Game name: Burnout Paradise
Players: 1 local, 8 online
Age rating: EU: 3+, NA: E10+

Review:
Another late review, but what they hey. With the recent updates from Criterion there's new life in this game yet!

Anyone who has owned either a PS2, Xbox or Gamecube, then you will no doubt have either been aware or even played one of the first Burnout games. A typical arcade racer, it took the standard race format of games such as Outrun and added a "Burnout meter". This was essentially your boost bar, but in order to fill it you had to drive like an absolute frigging nutter. I'm talking driving on the wrong side of the road, narrowly avoiding crashes, taking corners in a sideways slide, getting airborne.... there were almost unlimited ways to fill your bar, but also unlimited ways in which you could end up a smouldering heap of broken metal and glass. Once you activated the burnout boost, things took a slightly sinister turn. Scenery blurred as your speed more or less doubled, crashing became so much harder to avoid, and you effectively became a rocket on wheels.

Later installments saw the inclusion of different types of events, such as Road Rage (where you had to take out a set number of opponents in a set time), Eliminator (where at the end of each lap, last place was eliminated until only one racer remained), and everybody's favourite, Crash. This saw you using your vehicle to cause as much damage and destruction as you could by "steering" your wreck into traffic, scenery, and anything that looked valuable.

The newest installment of the game has been given a complete overhaul. No longer do you select an event and then partake in it. Oh no. You are set down in the middle of the massive, sprawling landscape of Paradise City, and given the freedom to go where you want, when you want. Pretty much a sandbox-style racer. At every junction, there are events you can activate, from simple races and Road Rages, to new events such as Stunt Run (where you use your car to perform chains of tricks to reach a set score) and Marked Man (where you have to get from A to B without being destroyed by the "Cars In Black"). Each of the 120 junctions in Paradise City has a different event, and you have to FIND them before you can complete them, which will take some time in itself!

The new surroundings look incredible. There's little to no pop-up, the cars are ultra-sleek and so shiny you can see all reflections in them, and the island itself shifts from busy town centre, to freeway, to mountain town, to bustling seafront, all completely seamlessly, giving you the impression that Paradise City really is a huge, living, breathing city. The soundtrack itself is the usual EA Trax fare, shifting from the usual nu-rock to remixes of dance tunes, but also includes tracks from the original Burnout games, and even a classical score from Mozart and co. Thanks to a recent patch, the game now also supports custom soundtracks, so you can race to whatever tunes you like.

But should you get bored of just driving around town, hitting L1 and R1 will activate Showtime mode. Imagine the previously mentioned Crash mode, but one that will allow you to - if you have the skills - pretty much cover as much of the city as you want, hitting any and all cars, vans and trucks to rack up points, and hitting buses to add to your multiplier. The destruction this can wreak is both hilariously funny and devastating at the same time.

Online mode is basically the same as the offline mode, except that the host can decide what kind of event to host, and can even specify the limit on the cars used, so if you're just starting out and don't want to be humiliated by someone in a Formula 1 racing car, then you can reduce the settings to allow only entry-level cars. There's also awards to earn, by completing certain tasks like "Achieve 1 mile in oncoming traffic, all players must contribute" in which you can team up with friends to complete. You can complete these in groups of 2 to 8 players, and there's 20 different awards for each group!

In terms of vehicles, there are 3 different styles of cars to use. AGGRESSION cars are built like tanks, but aren't too fast. Their burnout bar fills by driving aggressively, meaning you can clip and ram other cars, so long as they're not bigger than you. STUNT cars are all-round cars, and you fill their bars by getting as much air as possible, as well as other flashy moves. SPEED cars are the pro cars, and require you to drive very fast indeed to fill their bar. However, unlike the other cars, you cannot use boost until its full. But when it is, hold that boost down and let rip.... cos if you can use up a full boost bar in one go while driving like a nutter, it will refill and add 1 to your chain. Continue holding it and you'll up your chain to 2. Carry on, and you can rack up some impressive chains, but you run the risk of crashing in spectacular style.

Which brings me to one of Burnout Paradise's bad points.... the crashes. Oh man, they look amazing. The game stops just before impact, and goes into a slow-motion cinematic showing your car's impact into whatever object it may be, crumpling in a painful mess of twisted metal and broken axle rods, before speeding back up as your car flips down the road before coming to a rest. These can last up to around 10 seconds, and while they give you a small break during races, you can be assured that the AI cars are speeding by your wreck leaving you eating dust in last place. On top of this, you can spend the entire race hitting trees, vans, walls and other solid objects, but once you get within half a mile of the finish line, clipping the kerb is likely to send you sailing into the sky, only to be destroyed mid-air by something as stupid as a flake of paint.

And should you fail the event you're in, there's no "Restart event" option. Oh no. You have to drive your ass all the way back to the right junction and start again. On later races, this becomes a half-hour trek across town, and you might find yourself doing something else instead.

But recently, we have been given two awesome new updates. The first gave us a whole load of new online events as well as custom soundtracks. The second, more recent update, gave us bikes. Yes, bikes. Ever wanted to hit those super jumps at twice your normal speed? You go for it! On top of this, there's now a 24-hour "day and night" cycle, that means you can drive during the daytime, or hit the night streets. Each time of day has its own events to complete, which pretty much doubles the life expectancy of the game. And the best thing about these updates? They're 100% free. Along with more online events, there is now no reason not to pick this game up.

The next update brings us a whole new island to race around, and again will be totally free. You have to hand it to Criterion - they sure know how to please their audience!

So ask yourself. In this world full of generic first person shooter, generic platformers, and generic action/adventure games, is there really room for a racing game that breaks out of the usual "pick an event and race it" mould and into the free-roaming sandbox arena?

Yes. Yes there is. So go buy it. Now.

Ratings
Graphics: A
Sounds: A-
Gameplay: A+
Replayability: A

Overall score: A

You mean Test Drive: Unlimited?