Burnout Paradise

Really looking forward to this one. Demo's definitely a blast.

The Burnout series remains among the very few 360 games my wife will play, so I'm sure I'll own this whether it's any good or not. So I'm hoping it's good. I slightly preferred Burnout 3 to Revenge, but I'm intrigued by the open-world concept.

http://www.chud.com/mastercontrol/12937

I'm in love!

The one demo all year I actually give a damn about, and I need a Gold account to get it. Awesome.

Really looking forward to this one. Burnout is like an event for my crowd. Gather round for days, shooting for 100%.

Sucks about no Crash mode, though. The thing they replaced it with, Showtime, looks ridiculously stupid. Better than "Traffic Attack" maybe, but not by a lot.

I've been playing the demo from The Playstation Network a lot too. Never bothered with the online aspect (never cared about that in any game). I've never been a car game fan either but I'm definitely picking this up full price when it comes out, which I rarely do.

I was sold on the article (well, plus I loved Burnout Revenge).. but watching that clip had my rolling my eyes..

Maybe I'm just a Crash purist, but that Showtime mode where you can keep flipping and spinning your completely wrecked car around into shit, even hopping over a crashed bus in a tight tunnel after both vehicles came to a complete stop.. seems a bit much. I guess I just liked seeing how much damage I could do in one hit and then enjoying the carnage that followed.. is Showtime a timed 'event' or what? Cause that guy flips his car down an entire stretch of highway into every vehicle around for 3 minutes.. doesn't look very challenging to rack up big scores that way

The damage models look great though

You can keep moving (and hopping, apparently) your wreck as long as you have "boost", which it seems like you get from wrecking certain things and getting multipliers (buses, I believe).

As its own thing it'd probably be fine, but as a replacement from Crash mode it looks awful.

I like almost everything about this demo but Im really missing the ability to traffic checks. It liked being able to check cars across the road into enemy racers. I also never really liked having to dodge traffic like in need for speed, though I guess in this case the traffic isnt really very thick most of the time so its not a big deal.

Honestly, Traffic Checking was a nice diversion but I'm glad Criterion realized it basically saps most of the tension out of the game. Yeah, it was fun as fuck for awhile, but it started to feel really silly.

Almost as silly as this Burnout Damacy shit they went ahead and added.

Finally got ahold of the demo. It is, of course, brilliant. Had some difficulty with the open world, until I discovered the handy new E-brake.

I don't really miss aftertouch as much as I thought I would. Sucks that it's gone, but I was way too busy ogling the new pre-impact slow motion bits to notice. The crash sequences overall are just about perfect now, though I really could have done without the EA-Extreme-Desaturation-Filter.

The first time my car actually 'crumpled' against a wall... I said something out loud. I don't remember what it was, but probably my grandmother would be ashamed.

Is there some trick to landing barrel rolls? I ALWAYS wreck. DJ Fucktard said to "move the left analog stick", which is pretty vague. Also, are there really only two events in the demo? I found a race, which was really short but a kinda nice taste, and a stunt event. I hate stunt events in 'any' game, so there's basically only one worthwhile event until the end of January? Bummer, man.

I am absolutely buying this fucker.

There's also a time attack event starting at the far south east intersection and ending in the same place as the race event.

I really want to love this unreservedly, but the loss of crash mode hurts oh so much. Crash mode IS Burnout for me. The races I can take or leave. I'll reserve judgment until I get to play around with Showtime, but right now, I'm pretty bummed.

It seems kind of like Test Drive Unlimited with better crashes and damage modeling. Or Midtown Madness, for that matter.

But that said, I still kind of like it. Jumping off of the parking garages, smashing through billboards, finding shortcuts...that stuff all seems pretty great. And I can see great opportunities for fucking around with friends.

Me, Nate and a few guys from my friends list had a quick mess about with the online mode. Exceptionally fun, nothing like stalking your friends across the map waiting for them to fuck up so you can fuck them up. Immense amounts of fun trying to do the challenges too, especially the boosting one.

My jaw nearly hit the floor when I had a quick look at the map and realised that the open area of the demo was about a tenth of the overall map. My only complaint is that the crashes themselves seem to be a little more genteel, on Burnout Revenge you could create Final Destination 2 style feats of destruction, now I can barely scratch other cars paintwork.

