11.2.2008

The fifth installement of Burnout is placed in an open world environment named Paradise City. This new approach changes completely the concept created by the previous Burnout games, but is it for the better?Definitely yes! Burnout Paradise revamps the notion of fun. Apart from the initial (and long) loading screen, there isn't one single load during the entire game. You can play the game from start till end without a stop in the action. When talking about next generation game enhancements, it's this kind of stuff gamers are expecting. Of course this change comes with a price, which is getting used to it. Having an entire city to explore with hundreds of events to run and hundreds of goals to achieve can be overwhelming at first but,as soon as you get the hang of it, you will never want to see another menu in your life. What do you prefer, spending a couple of minutes going through menus and loading screens or spending that time driving and having fun until you reach the next event? I would go for the fun.Paradise City is packed with thing to do. You can race several cars in a race event. You can try to escape mad drivers in a marked man pursuit. You can perform crazy stunts in a stunt run. You can takedown other racers in a road rage. You can even prove yourself with a specific car in a burning route. All these are scattered around Paradise City. Almost each intersection has one, which allows you, most of the times, to start another event as soon as you finish one. Apart from it you have 400 shortcut passages to discover, 120 burnout billboards to destroy and 50 super jumps to try. Each street has one time to beat and one crash amount to achieve. As you progress the game, you unlock up till 75 different cars. As you can now imagine, the single player experience can take you hours and hours and hours of fun, adrenaline and, of course, incredible destruction - this is Burnout, dude!This time around, and due to the open world without menus concept there is no restart button when you fail an event. This was one of the most criticized issues in Burnout Paradise and, yes, it could have been implemented, but this is really not a big problem. You don't need to try and retry for the same event if you don't want to, except in burning routes which can turn your frustration levels a bit up if you constantly fail and have to return to the same place to try it again. The only remarkable complaint I have is the crash mode now called showtime that comes with some changes in the gameplay. Although being fun as well, it doesn't really make us forget the thrills of crash mode, after touch and impact time from older installements. All in all, this issue is not enough to spoil the experience of playing Burnout Paradise.Cars are now divided into three different categories. Speed cars are fast but aren't very strong on impact and can only boost when burnout meter is completely full. But, if you boost continuously, you get consecutive burnouts, this means that if done correctly, you can boost indefinitely. These cars are suitable for races. Aggression cars are heavy but very resistant which makes them a good choice for marked man and road rage events. Stunt cars are in-between the other two categories, great for stunt run events, billboard crashes and overall city exploration.Going online is as simple as a couple of presses in the d-pad and you're again set to hundreds of goals to be achieved. The host player of the game has an incredible amount of events to challenge other players, and those challenges vary according to the number of players in a game from two to eight. For instance, he can order every player to join in the baseball stadium or he can order all the players to get a certain drift distance or a certain amount of barrel rolls. Races can also be set online. All this events establish a new way of cooperative gaming, or not. You can go online just for the fun of pursuing and annoying another gamers. Online play is a wonderful experience with no lag at all and a solid use of the Bluetooth headset for online chat and the eye camera to send snapshots when a takedown occurs.Visually speaking, this game has still no rival in the race games. Paradise is a glamorous city with beautiful landscapes and areas including costal, mountain, harbours, airfields beaches and many, many more. Car models are brilliantly detailed. You can really see the city's landscape reflecting in the shining car metal. Everything comes at a 60 frames per second without a single drop down even when million things are happening at the same time. Popups can be experienced but won't spoil the gameplay. Actually, in a large amount of hours I spent within the game, I've only witnessed it once. Regarding the crashes, they are awesome. The car really deforms naturally when crashing against objects sending debris and car parts everywhere. Every crash is a stunning piece of visual art.The sound effects matches the graphics but the soundtrack, although not bad at all for a racing game, could be a bit better. DJ Atomika had the worst reviews out there but, not being the best voice in a game, for sure it's not the most annoying and I kind enjoy him. But, if you don't, you can turn it off.Summing all this, Burnout Paradise is a rock solid arcade racing game that will boost your adrenaline each and every second. Burnout fans should not get disappointed, and even if you do, you should give it some time because it will grow on you, and the game definitely deserves it. A must have title.Takedown!

