"Perhaps EA should have offered unlockable sunglasses..."
User Rating: 9 | Burnout 3: Takedown (Dutch) PS2
Understandably, most reviews of this game are pages and pages of praise and thanks, so I'm going to start off with a few of the cons before I profess my love. The Cons: Anyone who's played almost any racing game ever made knows about the old "impossible comeback" trick developers use to keep thier games challenging: no matter how far ahead you are in the race, your opponents can catch up to you and defeat you at the checkered flag. Of couse this trick can also be used in reverse as a player handicap so inexperienced players won't lose interest by losing every race. This game really uses an extreme version of that. You'll find later in the game that if you win 1st place in two GP races, you will have to fight for 5th on the last race. Whereas during your first few races you will notice you opponents drastically slowing down for you near the finish. The special effects in this game like the lens flare, reflections, glare and motion blur are indeed impressive, but there are parts where you simply cannot see any part of the road or traffic. This game creates a genuine sense of speed, although there must have been a way to offer this effect without making the game look like a white blurry mess when your vehicle is facing the sun. Somtimes things glare for no reason, like snow piled in the middle of the road will reflect a blinding amount of sunlight. Perhaps EA should have offered unlockable sunglasses... The Pros: Now that thats out of the way, this game is one of the most outstanding technical achivements on the PS2. I say that because I actually played the XBOX version of this game first and I couldn't believe the effects could be the same on both systems, but they pretty much are. The reflections on the car show pretty much whats going on around them, though I'm not sure if it's real time ray tracing. The glare and motion blur along with the fish eye lens view give an addictive sense of speed and the crash physics and "impact time" complete the package. Controls are responsive and vary as much as the cars do. You've got your coupes, muscle cars, compacts, sports cars, trucks, buses, F1 racers, big rigs and more. The different game modes are all fun to play, though my favourite is "Road Rage", like a destrucion derby on the road, you destroy as many opponents as you can before you car is destroyed. Road rage on the autobahn in some really fast cars is the household favourite. Overall a great game, just don't break your controller when the game decides to suddenly double the speed of all your opponents. ;o) 
