Paradise, revenge, and takedown, I played lots. While I liked them all Paradise has my vote. Has the driving mechanics and the crash mechanics of the main games but adds exploration and fun challenges.
I used to be a Takedown purist; but I kinda lean on the side of Paradise on the other side of having 100%'d the pre-remaster version without the DLCs added and shit. The only place I feel Paradise is lacking is we don’t get Aftertouch anymore, and there’s so many missing takedown types from Takedown and Revenge.
I do love how they created fake manufacturers and models to get around not having to license real-world manufacturers, too.
Takedown feels more like a racing game, whereas Paradise’s open world lets you more accustomed with its environment, so the answer varies on what i want to play that time
I love takedown, it is definitely up there with one of my favourite games of all time, paradise however was a struggle to get the motivation to finish.
I just don’t like open world games and the races all felt the same on paradise, all the takedowns felt like it was a repetition of the last and I just wasn’t enjoying it by the end.
I also strongly agree that Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge are the best in the series, the most focused and polished… Burnout Paradise is OK but lacks something those other two have.
I think paradise is a better game, but I prefer takedown because I loved the road rage mode where you try to create the most damage, and I like the races not to be on an open map.
To me, Takedown SLIGHTLY takes the throne due to how innovative it was for the series. It was the first game in the series to include a mechanic to wreck your opponents to get boost back, called “Takedown” (hence ‘Takedown’ in the title).