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.
Whenever I think about Burnout Paradise I think about somebody (I think it was Yahtzee) describing the world of Burnout Paradise as a post apocalyptic nightmare world where cars have taken over, and one lone human hides out in his radio station broadcasting desperately to a murderous mechanical audience.
While it’s possible that a different reviewer applied that hypothetical headcanon to the Burnout series, I believe you’re actually thinking of Ross’ Game Dungeon. Specifically the Trackmania Canyon video, not Burnout.
Burnout 3 absolutely. Paradise was a great game but it’s format shift to open world effectively killed the series. Also made races really repetitive since they always went to the same places and you didn’t have an incentive to explore the rest of the map, which was full of really cool stuff like the quarry and train lines…
Anyway Burnout 3 is just the perfection of the classic formula. Shoutouts to Revenge for the traffic check mechanic and the cool new car designs.
I absolutely adored Burnout Paradise. It’s my favorite game in the series. It’s also a very different kind of game though, so I get why people get up in arms about it.
Crashing into billboards was a great collectible of which I never grew tired.
Reading these replies , I’m going to have to watch some videos on Burnout 3. I played it back in the day but I’d forgotten things like aftertouch to wreck more vehicles.
I played through games 1 & 2 a few years back and I loved the Crash Junctions.
Having been playing Burnout: Paradise recently, I now see what’s missing. Its a fun racer but stripped of a lot of what came before.
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.