With Burnout Paradise, EA Games and Criterion bring the fan-favorite Burnout franchise to next-generation consoles. But, how does the game stack up? Does it finish cleanly in first place or lie in a crumpled heap in last place?
On the PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles, the Burnout series was known as the staple for fun, arcade-style driving with spectacular crashes. Needless to say, Paradise has some pretty big shoes to fill with this successor and, in nearly all regards, surpasses the older games.
Before the game is even started, a pretty ambitious description can be found on the back of the box. The fictional city that the game takes place in, Paradise City, is dubbed as “the ultimate driving playground.” Right off the bat, that’s saying a lot about what the customer can expect.
Is this merely a marketing strategy or is it the genuine truth? Having played for quite some time already, Paradise City is one hell of a fun place to explore. The city itself consists of over 250 miles of open road and varying scenery. There’s an expansive downtown area packed with skyscrapers and shortcuts and then a mountainous countryside area full of long, winding roads and epic jumps.
Adding to the experience is a ton of extra content within the area that the game rewards you with trophies for finding. For instance, the developers included 120 Burnout billboards within the city limits. Finding these billboards is the easy part, figuring out how to launch your vehicle of choice through them is the tough part. While some are moderately easy, others can have you sitting in front of the television scratching your head as you try to figure out where the necessary jump could possibly be.
As mentioned, the city features plenty of shortcuts. Luckily, the entrances to these timesavers are marked with yellow construction gates, making them much easier to find over the course of a race event. There are 400 gates in total and finding every last one of them nets you an additional trophy. While finding all of the gates is truly rewarding, there is still much more to be done. Over the course of the game, there are 80 trophies to be awarded, by far the most in any PlayStation 3 game to date.
But, when all is said and done, this is a Burnout game, so the emphasis is always placed on the cars and crashes. With the move to next-gen consoles, both the vehicles and the environments have received a beautiful graphical overhaul. And, true to the history of the series, when the two meet, it is an epic intersection to say the least.
The increased power of the consoles allows for more polygons per car. Basically, this boils down to how many pieces your car disintegrates into when it meets any sort of object within the Burnout universe. Twisted metal and shards of glass from the windshield litter the roadway upon any of these crashes and it really does look amazing.
That said, the gameplay is also a very vital part of the puzzle here. There are a variety of race modes offered ranging from the simple race to the new marked man event, in which other cars aggressively try to run you off the road as you try to make it to one of the game’s many locales. However, keep in mind that Paradise City is a realm that has no boundaries, so even the most basic race from point A to point B can quickly evolve into multiple racers splitting off from the pack in an effort to find the quickest route.
Therein lies a lot of the fun to be had with this game. Virtually every event is different in the sense that each new starting point presents the player with the need for a new strategy. Will you try to muscle all of the other cars off the road or will you choose a faster car and try to bypass the competition? The best part is that this task is left entirely to the player. Need to race from here to there? Fine, choose your own path, just make sure that you win.
As if the game wasn’t incredible enough already, the creators decided to add even more unique content to this great game. With various free updates, the developers added in motorcycles, more challenges, a complete day/night cycle, and many more cars to add to the already stacked roster of 75. In addition, a new area called “Big Surf Island” is currently being developed to be released at a later date. Rumored to be around the size of the downtown section of Paradise City, this new addition sounds like a pretty interesting project already.
On top of that, Burnout Paradise ups the ante even more by transferring this “live, open world” concept to online play. With an Ethernet cable connected, the player literally has to press two buttons and then they are seamlessly integrated into an online lobby of up to eight players. From there, everyone can just go about doing whatever they would like or you can get an event organized for some fast-paced online action with other racers.
So, when the brake dust settles and the smoldering wreck of a car finally comes to the end of its skid, how does Burnout Paradise score? In my eyes, this game is simply incredible. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is fast and frenetic and the scale of how much you can do at any given time is overwhelming.
Even better, this game is only improving upon its already solid formula with the addition of free downloadable content. After making the move to the PlayStation 3 Greatest Hits library, Burnout Paradise costs only $20. With all of that available for such a low price, it makes purchasing this game almost too easy. Having said that, this title is easily a 10/10 in my book. In other words, go out and get this right now. Seriously.
***After doing some research, it turns out that the "Big Surf Island" add-on area will not be free, the exact price has not yet been determined, but for more information, please visit the Criterion games website here.
1 Comment
With that tagline, Resident Evil 5 sets the player on a whirlwind adventure through the heart of Africa in an attempt to destroy what’s left of Umbrella Corporation’s monstrous creations. |
Archives
April 2009
What's being covered...
Covered So Far...
|