Developed by a Criterion Games team led by Alex Ward, Burnout 3 was the first title in the series to be published by EA and benefitted from a killer selection of real-world music tracks as a result.
However, the biggest draw of the game was how it evolved the carnage-based gameplay of the first two Burnout games with its innovative "takedown" system. This encouraged players to slam into their opponents, forcing them into oncoming traffic or trackside hazards.
Released on PS2 and Xbox on September 8th, 2004, it won numerous awards and is rightly considered to be the apex of the entire Burnout series. Burnout Revenge followed in 2005, while the series adopted an open-world approach for 2008's Burnout Paradise.
We haven't had a new entry in the Burnout series since the 2011 download-only spin-off Burnout CRASH!, although Paradise did get remastered in 2018.