Burning up again

Recently I returned to a game I played a lot of over the past few years: Burnout 3.

Hooooboy, has there ever been a game that has, for me, inspired both loving and loathing in equal amounts. I know a lot of people love this game (and the Burnout series for that matter) but for me it is that catch 22 game: You know it's fun and enjoyable but that enjoyment is tainted with some issues - issues of the 'throw controller through the screen' variety.

I'm not saying Burnout 3 is a bad game: Indeed it's fun to ram one's opponents into the wall and it's kinda cool to partake in the kind of dangerous driving that would be unattainable in real life. Now normally I'm not one for racing games but I have to admit that, much to my surprise, the races often turn into intense affairs. And I particularly enjoyed the Road Rage events.

But get past that and you realise just how maddening the difficulty can get - particularly late in the game. Now I understand the crashes are an integral part of the game but in the later stages I crashed so much that it wasn't even funny. I swear there was one point where I'd come to a particular turn and I'll crash automatically! Sometimes crashes would happen right out of nowhere and leave me scratching my head in disbelief.
Indeed, I find this emphasis on crashing kind of puzzling when ultimately, the only way to succeed is to drive as carefully as possible. Thus I get points of particular crashes but I gte points for doing a perfect lap? What sense does that make?

And then there's the AI: Never before have I come across an AI that could only be described as brutal! Forget what I said last week about Rock Band 3 resenting the player - no the hatred Burnout 3 has for the player knows no bounds.
Firstly the burnout feature is a good idea but soon it becomes clear that it is necessity: Using it is the only only hope in hell the player has to keep up with the AI. And, going back to the crashing, why do the AI cars seem to escape the crashes? I've lost count how many times I've crashed only the have the opposing cars make the narrowest of escapes.
And don't get me started on my crashing: They happen out of nowhere and make it impossible to recover from. You know what I mean: You'll be driving along with a good lead and suddenly you'll crash for some reason only to fall back down to the last position. And you opponents would rush on ahead with speeds you can only dream of. And it's funny how my crashes, through the gloating cinematic, seem to last far longer than that of my opponents.
Granted a game should provide a challenge to the gamer but this is just ridiculous. Challenging is okay but brutal/gloating/impossible challenging isn't.
Indeed, no other game has made me scream "BULLSHIT!" and other curses as loudly as possible (much to the horror of my partner)

For this reason, many of the courses in Burnout 3 remain unfinished. But they ever will be finished. True it's fun to cause some destruction on the road but to face against an unforgivably evil AI is another.
Oh well...