Quoth a famous horse: "No sir, I don't like it."

I'm all for throwing a changeup into this series. While I loved Revenge to death, and the changes made to Crash mode were all for the better, one can't deny that the game as a whole was basically a loose-playing update of 3, and I was kinda looking forward to the overhaul. So, don't take it as me entirely missing the structure of 3 and Revenge.

But everything about the demo just strikes the wrong chord. For one thing, I knew there was gonna be trouble the second they brought DJ Cunthat back, and now there's no option to silence his ass. I at least pray the lack of that option's just for the demo.

The map system's a disaster. If you're going to have a city this dense, the least you can do is have a zoom function, or at least a way to mark sections of the map outside of the start menu. The present design, admittedly, will do wonders for the field of cataract research.

Same goes for the city itself, which *looks* beautiful, but it's also a cluttered fucking mess, which, for a game that, while Takedowns are great, prides its race portion on speed, is just self-defeating. Where you once had stretches allowing you to track your enemies while dodging in and out of traffic is now a game of "Guess What The Fuck That Black Thing Is Up Ahead?" The fact that the world of a racing game is open now certainly isn't a bad thing: Midnight Club's been handling this in stride for years now. But that series has always been much better at making it abundantly clear what you can do, shouldn't do, and where you're at least advised to go. Judging from the demo, these principles have not yet made their way into this game.

But worst of all is, of course, the lack of Crash mode. It's a huge part of the reason this game stood out to begin with, and although the crashes and takedowns do look extremely pretty this time around, I can't lie and say I don't miss that mode, and what I've seen of Stunt mode and Showtime don't even hold the jock of what Revenge's Crash mode was.

So, yeah, I'm disappointed.

I imagine they force DJ Cunthat on you in the demo because he kinds of "guides" you around (a bit). I doubt you'll have to keep him around in the real deal.

Does anyone's demo actually have music? Mine is dead silent except for the DJ, which seems pretty weird.

Music kicks in on mine when I do challenges, DJ Automatica is a pox on us all. I think I heard his 'hilarious' tale about the coastguard and his car about a dozen times in the hour I played.

Also this game is screwed in Standard Definition. The screen is so cluttered already, but obstacles don't appear until they're unavoidable and the horrible camera angle means you're essentially driving blind most of the time. I think on HD it's probably fine, but my crappy TV can't make anything out.

That's consistently becoming more of a problem with modern games. I have HDTV, but I have a friend who doesn't, and I'm always hearing about new games that we're both playing, but he can't make things out on them. More and more developers seem to be assuming that everybody has HD now, and I really doubt that we're the majority yet.

Try FlatOut: Total Carnage while waiting. It's like Burnout Jr (even has the same interface graphic layout) with different modes. I got it because it's a tradition for our 4-day New Years party to play Burnout all weekend, but the new one doesn't come out until well after.

I only played it for about 30 mins yesterday, but it was fun.

You can turn off the DJ by hitting right and going to options, then turning off hints or tips or whatever it is. I'm glad, cause he's horrible. I don't care if he's going to be updated when you play online.

Speaking of playing online, anyone try the challenges with the other racers? It's different depending on how many people you're playing with. For 3 people the first challenge is to go down to the beach and do barrel rolls over the other two guys... pretty damn funny to see us all crashing and flying over each other's heads. There's only 3 challenges for each in the demo, but I hope there's a ton in the main game. So much fun online.

Funniest competitor I ran into was a guy who literally fell asleep at the wheel because he'd apparently been playing the game for almost a whole day. He woke up when he found out I broke his flatspin record by a ton, and kept screaming at me that he was going to beat me. Never did.

I like how it tracks all your accomplishments. And who would've thought parking was so much fun?

I really, really love this game.

And this just made me smile- http://www.gametrailers.com/player/29029.html

Flatspin's simple- just hit the handbreak right before you hit the top of a ramp. You'll spin in midair, and get a better score depending on how much of an angle you turn. I got a 330 degree one at one point by bouncing off a building...

It's still the best soundtrack EA's put together since SSX3.

