through its many, many pain points and rough edges, it still ends up telling a great narrative with some really compelling characters. really fun environment too. when you finish the missions up in north algonquin they start introducing a deluge of faceless mafia or government goons to give you missions for the rest of the game and that's honestly my only real "issue" with the game as it were... why should i care about this revolving door of characters who will probably die at the end of their mission line to set up the next one anyway? then the game ends completely unceremoniously. you're winner.

i felt like i hated this game a lot of the time i was playing it but there was just something always bringing me back to get some more mission progress and just explore such a beautiful city (when they have the colour grading turned down) every day for the ~2 weeks it took me to beat it. i'm absolutely sure my feelings would sour towards it if i played it again but the first part of this game, sans the introductory few missions, is just the pure perfection of open-world gaming, especially when you're settling into the mechanics. maybe that's just because they don't make you do any close quarters non-cover combat until algonquin?

The driving is not hard and anyone who complained about it should be banned from reviewing games forever.

a wholly passable arcade racer like its progenitor. delivers on "burnout 1 but better" in the most average way it can honestly, just more tracks, cars, and events with some minor aesthetic and gameplay overhauls.

the main issues here are
A: why are these races so long. you get a few in that acceptable 3-4 minute window and then anything on a decently long track starts creeping up to a gruelling 6-8 minutes. that'd be on the longer side for an average simcade, but in this kind of modern arcade racer? really wears you down over those long ass grands prix especially seeing as there aren't that many environments (still a leg up on burnout 3 in track variety though)
B: difficulty. you either pick the new fastest car you just unlocked and breeze past everyone with a consistent 5-15s gap or you pick something suboptimal and have to fight tooth and nail the whole race, which i can only really find fun in games that don't make me do it for 5+ minutes straight. again, this is still a leg up on burnout 3 because at least that difficulty feels earned and not because the leading AI is tied to your car by a length of rope.

the driving really is fun and those crash physics have so, so much more impact than in 3, but it really feels like it's missing some important element that i can't quite place...
i trudged through the first series and called it quits for now, i'll come back to do the custom series one day and i'll probably be able to place what that je ne sais quoi is

It's difficult to explain just how fluid and natural this game feels. Street Fighter II, and even the Alpha series both feel like you're controlling someone with a very stiff metal rod stuck up their ass in comparison to 3rd Strike. The movement, the animations, the feedback, everything flows together to create an explosion of endorphins whenever you perform even the most simple combo.

This is, in essence, the culmination of all of the advances in 2D fighting games that were made throughout the 90's. It was even made during a time when, steadily, 2D was falling out of favor. Much like how the absolute peak of propeller plane technology stomped out the early jets of World War II, 3rd Strike shows that even though it was beginning to fall out of style, it was still the king. At least for a little while.