set their own up on every play (fear the power of the EA trax!).
 
you know, you dont have to press the buttons on the ps2 controller that hard to go full acceleration. it seems people like to hold the button so hard cause they think they're not registering the entire button. just play a game that shows you how much pressure you're putting on the button, like GT4
 
Sometimes seeing things off in the distance is hard and you crash into cars you couldn't even see because it was a black car in darkness or something, but I've noticed you can see these cars way better in first person view. Same with going up and down hills, turn to first person view so you see these things coming.

Also, turn off the "show me the crash I just caused" option. 99% its okay, but once and a while, by the time they show you yourself, you're 1/8th of a second from hitting a car. OOPS!

My only other problem is that when you get your crash breaker in Crash Mode you cannot move the camera. So if you get your crashbreaker and the game decides to zoom into your car and the wall you're close to, that's all you can see. You have NO idea where you are (especially if you're rolling down an incline) and most of the time you miss the 4x or whatever you were hoping to hit because the game doesn't let you look around. Stupid decision on the programmers part.

Still a very fun game though. And for half the crash scenes they are trial and errror, but the rest aren't. Head for the exploder and the 4x, don't go off ramps 99% of the time.
 
I'll add my own 2 cents.

Burnout 3 was great for the first 2-3 hours. After that it was all downhill.
 
I thought there wasn't much difference graphic-wise between the Xbox and PS2 versions, aside from sparks? (I haven't played either version, so I'm curious.)
 
Yes, the game was good the first few hours, but then the cheating bullshit AI ruins the game. How come, when I'm first, I get at most, a second in the lead, even though I took out 3 cars to get to first, but if I screw up and crash, the competition is 4 or more seconds ahead of me, and when the only real way to earn boost is to perform takedowns, but no rivals to takedown, well, then, all you can do now is restart the race.

Also, I don't like the fact that drifting around corners, not hugging walls, and staying off grass makes no difference whatsoever. That, and 'boost' is a joke, as you don't go that much faster. After my time with game, I had more fun with F-Zero GX.
 
I've been playing it online since I went broadband... Those fuckers have to be cheating.. I am a damn good racer yet I'm getting lapped? I don't think so... still fun though

username metalalien79
 
You should have gotten the Xbox version.

I'm guessing you have an Xbox since you went out of your way to tell us you got the PS2 version.

75% of your complaints aren't valid with the Xbox version. The load times are minimal and triggers > pressure sensitive buttons although good racing wheel > all.
 
MetalAlien said:
I've been playing it online since I went broadband... Those fuckers have to be cheating.. I am a damn good racer yet I'm getting lapped? I don't think so... still fun though

username metalalien79

You playing online with the PS2 version? If so, see ya online :)
 
bill0527 said:
You should have gotten the Xbox version.

I'm guessing you have an Xbox since you went out of your way to tell us you got the PS2 version.

75% of your complaints aren't valid with the Xbox version. The load times are minimal and triggers > pressure sensitive buttons although good racing wheel > all.

Triggers hardley matter in burnout games.
 
Here's something to make this thread worthwhile. I just got the game and for some reason I can't play it online on Xbox. It logs into Xbox Live fine but the EA thing won't connect. Is the EA service down this weekend or something? Can someone with the Xbox version try this game out online to see if it's messed up for them too?
 
Open Source said:
All in all, I'm pretty disappointed.

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demi said:
I think this sums up your little essay.

Eh, I got the PS2 version and had fun with it. It doesn't look quite as good (but still, more than adequate) and I missed not having the custom soundtrack (the EA Trax SUCKED), but the gameplay is essentially the same. Since he's bitching about that and obviously has no taste, I don't think getting the PS2 version is the worst of his problems.
 
The XBOX version is better, but the PS2 version is still a damn good looking game in my opinion. The two big things i prefer about the XBOX version are analog triggers and custom soundtracks. The load times are a bit less, but that is it. They are so close.

Amazing game though, and I suck at racing games and am not a huge fan of them either, but Burnout is like crack to me.
 
