Before anything else here, I would like to congratulate Mike on the birth of his baby boy, Gabriel Aden Krahulik. You have my best wishes, bud. He looks like a champ.

Free time for me is something to be coveted and revered. It’s almost akin to water in the desert, providing just enough sustenance to move on, but by no means is it abundant. Therefore, as you might imagine, how my free time is spent often comes down to some very serious consideration. It’s not like I have excess to squander, you know?

Over the last two days however, there has been no question about what activity eats every free moment I get. Burnout 3 has quickly risen to take it’s place on my list of favorite games released this year. Every so often I throw down fifty or so dollars for a game, and after having played it for a while I am left a feeling of “is that all I paid for this wonderful, wonderful experience?”. This is one of those games.

It’s got a few flaws. Actually, I don’t know if I should even call them flaws. Let me say it’s got a few very, very minor points that would have made the game a perfect ten for me, such as having actual car models in the game. There are no Porshes, Audis, SRT-4’s, or the like. Instead you have different cars within class sets, such as “Custom Muscle” or “Assassin Coupe”. All of these cars very obviously represent real world counterparts, but it still would have been nice to launch a classic Mustang into an oil tanker.

I also would have liked the ability to save some of my more spectacular replays.

But don’t get me wrong. These details are minor. The gameplay is fast, fun and the mechanics are well balanced. There’s a wonderful mix of technical and arcade racer elements here.

I’ve been mostly focusing on the Crash mode first, in which the goal is quite simply to drive your car into a busy intersection as quickly and as destructively as possible, and attempt to cause the most damage. I’m nearing the 10 newspaper headlines mark for massive damage, at which point I believe you unlock the firetruck. Mmmm… irony.

There are tons of cars, tons of variations of the tracks, and tons of fun. If you don’t go out and buy this game, at least go rent it. It’s worth it.

I’m hoping to have something neat to announce later on today, I’m just waiting for it to arrive here. Check back later for other newsposts under this one.