While gaming provides us with many memories and hours of fun, most of us have spent a lot of time in front of the screen without a controller in our hands. Whether waiting our turn or the next death, we often get to watch others play videogames. Here are some of my experiences when it was just fun to watch ...

I was once naive enough to think there were only two types of racing games. Arcade racers (Cruisin' USA, kart games, etc.) and simulation racers (GT series, Sega GT and others). Though different in many ways, these games were about going from point A to be B and being the first one to do so. My infantile beliefs about racing games were crushed against a wall at 90 miles an hour one afternoon when I watched a game called Burnout 3.

It all took place one lazy weekend in college. Some friends and I were waiting around our house to do something or go somewhere. I don't remember what we were going to do or if we even did it; but, the waiting game turned into watching Jim play Burnout 3 on his Xbox.


It doesn't matter what place you're in when something explodes ...

My thought process when something like this: Oh, Xbox, wish I had one of those. Okay, a racing game - wish I had my Dreamcast here I could whip out Sega GT and reminisce. Huh, why did he just ram into that car? Wait, no ... is Jim insane? Now, what's this? Driving you car off a ramp into a pile of other cars to create an explosion for points - awesome!

We all started giving Jim tips on how to create bigger explosions in "Best Non-Racing Mode in a Racing Gamer Ever Mode" (I don't remember what it was really called). There aren't many games were audience participation is appreciated - but Jim gladly tried any suggestion that might lead to a larger glowing ball of burning automobiles.

Maybe it was the boredom, might have been the explosions. Could be the cars involved. Whatever kept us intrigued, watching crash after crash just hypnotized my friends and me. That drab almost squalid room in a rental house became a glowing, rambunctious den of igniting innocent piles of vehicles.


One should watch Burnout 3 so unexciting wrecks like this don't happen.

Now, if Burnout had only been about crashing your car, that would have been enough to keep me entertained for years. But, it also had racing with crashing. I was astounded at the genius of being encouraged to ram your opponent into a wall or T-bone them into scrap metal. Jim didn't really care about winning races (he could do that anytime) - he wanted to trade paint with every car and make them remember it.

I guess my pals and I never did get around to going or doing whatever we were waiting to do. Or maybe we did. The memory that remains of that possibly fruitless afternoon is one of Burnout. I never looked at racing games the same again. With the explosions and outrageous crash mechanics, I cannot think of any other racing game that's as fun to just watch than Burnout 3.

Images from here and here