I don't hate the game...I mean, it's fun in a Cruisin USA kind of way, but I was expecting more based on what I'd heard. For what it's worth, I liked it more than I did NFSU or GT4. MSR is still my favorite driving game, though. I have not played PGR/2 or Forza because of my lack of Xbox.

On a side note, I think "unlocking" is just about played out.
 
Gattsu25 said:
race without using boost until the final stretch

This is why Burnout games are bullshit

I too liked Burnout 3 for a while. The sense of speed and the crashes rock. But the rubber band AI just ruins it. The game does not reward you for driving fast. What's the point of driving fast and getting in a crash when I can just wait till the last 30 seconds of the last lap to boost into the lead?

Play F-Zero GX. Now that is a real arcade racer.
 
The only thing I dislike about Burnout 3 is that there doesn't seem to be a respawn time for AI cars after a takedown. I suppose that is to offest the fact that takedowns are EXTREAMLY easy in single player, your doing about 20-25 per race. When I play on Live, I'm lucky to get 5 takedowns in a race, ESPECIALLY Wall Takedowns. You basically have to force human players into traffic to finish them off.
 
Am I the only person that likes rubberband AI? It makes races WAY more intense, maybe that's why I like B3. It's not the racing that gets me, its the action, the clashing on the road. If there was no rubberband AI this wouldn't reall happen all that much and would make the game a lot more boring. This isn't a traditional racer, it's not meant to be one.
 
I have only played the Xbox version and had quite a bit of trouble seeing turns and cars in front of me, that is what turned me off of the game. I was using a good sized tv too, so I don't think it's just because you have the PS2 version.
 
Pedigree Chum said:
Am I the only person that likes rubberband AI? It makes races WAY more intense, maybe that's why I like B3. It's not the racing that gets me, its the action, the clashing on the road. If there was no rubberband AI this wouldn't reall happen all that much and would make the game a lot more boring. This isn't a traditional racer, it's not meant to be one.

I don't mind the rubberband AI that much in Burnout, though I can't say I like it. I detest it much more in games like NBA Street, where it basically ruins a great game imo.
 
Pedigree Chum said:
Am I the only person that likes rubberband AI? It makes races WAY more intense, maybe that's why I like B3. It's not the racing that gets me, its the action, the clashing on the road. If there was no rubberband AI this wouldn't reall happen all that much and would make the game a lot more boring. This isn't a traditional racer, it's not meant to be one.

Well I think its a design fault. Let me explain. I love to go fast and there is no better feeling then when the swoosh of the screen flies by and the music pumps up while you boost. But because of rubber band AI, even if you boost constantly for two straight laps, you could crash in the third lap and some one would pass you. Not fair.

Now the other way to do it is to not boost, making sure you don't crash, until the final half of the last lap. The cars should be very far ahead of you because you haven't boosted, but because of the rubber band AI, they aren't. Simply boost your way to victory at the end every time.

In conclusion the game rewards you for playing it safe. Isn't that the opposite of what Burnout is suppose to be all about? Offensive driving anyone?

It was similar to Eternal Darkness for me. I wanted to go insane (because the effects were cool) but the game punished me for doing so. What fun is that? That sucks shit and is bad design.

Now back to racing, if you take something like the system in F-Zero where you have lots of racers without cheating. You still have PLENTY of collisions with other cars. Just add more racers to Burnout and cut the rubberband AI.
 
AstroLad said:
I don't mind the rubberband AI that much in Burnout, though I can't say I like it. I detest it much more in games like NBA Street, where it basically ruins a great game imo.

I agree on that front. But for a game like Burnout where much of the fun lies in taking down the opposition, I can see why there's rubberband AI. I actually welcome it in this game, it would be SO broing if I went 2 laps without seeing a competing car.

Well I think its a design fault. Let me explaine. I love to go fast and there is no better feeling then when the swoosh of the screen flies by and the music pumps up while you boost. But because of rubber band AI, even if you boost constantly for two straight laps, you could crash in the third lap and some one would pass you. Not fair.

