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Rating: 
-
I'm been a big Burnout fan every sense it started. The idea was what ever kid does, crash cars. I was excited for the "High Def" version. After going through it, there are some good things, some bad.
I do like the open world. It does take a while to get use to it, and what street goes where, but what is cool is all the short cuts and jumps that are all over the map. You can just rome forever, trying to smash billboards or find super jumps. The races are pretty much the same feel. There are 4 main types of races.
Normal Race, you get a starting point and end point and get there as quick as you can. As you get use to the map it does get frustrating that one wrong turn and you pretty much are heading the wrong way.
RoadRage, this is one part I have always loved from the series and its pretty much the same, there are more cars this time to crash (before there was 3 around you, now there are 5). I also like this in the open world, you can turn around and there are more cars to knock of the road.
Last man standing, this is kind of like roadrage but the roles are reversed. Now cars are trying to knock you off the road, and if your card gets to damaged before you hit the finish line you loose. This does have some fun factor in it.
Burning lap, this is just where, with a given car, you have a certain amount of time to reach the end line. This isn't to bad, but all of these burning laps show up on your map even if you don't have the right car. So you kind of have to go around searching for the right race for the car you have.
New is this style race (I can't remember what it is called). This is where you get points for going of jumps and doing flips (barrel roll) and so forth. If you don't know the map very well this can be tuff, but once you find a path that has enough jumps you can usually win.
Last (I think) is Showtime. This is I guess was replaced the crash mode from earlier Burnouts (which I was disappointed with). This is fun the first couple of times you do it, but after that it is just the same thing again and again. You are rolling your car down the road trying to hit as many cars as you can. The sound here is good (of hearing your car spin) but that's about it.
Good: Open world, plenty of room to explore, Crashes are as good as they get, races are fun.
Bad: Showtime, (no crash mode), the slightest crash puts you in this slow mode camera view, and when you are in a race you don't want to wait for it. Music is dumb (good thing you can use your own soundtracks).
Over all it's a fun game, not as much replay value as previous games. You do get board with it, because you end doing the same races over 3 times just a different skill levels. By the time you get close to the end you start to loose site of the point of it all. Over all a fun game!
I hope they improve this a lot for next year!
Rating: -
This game is a blast. I actually haven't played the other Burnouts, so that's not influencing my review. I actually think the other people are relying too much on the game having aspects of the older versions.
The only reason I can't give this game 5 stars is because it doesn't have any co-op mode, which really bothers me, and the menus are a bit convoluted and confusing.
Other than that, the game is so fun, the takedown modes are great, and I really like the open city. I noticed one reviewer said they didn't like it because it didn't have a speedometer or tach. It doesn't have those because it doesn't matter. This is an arcade racer and those things don't matter like they do in PGR or Gran Turismo.
Rating: -
I was a huge fan of Burnout 3 on PS2. Two of the best things about it were the Aftertouch takedowns and Crash mode. Burnout Paradise has scrapped these features but is still a great game on its own merits. The demo doesn't really do the game justice, since it only features a handful of events and a limited section of the city to drive around in.
Burnout Paradise's open-world format lets you cruise around the city seamlessly with no loading screens. Starting events is as simple as pulling up to an intersection and pulling both trigger buttons simultaneously. Gas Stations, Body Shops and Paint Shops are located throughout the city allowing you to refill your boost, repair or paint your car on the fly by simply driving through them. There are a number of Junkyards as well where you can switch cars.
Familiar events like races and Road Rage (score as many takedowns as possible in a set time) are still in the game, as well as a Marked Man mode, where you need to get from point A to point B while several cars attempt to take you down. Burning Routes test your driving skills and award you with an upgraded version of your car if you can complete the trip in the allotted time. Stunt run challenges you to string together as many jumps and tricks as possible. There's also a ton Super Jumps, gated shortcuts (Crashes) and Billboards to discover throughout Paradise City.
Crash mode has essentially been replaced by Showtime mode, which you can trigger at any point in the game by pressing both shoulder buttons. Your car starts flipping end over end through traffic and your goal is to smash into as much traffic as possible for as long and as far as possible. Each car you hit adds to your boost which allows you to keep your momentum, while hitting busses adds to your multiplier. While Showtime isn't as fun as Crash mode, it fits better with the open-world format. Your ultimate goal is to beat a certain score on every road in the city. There's a similar mode where you try to get the fastest time from one end of each road to the other.
As you progress through the game, you're alerted to new cars driving around the city which you must take down to add to your garage. This feels far more rewarding than simply earning cars automatically when certain benchmarks are reached as in past Burnout games. There are over 75 cars in all, classified as either Speed, Stunt and Aggression types.
The online mode is where Burnout Paradise really shines. At any point you can use the D-pad to jump online and begin "Freeburning", where you can drive around the city with up to seven other drivers. In Freeburn mode, players compete for the lead in categories like drift distance, barrel rolls, oncoming distance and more. The host can also set up races from one point to another or with a number of checkpoints. There are also 350 co-op challenges (50 for each number of players 2-8) where all players must meet the challenge. Some are as simple as using boost, while others require more cooperation. For instance, seven players need to line up in a certain location while an eighth person jumps over all of them. These are a lot of fun and encourage a lot of talking between players. The social aspect in Burnout Paradise is much greater than other games I've played online where you may play a quick match and then face another player.
