Lucky Mr Steve Boxer got hands-on with the new Burnout and had a lovely time, by all accounts. Read on.
Games can sometimes be victims of their own success: when a franchise continues to sell well over a number of years, its publisher invariably finds it impossible to resist the temptation to churn out a new version every year, and staleness inevitably sets in. Uber-publisher Electronic Arts is constantly being accused of milking its (often expensively licensed) properties at the expense of originality. Next time that happens, it will be able to point at Burnout Paradise, a properly radical reinvention of a venerable intellectual property, and perhaps the most successful revamp of a long-in-the-tooth game I’ve ever come across.
It’s easy to see what prompted EA and Surrey developer Criterion to treat Burnout to a rethink: Paradise is the first bespoke next-gen version of the game (it’s coming out for Xbox 360 as well as PS3). Its big change – one which has been greeted with cries of horror from some Burnout fanatics – is that it has become a free-roaming game. Whereas previously, you worked your way through the game by picking missions and performing them along a delineated route (in the Races, for example, circuits were set up with wrong turnings blocked off by chevron-painted transparent walls), now, you cruise around to your heart’s content, exploring Paradise City, and initiate a mission by stopping at a traffic light and hitting the left and right triggers simultaneously. Different types of missions are represented in different colours on your mini-map.
At first, this can cause frustration – especially when you launch a Race, and end up losing it because you took a wrong turning. But gradually, you learn the layout of the city, so the problem goes away. Burnout Paradise is one of those games that only rewards you once you commit to it – but once you become attuned to its nuances and strengths, it rewards you handsomely. It’s deeply addictive.
More than anything, Paradise City itself sucks you in – it’s an absolute masterpiece of level design, with a grid-patterned inner-city area, in which you can also get onto a jump-studded railway line, dock areas full of short-cuts and twisty, hilly countryside areas with all sorts of hidden delights like a banger-racing track and a vast quarry. There’s always something to discover, from Burnout Paradise billboards to smash through, hidden routes blocked by smashable fences and Super Jumps, which are pretty self-explanatory. Later on, you find things such as the multi-storey car parks, each of which has several cool jumps to perform off its roof.
The missions have changed from previous versions of Burnout, as well as the Races (which you must win), there are Road Rages (much like before), Stunt Runs (in which you must chain skids, jumps, handbrake turns and so forth together, with boosting as the glue in between), Marked Man races (in which you must just get to a certain point without being taken down more than three times by the AI cars) and Burning Routes (timed runs, of which there is one per car). Sadly, Crash Mode has disappeared, although you can enter the so-called Showtime Mode when you crash, and attempt to take out as many nearby cars as possible. This is one rare instance in which Paradise’s free-form nature doesn’t satisfy. Traffic Checking has gone, too, but you won’t miss it.
Anyway, you will still find yourself deliberately crashing just for the spectacle; the cars are unbelievably detailed, and the crashes wincingly realistic. As, indeed, is everything in Burnout Paradise – it looks amazing, nothing draws itself just before you get to it (even if you’re travelling at over 200mph) and it runs at a mega-smooth 60 frames per second.
Indeed, it’s what next-gen games are all about: stunning to look at, endowed with fearsome AI (particularly on the Marked Man runs; the difficulty level ramps up impressively as you start to upgrade your driving licence by completing missions), satisfyingly meaty and fascinating to watch, let alone play. And it’s sure to become the most popular game on the PlayStation Network, thanks to a multitude of 8-player modes, including clever instant action, which lets you jump into races against your mates, and the ability to set fastest times for particular runs and then see if they eclipse your mates’ efforts.
If you own a PS3, you need a copy of Burnout Paradise – it’s that simple. Unless, of course, you don’t like arcade-style racing games. It’s a handy thing to have around, in order to silence your mates if they still give you grief about spending all that money on a PS3.
BRING
IT
ON
Comment by Belfast Steps — Jan 24, 2008 @ 12:32 pm
OK you sold me.
Comment by Terry — Jan 24, 2008 @ 12:56 pm
Got this delivered from game.co.uk this morning and got to play it for about an hour this morning before heading of to work. I strongly recommend getting a Dualshock3 for this game, as it makes crashing etc. so much more enjoyable. I ordered mine from yesasia.com, but there are a lot of other sites selling them also.
Comment by Christian — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:03 pm
Im glad traffic checking has disappeared. That is the main reason for ruining Burnout enjoyment.
Im waiting to receive this game (hopefully today)
Comment by Maximusprime — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:24 pm
Is it bad that playing the demo urges me to charge up the M6 at 120mph into oncoming traffic…..
