Burnout 3: Takedown
Publisher: EA Games
Platform: X-Box and PS2
Taiwan release: already available
If on-road mayhem is your thing and you possess some twisted love for watching and causing car wrecks, then EA's Burnout 3: Takedown is for you. Unlike racing games where you have to place first to win, with Burnout 3 the only way to be awarded is to cause mass pile-ups and destroy every other vehicle on the road.
First hitting the market in 2001, the Burnout series has gone from strength to strength. Burnout 1 gave console players the sense of speed and Burnout 2 paved the way for chaos with its crash mode. Burnout 3 combines all the aspects of the previous games and adds some interesting new aspects including a nerve-wracking fender bending career mode.
The races all take place on freeways and city streets, where, of course, you'll find plenty of vehicles to trash, smash and crash into. If you've lived in Taiwan for any period of time and are a regular driver here, then winning should prove no problem, as you can simply ape what you see on an everyday basis.
Drive on the sidewalk, pull U-turns in the middle of on coming traffic, go down one-way roads the wrong way and drift into other lanes without waiting to see what's coming up behind you. All of which will, if you plan your line of attack correctly, result in some of the most graphically stunning and spectacular pile-ups you could ever hope to witness without, of course, causing the untimely death of anybody at all.
If you're an automotive sociopath or a frustrated motorist in need of release, then Burnout 3: Takedown and its awesome car crashes is probably just what the doctor ordered.
Rainbow Six: Black Arrow
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platform: X-Box
Tawian release: already available
There are now nearly as many Tom Clancy-related PC and console games on the market as there are techno-thriller tomes on bookshelves and Unisoft's Rainbow Sis: Black Arrow is the latest in the long line of what continue to be some of the most intensive and absorbing first
person shooters avaialble.
Like its half-dozen Team Rainbow based predecessors, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow is a squad- based tactical shooter in which players take on the role of Domingo "Ding" Chavez -- a longtime character in several of Clancy's novels.
As Ding you're tasked with leading your four-man elite international anti-terrorist squad on a series of missions aimed at -- and stop me if you've heard this before -- snaring an evil genius who is intent on destroying the free world.
Although team-based, meaning you as the player are charged with controlling all members of the team, Rainbow Six: Black Arrow is free of many of the annoying glitches that plague many a team- based game. Giving basic orders is simply a case of hitting one button and ordering the team to undertake more complex tasks is just as easy.
You take your team from London to Cannes on to the streets of Milan and finally to some rather rugged and hostile Middle Eastern locales. Along the way you're tasked with killing scores of bad guys, rescuing hostages and defusing bombs.
The 10 excellently designed, magnificently detailed and realistic campaign games include plenty of wide-open spaces and narrow corridors, offering heaps of cover for both you and your foes to hide or cower behind. None of the missions are dull and all are guaranteed to keep players wrapped up for many hours.
RSS