Take me down to Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty....
Released: January 22, 2008 (PS3, 360) February 5th, 2009 (PC)
Developer: Criterion Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: Racing
Burnout Paradise...the first (and currently only) current gen Burnout game. It plays like most other racing games. The camera can be set outside or in the car while you drive around trying to do whatever goal was assigned to you (a race or crashing the other cars) But ooohhhh wait, Paradise has a plot twist. Instead of selecting which map you want to play, you are given a huge, sandbox style city to drive in.
As you start out, you're given some piece of shit car to drive as. Then you drive around and wonder what the hell to do. The annoying guy on the radio fills you in. Each event is set up at a stop light. There is no way to physically tell them apart, you just have to drive up and see (or look at the icons on your map, yes there is a map of Paradise City. Each location has an icon next to it. Like, repair shop or event). Some are for races, some for crash events (drive to a certain spot without getting wiped out, or wipe out a certain number of opponents), stunt events (you do trick and big jumps with your car for points), to time attacks, to other events that only motorcycles can do...there is a bunch. Winning events will give you points, and the more points you get, the more you will go up in rank, and the more you go up in rank, the better cars you unlock, and the better cars you unlock, the faster you drive, and the faster you drive, the more- you get it.
The game is completely seamless. The only loading times as you play, are in-between events. If your car is beat up, drive through a repair shop, it's instantly fixed. If your car needs a paint job, drive through a paint place, and now you can color it on the car select menu. There are a TON of different cars available. Each one is sorted by 3 types. One is the speed boost. You get boost by doing dangerous stunts and surviving (take-downing opponents, near missing traffic, ect) However, if you have the button held down too long, the boost meter will "burnout" (haha). Another one is the stunt boost. It's almost the same, but there is less you can do to earn boost, and it doesn't burnout. The final one is the most familiar to Burnout players, the aggression boost. You get this by getting takedowns, near misses, and taking out traffic (driving with you). There are 2 other special kinds of boost as well, but only for about...3 different cars or so.
Along with the different boosts and cars, there are several feels of playing this game. Everybody can find a unique car they will enjoy. It's a very nice system. Each car also has different Speed, Boost, and Strength. Speed is...well how fast it'll go. We already covered boost. Strength is how likely you'll be able to survive a crash. Along with that, the car has a selected boost type.
So you're happily driving around this beautiful large city. You go through the town, then through a stadium, into some woods, up into the mountains, through construction sites...listening to the FUCKING HUGE list of music, that contains everything from Guns n' Roses to Mozart (along with customizable music you can upload). You're headbanging on your steering wheel, paying little attention to traffic and almost crashing and dying. Finally, the thought sinks in, "Well shooooot. Sure wish I had sum buddies to play with!" Well dangit, this is the 21st century! We have....internet. Burnout Paradise uses the internet extremely well. Instead of waiting a lobby, spending 30 minutes looking for a game to join, then joining one, then getting kicked by an asshat, sighing, and repeating...Burnout has a very easy system.
Hitting a button (right on the crosspad except on the PC, where I dunno how it works), a little menu pops up. You can go across it to change songs, or load up the options menu, or enter online. Immediately (like, as your driving) it loads you up into the game of your choice (or quick match). You don't even have to stop. You get the itch to play? Just hit that button and BAM, you're there. It's extremely fast. The game has a very large base, many many people play this still. However, it's best if you put away the mic and turn off the mic sound. Burnout tends to have a bad community of online freaks. Still, you can enjoy a good race or event the leader sets up, and all without hearing little kids rapping and yelling over the mic.
Burnout Paradise has a bunch of fun quirks. The addition of all the free stuff (mostly the fix the game at launch), addition of trophies (PS3 only), the day-night system (you can fix the sky to sync with the weather where you live, so if it's night outside, it's night in game. You can manually adjust it too), the addition of motorcycles, toy cars, specials, colors, it's all really cool and still supported. Along with the free DLC's, there are several you can buy as well. (even a lazy one, where it just unlocks all the cars for you, but where's the fun in that?) This was really set up to be the big "omfg" Burnout game.
Unfortunately, Paradise has one serious flaw. Not everybody can equally enjoy it. I mean, the wide variety of music, the huge city, the free landscape, it's all cool, but just...gets in the way at times. I mean, you're doing a burning route (time attack) and you have to get from point A to point B ASAP. You sit while it loads, then pause it, stare at your map, plant out a course, then drive along. Your eyes are struggling to keep track of your planned route on your minimap. You pause, open the map again, make sure, then continue forth. Then you notice time is running low, the hell? You pause, look again, then curse to yourself because you took a wrong way on a microscopic road and now you must start the event again because there is no way win now. Or during a race, you're constantly having to pull up the map to check to see if you're going the right way. It's extremely frustrating and sucks the fun out of it.
Sadly this is the only real flaw of the game, but it's a huge one. It's so easy to get lost in Paradise City, then you have to stare at a map for 20 minutes to figure out how to get out. Or you're too busy staring at the minimap and miss a turn. It's very aggravating. You can't just boycott the races and other events that make you do that either, as you need everything you can get to unlock better cars. To some, this isn't a big deal. Their brains can just memorize crap so easily. While for others, it's extremely hard to when your zooming down a street, trying to avoid traffic while slamming into opponents while trying to remember where to go.
Would I want a Burnout Paradise 2? Well, yes and no. Burnout Paradise is a beautiful and fun game. It was an original idea and designed very well. But then again, I'm never going to get the end game cars. I don't race anybody or do events that force me to use the map. I mainly just aimlessly drive around, and once and a while do a "crash into everything!!!" event. I suppose it's a hit or miss game. Either you like and can play it...or you don't.
+ Shit fucking tons of varied music!
+ Nice, big city
+ The theme song gets stuck in your head
+ Varied cars and feel
+ Oodles to do
+ Fast, smart online system
+ Lots of free and premium content
+ Easy to get into
- Needed lots of fixing when it was first released
- The sandbox system doesn't always work
- The major flaw is real damaging to the game.
- Why can't we have the option of closed race courses?
- Where's the traffic checking system from Revenge?
Burnout Paradise gets a 3.8 for the 360 and PS3. Great game...if you're good at memorizing and multitasking. The PC version will go unrated because I have no idea how different it is.
*I guess I should've talked about drifting, since...it's apparently important. It depends on the car. Some cars go out of control freaky crazy with the drifting, to some that can barely do it. Good stuff.