31.1.2008

I downloaded the demo off the psn network, and when i played it i thought it was ok. But then i got used to it and i really enjoyed.The demo was only a small part of what Burnout has to offer.Then the day it came out i bought it and i have not regretted it !Some people may say that Burnout Paradise has gone the wrong direction because its not as explosive as burnout revenge and not as destructive. But their wrong !Burnout Paradise is a huge open world with plenty to do and find with no load times.It is the deepest burnout yet. There is plenty to keep you busy. Such as the shear amount of stuff to find : 400 shortcuts,120 billboards to destroy,50 jumps,11 autoshops,14 gas stations,5 paint shops,5 junkyards and 120 events to do and 75 cars to unlock.It takes ages to find them all. I found over 230 shortcuts in 5 hours !The handling on the cars is spot on now. Its very precise. You can now drift around corners with ease without slamming into a wall. As always the cars are extremely fast. But now you get information on them about if they are fast, strong and have a good speed boost or not. This helps you pick the car you want for the event you are doing.There is 3 new events you can now do which is called bourning route. This involves just you and a 1 lap race against the clock.The other event is masked man. this is similar to burning route but with black cars trying to ram you off the road and make you crash.The last event is stunt run. This involves you driving a stunt car which you unlocked to beat the points target set for you. You can do this by using jumps stunts and by flatspinning your car.The other events are the same as before. They are road rage and race.When you do an event you are told at the start in clear english what event you are doing, then told ''you are here,(shown on a map your position) get to hear'' with a symbol on screen of where your marked destination is.But the newest thing in the game is that you can choose you path through paradise city. This means there are no restrictions of where you can go. Its up to you !Another new feature is when you are cruising round paradise city and you need your car fixed you can drive through an auto repair shop and it will instantly be fixed. You can also do this in races. The same applies for when you want a paint job, boost refill or to change you car in the junkyard.The crashes are now better than ever and they are most realisic you will have ever seen in a game.The speed and angle you hit a car damages your car in the direction you hit it. Eg hit the corner of a car youll make it roll through the air and down the street.The crashes are very realistic. Your cars windscreen will smash apart, wheels will fly off and the car will be shrunken down to half the size it origionally was ! Unlike Burnout revenge when you crashed you had always wrecked your car, now not every crash can completely destrouy your car. You will be told on screen whether you car is 'wrecked' or you can 'drive away' freely like nothing ever happened. But if you do drive away the next crash you will have will almost certainly desroy your car.The map is also quite eay to use, if a little small. When you racing and you need to turn a sharp corner that you probably wont notice your cars indication light flash left or right of where the turning will be.The map also tells you the road you are on and the turns coming up which helps you go the right direction.You dont always have to use this option if you have opened up a shortcut. Shortcuts can lead you to victory, so the more shortcuts you find, the more likely you are going to win the race.Another new thing about completing events is that certain tasks can put extra cars you can win by driving through paradise city and spotting them. Then you have to take them down to win the cars.Flatspinning is a new move you can do with your car. All you do is gain full speed when going up a jump or along a road an press the handbrake to spin your car.Online you can free burn with up 2 2-8 players by beating their scores such as drifting, air time and the amount of rolls you can do in your car.The playstation eye : You use this when you first start the game for your driving licence which you can put a picture of yourself on it. The driving license shows the grade you have. You improve your grade by winning events.If you leave the camera in youre ps3 when youre playing on line and crash it will automatically take a picture of you and then show other players your picture.Finally the graphics : The game runs at 720p HD and i must admit it gives a really sharp and detailed picture. It will still look really sharp on an lcd tv or standard.Putting it simply. The best Burnout yet. Buy it. You will really enjoy it and wont regret it.Elliot