Two things, though: Avril Lavigne has NO business in this or any game's soundtrack, and Rusty Cage is the sole property of Road Rash CD, and EA should fucking know that.

Fucking whiny bitches. What made people complain about the 4-player cap on this demo? Are you kidding? It's a DEMO.

Anyway, didn't seem newsworthy enough for the main page but because of the whiners you can now play the demo with 8 players for the next week. I wanted to stay away from this game till it was released, but noooo....

You are the wrongest person ever, Rob. So very wrong. How does it NOT feel like Burnout. Other cars=turn into flamey, crashy bits. Because it's free-range destruction and racing where the road DOESN'T tell you where to go makes it unBurnout? How does one even DEFINE a Burnout? I thought it was arcadey racing mixed with boom, but I guess I'm wrong.

Welcome to the club. We have punch and pie.

Hopefully, everybody's this enthused when Midnight Club LA hits. It's the last racing franchise in this day and age that doesn't bring my piss to a boil in some way.

Frankly, i couldnt love Paradise anymore than i do. Yes, i miss the traffic check and crash modes, but this is the closest i can get to my childhood dreams i would have while being driven around by my parents and imagining my own races take place on the backroads of my home.

On another note. Anyone read the (slighlty old) update from the devs? Basically tells us we got the finished product and any complaints we have are going to be unheard. Kinda sucks that they are taking the fans input out of everything.

I agree with Rob, actually. Commence to throwin' things. Losing Aftertouch and Crash Mode is a major blow to this game, and I really haven't enjoyed driving around looking for things to do. A lot of the appeal of the last two Burnout games for me was the instant action aspect. If I felt like doing an Elimination race, I'd just pick one and literally be off to the races. Having to drive to one is just balls.

For me, this is another case of the GTA formula being shoehorned into a genre that it didn't belong with. They got pickles in my peanut butter, and they don't taste great together.

I was about to say this, PEOPLE MAKE SURE YOU READ THIS !

ehh maybe, but I think everybody's opinion of the game will change once they play the retail and not a demo.

So I should pay sixty bucks just based on your contention that I'll change my mind? Why would I buy the game after disliking the demo? The whole point of a demo is to whet my appetite. If the demo isn't representative of the game, they did something wrong.

Yup they did mess up the demo, cause in the actual game you start off from the begining of the game with 120 things to do and EVERY SINGLE INTERSECTION IN THE GAME is a race mode or something else. So there isn't a "where do I go to race I can't find anything" because its a every intersection.

But hey some people just might want the old burnout back with straight races, I think if they would have done that many people would have said its the same game with better graphics and complianed about that. Just because Burnout isn't holding your hand telling you where to go anymore isn't a bad thing, I love the fact that I can play with my friends online and at any point at a intersection I just start up a race, that shit is dope.


If anything just rent the retail and then decide.

Know my problem?

Love the burnout series.

Thought the demo looked great.

Handled great.

Played great. Fullstop.

But I just... didn't find it that fun after the initial play. Even online, I felt... without aftertouch, and by making destroying opponents a mostly random affair (in my experience, and i'm not half bad), it encourages other stuff.

Which, Burnout is kinda not about. I loved all those old things.

Might as well not have badged it burnout and i'd have liked it more.

EDIT: I know this sounds like "It's new and scary". But it's not. Imagine a wrestler trying to become a pop singer. Actually, that's pretty scary.

I originally felt the same way, but I spent some more time with the demo this weekend and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I still miss aftertouch, though, and I can't understand why it got pulled; crashing just isn't as much fun as it was in Burnout 3. Also, I can imagine that driving all the way back to the start point of an event will become a huge pain in the ass in the full version.

It's not that bad, because there's similar races at every location. There's only a certain number of end points for the races, and you'll end up going to each corner of the map. You can replay events over and over every time you get a new license... it just makes it harder and harder.

But the game's amazing- there's a veritable shit ton of stuff to do. Every single street has two records on it that you can beat- a time trial, and a showtime record. You can also see how your friends stack up right from the game and try to beat them. When you get both high scores you "own the road", and getting more and more of them nets you more stuff.

