CMD's Burnout : Paradise review

CM Drunk

Well, I got Burnout Paradise yesterday, and heres what I think:

WHAT IT IS
Burnout is a very popular arcade-style race game, which is heavy emphasised on high speed, and big time crashes. This game, is the first game that features a wide open environment (like GTA and NFS games)

WHAT YOU DO
There are alot of diffrent events, like Races, which have you race from one point to another. Road Rages, which gives you a certain amount of time to try and "takeout" the other cars in the event. To take them out, you either smash them into buldings, other cars etc. Its my fave, because when you do take other cars down, they give you a nice view of how you fucked the other guy over, as you watch him sail into other cars, trains, walls, off cliffs, etc. Adn you have a time limit to achieve an objective number of Takedowns. You also have Marked Man events, which is kinda like a race, but the goal is to get to the finish line before the other cars Take you out and total you. And than there is Stunt Runs, which give you a time limit, and you have to gain a certain number of stunt points (like jumps, using your speed boosts, drifting, etc.)

WHATS COOL ABOUT IT
Well, first off the entire city is wide open and unlocked from the get go. And also there is bo loading between races, this is because you dont have a schedule of events that you have to follow like in other racing games. You drive around the city, and at more or less every intersection there are event notifiers, and you just hold down both triggers and it seamlessly brings you to the event.
Also, while they do not have real cars, they do have a shitload of fake ones and you unlock them by either tqaking them out on the road( Every once in awhile, they will notify you of a new car being in the city, and if you find them on the road and make them samsh into something, you can get that car)

WHATS NOT COOL ABOUT IT
While I like this, some people might complain about:
A.) There is no "race restart" option, so if you fall into last place, you have to finish the race last, and you cannot just hit start and try again. Not that thats too big of a deal, because once you finish, you can find another event in about 10 seconds by just driving around.
B.) The Race events are tough, only because the way they direct you to the finish is tough to follow. Its very very easy to take a wrong turn and go the totally wrong way. The game is meant to be like this, as the point is to get used to the city so you know your way around and know all the shortcuts. While race events (keep in mind these are different from the other events) start from all sorts of places, they all end in 1 of 8 places. So once you get familiar with those spots, you can figure out fastest ways to go.

Bells and Whistles
*There are TONS of hidden shortcuts, broken bridges to jump and various other things that you can stunt off of.
*There are also TONS of drive thrus, like junkyards (More or less garages, where you can change cars you unlocked, and change the paint) Gas stations that refill your boost (turbo) meter, Paint shops (random color changes, and auto body shops, you just fly through them, and presto its done.

Now heres to the basic review stuff:
GRAPHICS-9--Really nice, cars look great, zero framerate issues, and the city itself looks spectacular. And as usual the car crashes are fan fuckin tastic like all the Burnout games

SOUND-8--Everything sounds good, and the soundtrackl is pretty good. ANd because Its an EA game, you can shut down the songs you dont like. I do like the new version of "I Wanna Rock" by Twisted SIster. good stuff.

CONTROLS-9--Even at high sppeds, the lower end cars arent that unmanageable. and its alot of fun avoiding traffic and taking big turns. well made gameplay.

BadAssness (or fun factor)-10--Its not Forza or GT by any means, but for a mindless, addicting fun as hell race game, this game BLOWS NFS:PS out of the water. If you like car games even though there is no custimization and shit, go get it. Its awesome, and I hear the demo doesnt do the game justice, so rent it first if you can.

I will answer any questions, comments, and concerns.

TRAILER


SCREENS

Simon

Founder/Admin

Very cool review Drunk. Rep worthy for sure.

I have a question......

Most times when I play driving games my eyes kind of bug out trying to take in all the info and looking ahead down the road is often all garbled and hard to make out turns and shit.

Basically my confusing question is......How hard is it to make out the upcoming turns and layout of the game......

For example. I have a hell of a time with say Need For Speed but thought the GFX were great for games like GTA.

Does that make sense?

The Stunner

Celebs & Hotties Moderator

Excellent review. I have the Demo of the game and I know just from that it doesn't do the full game justice. I recently got NFS PS (Gift) and didn't even want it. Anyway the game looks as fun as the other past Burnout games.

CM Drunk

Remember, only during race events and Marked Man events do you need to really worry about where your going. Stunt runs and Road Rage events you can go anywhere, so it dont matter.

As far as navigating, it isnt easy, like there is no gigantic arrow pointing to where your supposed to go. But...the point, is that every race ends in one of 8 locations, so the point is learning the city so you know your way around.

But...here is how they help you.

While your driving down a street, the streets streetsign is on the top of the screen in the middle (So for instacne, if you are on 8th ave, you will see the green 8th ave sign at 12 oclock on your TV)

when approaching an intersection, the street sign for THAT street shows up on the far side of whatever direction the turn is in. So if Manton St is coming up on the left, The green Manton Ave street sign pops up on the far left, and the closer you come to approaching the intersection, the closer it moves towards the center of the screen. so once you get to the red light, Manton St's sign will be right next to the 8th Ave sign. in the center.

Now when your racing, and your supposed to turn, you hear a ding ding like a GPS ding, and the sign of the street your supposed to take is blinking, so if your supposed to turn on Manton, the Manton st sign will be blinking.

Long story short, listen for the ding, look to see what street sign is blinking, and thats what tells you whether to go left or right.

Simon

Founder/Admin

Very cool. I may have to pick this up.

Great job.