Besides the lack of Crash mode and Aftertouch, one of the biggest complaints is the inability to restart a race. Because there are events at every intersection, the only time this gets somewhat frustrating is when you've completed most of the events and you only have a few left to earn the elusive Elite license. This especially applies to Burning Routes, of which there is only one for each car on the entire map. However, if you start an event, crash, and don't think you'll be able to complete the event, you can simply stop the car and the event will end.
Another complaint is the lack of two-player split-screen. While this would be a great feature to have, it probably would be difficult to pull off considering the amount of processing power required to render the city at a high framerate without any load time.
The map is another point of frustration. When you start out, you're heavily dependent on the map and will often crash when checking the map to find the next turn. The game helps you out a little with turn signals, but often times they come too late to make the turn. However, the more you play it, the more familiar you become with the map and the less of an issue this becomes.
All in all, Burnout Paradise is a huge departure from its predecessors, but it retains the feel of the series while adding a lot of fun new elements. I was disappointed with the demo but now that I've played the full version for about 60 hours (82% complete), I'm so glad I picked up this game.
Rating: 
-
I'm late to the party when it comes to the Burnout franchise; admittedly, until Burnout Revenge (which I picked up for it's low price point after picking up my then "hard-to-come-by" Xbox 360 and wanting something to play,) I knew nothing of the titles. But after a good ten minutes with Revenge's unparalleled sense of speed, completely unforgiving collisions at 200mph and explosions worthy of any high-budget "shoot-em-up" flick, I was hooked. When this sequel was announced, I was thrilled.
Now that I've played it, I can't say I'm disappointed, but some of the choices they made this time out make for a great game, but also make me glad that I've still got Revenge on the shelf to fall back on.
The high points: the free-roam format was simply made for this type of action based racing. Even at the insane speeds of the previous Burnout, one felt safe in that all you had to do was learn the tracks and the handful of shortcuts. When you literally have an entire city as your "track," and no invisible barriers or arcade-style directional arrow walls to guide you, every turn is a frenetic, heart-stopping accident waiting to happen! The crash mechanics are amazing. High-speed impacts send cars careening realistically in every direction leaving trails of debris in their wake. The mixture of events and lack of traditional "courses" make each and every time you rev up at the start line a unique experience which is something no other racing title could ever hope to boast.
The low points: where the hell are my explosions?? The ability to use your "boost" not only as a "nitrous" but also as fuel for explosions made Burnout Revenge a terribly sadistic and satisfying experience! Just because you wrecked didn't mean you were out of the race and everyone feared your wreckage until you were well away in the rearview mirror; every burning pile essentially became a proximity mine waiting on anyone to pass too closely. Revenge and Aftertouch takedowns were oh-so-sweet, but they're no where to be found in Paradise. Why? Another staple they all but removed are the Crash Junctions. It's been replaced with something called "Showtime" which lets you (unrealistically) hurl your car into the air at almost any given moment (no need of a ramp or anything,) and toss yourself down the street into traffic bouncing off the cars in complete defiance of gravity, inertial law and, hell, physics in general. No, Burnout is not touted for its realism, but some things are so far gone, they have no place even in fantasy, especially when they're replacing something as key and signature as the Burnout Crash Junctions. Not to say "Showtime" isn't fun, it's just far more "novelty" than "essential game element." Add to this the fact that there's no puzzle element as presented in the Crash Junctions, and it quickly loses its flair and simply feels stupid and pointless after the fourth or fifth time out.
All in all, Burnout Paradise is a great game with a couple of blatantly missed opportunities remedy by a mere $20 investment in its older brother Burnout Revenge; Paradise for the racing and Revenge for the carnage!
Rating: 
-
Did anyone check this game before it went out? Does the left hand at EA have any clue what the right hand is doing?
No ability to change the controls. In fact, no game options OF ANY KIND except music/sfx volume and overall screen brightness.
Counterintuitive menu system and GPS map.
A grand total of two camera views, one of which has UNUSABLY erratic camera movement controls, the other of which has no camera movement capabilities in the first place. Want to look to your left or right? LOL! Joke's on you!
No motion blur whatsoever, which wouldn't be such a dealbreaker if not for the fact that one of the MAIN SELLING POINTS of the game pre-release was heavy motion blur on every screenshot.
No speedometer, no tachometer, etc.
Silly map design considering how much work apparently went into the open-world city: one second you're driving past skyscrapers, the next second you're in the middle of the countryside. May seem trivial, but cheesy oversights like that can easily ruin a rather realistic city for those of us who pay attention to details.
The reason this is all so horrendously aggravating is that there's a really good game buried underneath all these ridiculous oversights. Absolutely excellent visuals and reasonably fun driving/racing and gameplay. Even here, however, there are the issues that other reviewers have pointed out: no crash mode, no vs. gameplay, etc. etc.
Overall, this release just reeks of opportunism. I'm sure there was a solid core dev team, but management apparently insisted on crippling their work. Thanks, EA!
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