That's true, but why can't you mess around the the rival cars for the first 2 laps and play it safe on the third? That's what I do, if I blew out the my rivals and never saw them for the whole race I would hate this game. It would defeate the charm of the game. Rubberband AI does suck sometimes (like you noted), but overall it keeps me on my toes throughout the race, keeps things really intense. I love that, and IMO that far outweighs the negatives of rubberband AI (well at least in this game, it's not welcome in all titles, like Astro said, it sucks shit in NBA Street).
 
I've been playing the game constantly for the past few days, and I somehow managed to lap a car in a race today. That's never happened before, and I've played the game a lot.
 
You know, I never noticed the rubberband AI. I just probably wasnt paying that much attention to them during it. Was focused on "holy shit they are catching up"

To me the ultimate evil of rubberband AI is Mario Kart. That is just damn evil. I remember one time I tagged Wario with a red shell, which sent him down into the lava on bowsers castle. Then I see him eat a few more hits as I keep racing on. The bastard still came back and won. All this happened on the last lap too. If it were a human player, he would be fucked six ways from sunday.
 
You can really see the rubberband AI during the head-to-heads. You crash him and 5 seconds later he's back on your tail. Do this when playing a GP. When you take down a car that's caught up with you, look at it. Then crash it. Then when another car comes from behind look at it. Realize it's the SAME CAR! Crash it again... SAME CAR! Damn the computer sure wants that ONE car to win.
 
Loved the game.....nothing wrong with the graphics on my version. Nothing wrong with my face buttons either. Only problem for me is that it only lasts about a week and a half to two weeks.
 
Pedigree Chum said:
You playing online with the PS2 version? If so, see ya online :)


Sorry man, I tried.. the server kept kicking me off, I tried to join your game and it said it was unable to communicate or something.... You left right as everything seemed to smooth out... got a few good games in.. I'm still losing... I do really good when I'm not crashing into oncoming cars.. I'll gain all this ground and pass a few players only to hit some jackass who pulls out in front of me and lose it all...

Aww well, it's still fun. I like it when I'm up against some player with a rank of less than 100 and while there is no traffic I can outdrive him....of course I crash and burn and he wins anyway.. I guess that's why they have a higher rank..
 
Pedigree Chum said:
I agree on that front. But for a game like Burnout where much of the fun lies in taking down the opposition, I can see why there's rubberband AI. I actually welcome it in this game, it would be SO broing if I went 2 laps without seeing a competing car.

That's true, but why can't you mess around the the rival cars for the first 2 laps and play it safe on the third? That's what I do, if I blew out the my rivals and never saw them for the whole race I would hate this game. It would defeate the charm of the game. Rubberband AI does suck sometimes (like you noted), but overall it keeps me on my toes throughout the race, keeps things really intense. I love that, and IMO that far outweighs the negatives of rubberband AI (well at least in this game, it's not welcome in all titles, like Astro said, it sucks shit in NBA Street).

I think a lot of peoples problem was that coming from previous Burnout games, the balance in BO3 was pushed to far in favour of Takedowns, particularly when it came to earning boost, and taken off of racing, completing perfect laps, chain boosting etc. Stuff that used to earn you lots of boost, like driving into oncoming traffic without crashing, now earned you barely any. In fact it was virtually impossible to sustain boost purely on driving ability alone.
 
Die Squirrel Die said:
I think a lot of peoples problem was that coming from previous Burnout games, the balance in BO3 was pushed to far in favour of Takedowns, particularly when it came to earning boost, and taken off of racing, completing perfect laps, chain boosting etc. Stuff that used to earn you lots of boost, like driving into oncoming traffic without crashing, now earned you barely any. In fact it was virtually impossible to sustain boost purely on driving ability alone.

The near-misses in BO3 sucked as well, still a good game but I remember noticing that right off, they weren't even really worth trying whereas in the previous games they were quite worth it and very fun.
 
You need to play this game in prog scan.

Otherwise, don't bother. :lol

The game is easier in prog scan, you can seem more clearly further ahead and thus it is easier to avoid oncoming traffic.

Put the game on your harddrive, that will reduce the load times to seconds. :)

Don't have a harddrive for your PS2, don't have a prog scan TV, what have you been doing all this time? :D
 
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