Comment by JohnSketch — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Burnout Paradise, yet again shows that if you take the time to build your game engine for the PS3, then you get the results. PS3 developers must learn that straight porting just does not cut it and will actually lose them sales.
Comment by Savage — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
Depends what you are driving
Comment by HaloJ — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
Shopto.net shipped this yesterday so I look forward to receiving it. I am dubious about the free roaming world but I’m sure Critereon have done a good job
Comment by TheShirts — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:50 pm
No more crash mode. Boo
Comment by Terry — Jan 24, 2008 @ 1:55 pm
“nothing draws itself just before you get to itâ€
Well, I did see some fances getting drawn in a certain tunnel. Although I haven’t played the game enough to remember the name of the street. But anyway.
Anyway I have to agree that it’s a great game. Free roaming is nice, I also always liked that in the Need for Speed games.
~Grauw
Comment by Laurens Holst — Jan 24, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
[...] Games can sometimes be victims of their own success: when a franchise continues to sell well over a number of years, its publisher invariably finds it impossible to resist the temptation to churn out a new […] Source: Hands On With Burnout Paradise - at Threespeech (No Ratings Yet) Loading … RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL Write a comment [...]
Pingback by Hands On With Burnout Paradise | GameBlews PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, PSP, DS News — Jan 24, 2008 @ 2:23 pm
I too have seen some [texture] draw in, but it wasn’t that distracting, especially since I only noticed it once or twice in the 3 hours I played last night. Other than that, graphically, the game is amazing, especially the crashes. I also love the free-roaming nature of the game. It cries GTA without people - and that’s a good thing. If I had to complain, it would be the lack of licensed vehicles. But I guess that’s what GT is for, right? I can’t wait to get home and play it some more tonight! (I love me some of that Road Rage)
Comment by senocular — Jan 24, 2008 @ 3:22 pm
Can the controls be changed? I liked the old Burnout controls x to go, not R2.
Comment by alan jones — Jan 24, 2008 @ 4:59 pm
No more crash mode. Yay!
Come on Play.com, get it to me now.
Comment by LordOfRuin — Jan 24, 2008 @ 5:03 pm
Hey, did anyone notice the Burnout is being released the same day as Burn’s night? Wonder if that’s coincidence?
Comment by LordOfRuin — Jan 24, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
mr Boxer has a bad case of marketing speak.
any news on the online mode working correctly?
no crash mode,
no traffic check,
free roaming,
stunt mode!!?? s it’s Tony Hawks now is it?
sorry, i’ll stick with the Burnouts i already have.
Comment by mobiletone — Jan 24, 2008 @ 7:00 pm
I’l be celebrating with me Haggis!
Comment by JohnSketch — Jan 24, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
The first thing my copy did was get an update. Wow, those criteron guys are working fast. They’ve fixed a broken thing before I even had a chance to see what it was. Ace, rather enjoying it actually. Sod the nae-sayers, it’s ace racing action. If you wanna crash, there are plenty of opportunities. Well, I’ve found them.
See you on the streets!
Comment by LordOfRuin — Jan 25, 2008 @ 4:45 pm
PS3 “Cagney” release a full four days before the Xbox 360 update…
[ http://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=318 ]
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Burnout Paradise Codename: Cagney Xbox 360 delayed by 4 days, PlayStation 3 still on track
Breaking news…
Xbox 360 Codename: Cagney
We’re sorry to announce that the Codename: Cagney update for Xbox 360 has been delayed by 4 days.
The update is currently with Microsoft and is now on track to be released on 14th July.
PlayStation 3 Codename: Cagney
The PlayStation 3 version of Cagney has been approved by Sony in the USA, Europe and Japan. We currently await approval by Sony in Korea.
This means that the PlayStation 3 version of Cagney should release on July 10th.
Game Calendar Events
We wish to assure Xbox 360 owners that the schedule of Game Calendar events that will be broadcast via the game’s new Live Page will be scheduled to take into account this delay.
This means that although PlayStation 3 owners should receive Cagney on July 10th, the Game Calendar events WILL NOT begin until the Cagney update is live on BOTH systems.
Both systems will then get exactly the same schedule of events.
Details of the schedule of the first events to appear on the Live Page will be posted on the blog next week.
Today’s episode of the CRASH TV podcast, available on iTunes later today will feature an explanation of how the Live Page works and updates.
—
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — Jul 4, 2008 @ 12:25 pm
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