If speed does indeed kill, a whole range of series across a varying degree of platforms could arguably be held up as accessories to murder. No more so than the Burnout series from the development team at Criterion, which for years now has pumped high octane racing fun at ridiculously quick speeds.

With this being the third game in the series, people could be excused for thinking that the series might by now be struggling to provide enough new substance to warrant investment. Burnout 3 doesn’t just dispel those worries; it throws them out of the car window at 100mph. Fans of the series desperately wanting an answer to their burning question right now can indeed relax safe in the knowledge that Takedown is the finest Burnout title yet.

Although the main menu presents you with single race and time attack options, most of the meat on the bone is located within the World Tour section. Split across 3 continents which each offer a number of differing locations, your task is to complete a collection of different types of event. Not satisfied with focusing on simply making you race as quickly as you can from A to B, Takedown offers different challenges such as the takedown mode from which the game takes its subtitle and numerous different crash junctions which make a welcome and fully-fleshed return.

Both of these modes are very enjoyable and, more importantly, hellishly addictive. Takedown action sees the player facing off against a number of computer opponents in a high-speed battle to see who can slam the most opponents against the surrounding scenery as possible. When this is achieved (or if you end up wrapping your own motor around the nearest tree) the game provides wince-inducing replays that showcase the impressive particle effects that see your once-pristine vehicles bend and shatter as if they were the genuine articles. In doing so, the game makes crashing less of a frustration and more of a fascination, and taking into account the amount of crashing which you will do you could consider this as Criterion’s main achievement.

Crash Junction mode, meanwhile, takes Burnout 2’s idea of a selection of preset crash scenarios and runs with it, properly implementing it into the World Tour mode and offering 100 of the things for you to cause havoc in. For those uninitiated with the concept, each junction sees the player placed in a determined start location and offered the chance to drive straight into a particularly busy piece of road with the aim of causing the most monetary damage as possible.

To help along the way, a number of floating bonuses are scattered around. These either act as score bonuses or give the player an additional and instant crashbreaker, basically an explosion that the player can cause to happen on his own vehicle at the touch of a button. Much more than just a throwaway action, the crashbreakers can be highly destructive tools that can propel your vehicle off towards further bonus icons and trigger completely new moments of mayhem. The junctions quickly become highly entertaining snippets of play that absorb deceptively large amounts of time, whilst also providing a little stress relief should you be struggling elsewhere.

Away from these two modes, the standard racing is still as insanely fast and instinctive as previous games were, with the controls tight and responsive. They need to be too, as the pace with which you fly past city traffic and scenery sometimes requiring immediate and sudden direction changes. Performing daring manoeuvres, impressive slides or brutal takedowns during your racing escapades fills your boost bar which in turn allows you to inject an additional burst of pace for when you need it. Various types of car are on offer to race with, with progression through the tour meaning more cash and more selection at the player’s disposal, varying from the ridiculous (buses and fire trucks for crash junction use) to the ridiculously fast (Champ Cars which can accelerate up to well over 200mph).

Online modes are present and cater for split-screen action as well as Xbox Live play. Live racing focuses on takedowns and remains smooth and pleasingly lag-free, although occasional issues in connecting spoil the party slightly. The introduction of human players to race against gives a slightly different game atmosphere too, with the majority of people who play the game online quite happy to focus on good racing rather than Destruction Derby techniques to win them races. That said, hectic scrap-fests are always welcome and smashing a particularly annoying adversary against the entrance wall to a tunnel will leave a smug grin spread across your face.

With the fact that the game itself is so enjoyable and addictive, the news that the game is both visually and sonically impressive just adds to the good news. Given Electronic Arts’ decision to snap up the rights to the series and then buy Criterion themselves a few weeks on, one could have justifiably feared that the game would suffer and become slightly diluted. Thankfully it seems that the bods at EA have allowed Criterion breathing space to create the game that they want whilst at the same time aiding them with that little extra production sheen that perhaps was lacking before. Graphically the game flies along at a solid 60 frames per second, whilst a selection of tunes from the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Jimmy Eat World and My Chemical Romance form the EA Trax soundtrack that can alternatively be replaced by a custom soundtrack if wanted.

As a complete package, Burnout 3 is certainly a great game. In fact I’ll go further and say that Burnout 3 is a very serious contender for being one of the finest games this year. The racing is varied, addictive and offers countless hours of play before being exhausted. Visually, Takedown is beautiful and the crash effects each time a vehicle spears into something are truly jaw dropping at times. Backed by an entertaining soundtrack and with the addition of Xbox Live modes, chances are that you’ll be spending many a happy hour betwixt car and brickwork for the foreseeable future.