If all goes well I'll have a full review up soon, but just know that the demo was only the tip of the iceberg...

Oh, and the best new mode? Marked Man. You're trying to get to a checkpoint while some (really heavy and powerful) cars try to knock you off the road.

I gave the demo a run this weekend, and it was good, but the open city just didn't do it for me once the race started. I can appreciate what they're trying to do, but there's so much going on in a Burnout race (speed, the boost, traffic, competing cars to crash) that I would rather have a set track with a couple shortcuts to find.

Will be picking this up in a few hours. Still not sure whether I'm going to just call in sick to work (I'm actually ill, but not 'that' ill).

Honestly the open world races are not that big a deal. Midnight Club 3 had the same thing, and that game was easily as "busy" as Burnout. I'm no fan of having to drive back to the start, though. Playing it more organically, event to event, will work for a while, but I go for the 100% mark on these games. So eventually it will come down to redoing the same race over and over.

Fucking Microsoft and their fucking piece of constantly breaking shit. I red ringed, for the third FUCKING time last Thur., and now I can't play this or Rock Band.

So, on a scale of awesome to so awesome, how awesome is it? And is the no Road Rage or Marked Man in multi true? Cause that sounds stupid.

Basically....Duel: The Video Game?

It's not enough to make me wanna play it, but....cool.

I cannot believe how fucking poorly designed this game is. I could only play for an hour before I was too pissed to continue.

No retries really does suck. A lot. I didn't think I would care, but it really ends up making me not want to play. Yeah, you can sort of play it "event to event" I guess. But the races tend to dump my ass off in the mountains nowhere near another intersection. Also, when I lose.... I want to try that race until I get it right. I don't want to go fucking lose someplace else.

Also, I have to go find a Junkyard to change out my car? REALLY?! So if I happen to come across a race event I want to try, but I happen to be in a shitty-handling "aggression" car... I have to go all the way to a Junkyard and come all the way back? That's ridiculous.

This would have all been just fine if they had just had a system in place like the one in Skate where you could quick-travel to every event/shop/whatever. There is no good reason not to do this.

Fuck.

There's a junkyard in every area. If you'd just spend some time exploring the place you'd find some. You don't need a certain car for every event, just use whatever feels best for you. When you unlock more cars you'll get upgrades of the old ones so you can keep using whatever your favorite was.

A quick travel would ruin the feel of the world- the whole point is that you have this whole place to explore, you're not supposed to sit down and try to perfect every little thing (although you can do that as well). Just have fun with it, man.

Offline crash mode and any sort of offline co-op are gone, right?
A big part of the reason Burnout 2-4 were popular was hanging with friends playing crash mode(possibly shitfaced). That's a shame.

So I was pretty much venting because I wanted my 60 bucks to pay off immediately. I'm sure it gets better.

What really happened is I unlocked the first car (whatever that muscle-car is) and did my first few races with it and lost all of them because that car can't powerslide (or handle) worth a damn. I wanted to swap it out immediately, and found I couldn't. Tried another race. Lost. Got pissed. Walked away.

I do think a quick travel would do more good than harm, though.

Well, you could always just do "Showtime" and compete for high scores. It's not technically "multiplayer", but the structured competition aspects of past Crash Mode's have never really been that interesting anyway.

Maybe to some people, but I felt it was an amazing party game, and so did most people I know(even some non-gamers).

The lack of offline multiplayer does suck, but the online multiplayer makes up for it. I like how if your friends get high scores it tells you immediately, even in your single player game. Gives you something to strive for.

Also, while you're driving back and forth you can be claiming roads with the time and showtime rules.... it makes things a lot more entertaining.

I'm 14 hours in and loving this game so far.... will have a review up tomorrow, but I hope more of you pick this up so I can play online with ya.

Just played again, and had a minor revelation.

I call it: The Compass

I had no idea this existed, or how to actually use it. But once I got the hang of just what the fuck it was trying to tell me, it actually lets me focus more on the race and a lot less on the map. It's still chaotic, but I'm not flicking my eyes down to the radar every half second to see what's coming.

Also, using a car that doesn't suck does help. Who would'a thought?

Everything's fine. Game is fun. Hooray, etc...