In 2001 I was playing PC games almost exclusively and did not own any consoles aside from a Gamecube. It was my misfortune therefore to have never played any of the Criterion’s Burnout games on the last generation of consoles, having only gotten my introduction to the series with Burnout Revenge on the 360. I say misfortune because Burnout Revenge turned out to be a killer title; with some of the most "jaw droppingly" gorgeous graphics I had seen on the 360 at the time. The gameplay of Burnout Revenge took the racing genre, which I enjoyed, and made it even better by allowing me the opportunity to engage in the wanton destruction of my fellow racers.

Burnout Revenge left a very good impression on me, and it was therefore with no small measure of excitement I eagerly awaited the release of Burnout Paradise, Electronic Arts latest edition to the Burnout legacy. I’ll admit I was worried though. Would Burnout Paradise live up to the very high standards set by Burnout Revenge?

Having played the title fairly extensively it’s with great joy I can answer this answer with a very definitive “hell yes”. Burnout Paradise not only met my expectations but it has exceeded them, with incredible gameplay both online and off, blistering graphics, and a rock solid framerate. The game is not without some faults, but like most titles I wanted to judge Burnout Paradise on the sum of all it’s parts rather than picking at individual annoyances.

Gameplay:

In Burnout Paradise you take on the roll of a new driver granted a beginner’s license in Paradise City. Unlike the real world where you need to drive safely to maintain your license, Burnout Paradise rewards drivers with upgraded licenses and new cars based on points earned from completing various challenges scattered throughout the map.

I can assure you that most of these challenges entail antics that in the real world would land you in jail if your lucky, or the morgue if not. For me this is what makes Burnout Paradise so attractive … the chance to drive around do all the insane things you only wish you could do with your real life car.

Vehicles in Burnout Paradise handle really well and 360 owners will be pleased to hear the rumble feature in the controller is put to good use. Gas is activated by using right trigger, breaks the left. X let’s you use your hand break to send your car spinning around while holding A will give your car a turbo boost, which is limited in capacity. You can recharge your turbo through a variety of methods, from the mundane of blazing through a gas station, or my preferred method of avoiding near death head on collisions. Stunts give turbo boosts as well, and the Aggression Class Car earn bonus Turbo when taking down an opponent.

Scattered throughout Paradise City are repair stations to fix your cars, gas stations to refill your boost metre and junkyards to switch up cars you’ve earned from winning challenges and upgrading your license. Using all of these stations during or just before challenges becomes key to winning events.

There are three classes of cars, Stunt, Speed and Aggression. Stunt class cars are designed to take advantage of Stunt challenges scattered throughout the map, while Speed class cars are blazingly fast and therefore great for traditional race challenges. Aggression cars are built with strength in mind and can easily take down enemy cars. while gaining a nice boost to its turbo gauge, making them the perfect car for Road Rage events.

I think the key to the addictiveness of the gameplay lies in a combination of thrilling speed, harrowing near misses, and the Pokemon “Gotta Catch Them All” mentality of building up your car collection while having an absolute blast doing so.

Graphics:

Burnout Paradise is truly a beautiful game to look at. The game runs beautifully both online and off, with very little slowdown even when cars are flying over your windshield. When your car gets totaled, you will see the vehicle implode spectacularly, it’s final resting place a stark warning on the dangers of speeding. Paradise City itself is modeled beautifully and really feels like a downtown city should feel, while the outskirts of the city provides some great spots high up to gape at the incredible view distance as you look across the map.

I’m by no means an elitist when it comes to graphics, but I can say that Burnout Paradise may just be the game to make me one.

Sound:

Everything just sounds right. Cars rev as they should, things go smash in surround sound when you mess up on a turn, and the 360 allows you to substitute in your own tracks if you’re not a fan of the rock tracks included on the disc. This is one department where I think the 360 version of the title really shines over the PS3 version … the ability to add in your own customized sound track.

Longevity:

Burnout Paradise is a title that you will be playing for a long time to come. Earning new cars requires you to earn points on your license. This is mainly accomplished by completing the many challenges found throughout the map.

Challenges come in 5 flavours, Races, Burning Route, Stunts, Marked Man and Road Rage. Almost every intersection in Paradise has a set challenge you can start by pressing your gas and break triggers simultaneously. The game will then load up the set challenge and give you instructions on what you need to accomplish.

Race events are your typical “be first to cross the finish line” style events but allow you the opportunity to choose your route through the city. Shortcuts are key to shaving time off the clock as is the car you choose and judicious use of turbo boost.

Burning Route events allow you to upgrade a current car you own at the Junkyard by getting from Point A to Point B in under a set time limit.

Stunt events require you to beat a target score by drifting, jumping, smashing billboards and doing barrel rolls. You can combo together various stunts in order to earn score multipliers getting you to the target score that much quicker.

Marked Man events require you to race from point to point with a few AI controlled maniacs chasing after you. I suck at this event and die horrible deaths most of the time.

Road Rage is my favorite event. In Road Rage you are required to take down a set number of AI opponents while they try to do the same to you. There is something therapeutic about taking down your 40th AI opponent.

Showtime is technically not an event but a mode you can enter. It replaces the old Crash mode from previous titles and is in my opinion the one let down of the game. I much preferred the older Crash mode in Revenge that was almost puzzle like in it’s complexity. Crash Mode basically allows you to bounce your car down the street wracking up points and extra jump juice with every car or bus you hit. Buses provide multipliers to your overall score total.

On top of all these events there are billboard to smash, secret shortcuts to discover, and jump ramps to find and conquer. Every road offers new records (both online and off) to be set or broken, there are single player challenges to beat and 360 achievements also provide even further goals to accomplish.

As if this weren’t enough the game also include an incredibly seamless online mode that allows you to instantly enter an “EasyDrive” session with 7 other friends or strangers. Once in EasyDrive the host of the session can set group challenges to accomplish, start events, or just allow everyone to mess around in random pickup races outside of the constraints of an event. Players can even create their own race events with preset start and finish lines!

Like previous Burnout titles, takedowns are tracked and remembered, as are your Revenge Rivals. Taking down an opponent with a 360 Camera is particularly a joy, as the camera will take a mug shot of your victim at the moment of their death.

EA has really outdone themselves in the sheer amount of things to do in this game.

Overall:

Burnout Paradise provides a massive world to explore, and many secrets to find with over 30 square kilometers of road. It became very apparent to me as I explored new roads, that the entire city has been painstakingly designed to provide a true playground for maniacal drivers to tear around in. Despite this city feels natural, the perfect melding of design, and FUNctionality.

I really like Burnout Paradise. There is enough content in the game to keep even the most hardcore player going for an extremely long time. And best of all the vast majority of that content is FUN.

In the end this is what I feel EA did right. They made a game that placed FUN first … and then they designed everything in the game around this principle. There’s a few places they screwed up, like taking out the old Crash Mode, and not allowing players to restart races they know they are going to lose … but really these are just quibbles when looking at the sheer amount of awesomeness squeezed into the overall package.

Burnout Paradise is a game I can wholeheartedly recommend as a must own title. It has so much value packed into it that my review has gone on far longer than it normally does … and there are still things about the game I wish I had the space to rave about.

If you are a fan of fun you need Burnout Paradise.