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.
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.
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 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.
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
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).
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.