6.4.2008

For me Burnout Paradise rocks on pretty much every level.I've clocked some 30-odd hours of gameplay so have seen a lot of what the game has to offer and I've still lots to see.I guess there are two main parts, the offline singleplayer nad the online game. The singleplayer game revolves around completing challenges dotted around the city at the many sets of lights and intersections to gain new higher grade licenses. The main motivation though is gaining new cars as you complete a certain number of challenges. These newer and mostly better cars can then be used in the online game.Anyone familiar with burnout should feel right at home.The game has been expanded and the city itself is HUGE - it'll take tens of hours to learn it and all the shortcuts needed to give you the advantage. The map is very useful showing where all the events are and what type they are (road-rage, race, stunt run, marked man, burning route). What it doesn't show you are any shortcuts unless you look closely...The variety of gameplay on offer is vast. If you like racing there's loads of races and if you like carnage there are the road rage events and showtime modes. SHowtime can actually be started anytime and lets you crash into cars whilst you try to acculmulate the highest cash damage bonus.A simple press on the D-pad is all you need to access the multiplayer online menu. From there you can invite friends, start a game, arrange races or events - it's a really great system. If you want to end the game you can and the game just drops you seamlessly back into single player mode.The graphics are cool and the crashes are amazing. I still have not got bored of seeing cars being smashed up and in particularly high speed crashes the game goes into slow-motion - awesome.The range of cars is large and they are generally won b shutting them down. This means that on completing a certain number of events a car will begin roaming the city and if you smash it up its yours. This is a great part of the game and it's great fun coming across the new cars and chasing them down. On winning a certain model you can then go hunting for its relevant 'burning route' which is a time trial for you to beat to win a slightly modded version of the car you used.The soundtrack to the game is superb too - 40 songs by artsist like Jane's Addiction, The Pigeon Detectives, Gun's n Roses, Faith no More...plus 30 tracks from other burnout games. If you leave the game paused it will play a seemingly endless number of well known classical pieces too, even though that's hardly what you bought it for!I think the game succeeds so well by the sheer level of freedom it gives. Even if you're not doing an event you still may come across a car you have not shut down or you can go searching for the 50 super jumps in the game or the shortcuts or just generally go around causing carnage. Then there's the whole road rules part...The cars themselves display a large degree of handling characteristics and are grouped into 3 types: speed, stunt and aggression. Speed cars are fast and light and generally a small shunt will put themout of action. ALso their boost meter has to be full to engage boost. However, if you use all the boost in one go your meter gets about a 85% refill so you can quickly fill it with a manouvre and boost again almost indefinitely until you prang yourself. Stunt cars are the good allrounders, there are some fast models which are quite strong and you can boost whenever you want as long as you have some boost. Aggression cars are generally very strong and hard to steer but great for the road rage events as most other cars can be smashed up with barely a flick of the stick.The sense of speed conveyed by the game is frighteningly good and very exhilarating - especially on a big screen. I've never seen anything like it.There's so much in here I've probably missed a lot.This is without a doubt one of the finest games on PS3 at moment and possibly up there in my all time top 5 games. I love my first person shooters but Call of Duty 4 which I bought at the same time hasn't had a look in since I got this. I know it won't be to everyone's taste as it's an arcade game - if you're wanting a GT clone look elsewhere. However, if you want all out fun, something with a pumping soundtrack, huge gamplay, online modes, awesome graphics and mental challenges get this without delay!!Mega!

23.5.2008

The idea of a free roaming racing game seemed inevitable what with the success of grand theft auto and other similar titles. Burnout, known for its high speed city racing and cringe-inducing crashes, was a good place to start. Burnout Paradise - the 5th instalment of the Burnout series - is absolutely brilliant.Paradise city is your open world in which to wreak havoc. The massive city is separated into a number of different areas, each varying from built up streets to open mountainous roads. You move throughout these areas seamlessly, with no loading screens or menus, which is quite an achievement, considering that everything looks magnificent.Aside from the detail on the traffic,everything is polished to digital perfection. The cars gleam elegantly, the background is atmospheric and inspiring... and the crashes are superb.Before I talk about crashes though, here are some details on how the game actually plays. You start with one car and are let loose into the city. From the off, every single inch is reachable; no invisible walls or unlockable areas. You then make your way around the city, and at pretty much every junction there's an event, you simply pull up and hold R2 + L2 and you're taken into it. Straight into it. No Loading. The events include races, stunt runs, time trials, crashing into people and avoiding crashes. By finishing these events you upgrade your licence and unlock new, awesome cars. It's a simple enough system, and thanks to the genius flow between free driving and taking part in events, it works brilliantly. You always feel like you're working towards unlocking something.So what is there to unlock? Cars, of course. 75 in all, and its surprising how different each model is to drive. For example, the Hunter Vegas is a very fast stunt car that handles corners terribly, whereas the Krieger Pioneer feels extremely heavy to drive but takes corners very well. The cars are also customizable, though this isn't really an in-depth system that allows you to change your cars stats, just a simple changing of paint jobs.Aside from the open world, the other factor that takes Burnout above other racing games are the crashes. Whether it be seeing someone you're racing with suddenly smash into something and fly off into the background, or if you're having your own crash, they're amazing. Speaking of the latter, the effect it awesome, with all the music stopping and the only sound being the very detailed crunch of your car turning into a cube, spinning through the air in slow motion.Crashes happen often, what with the fact that things start to get really fast, and just looking down at your mini-map for a second can easily lose you a race. This, in a way, is one of the games weak points, in that it gets extremely frustrating trying to see where you're going when you're going so fast, and it's best to just hope you're heading in the right direction or follow other cars (there are no markers - it's an open world after all). But then again, that's just the kind of racing this is, and it means you have to put hours in to get to know Paradise City, which in time you most certainly will.One final way Burnout has revolutionized racing games is with its online play. Once again, no lobby's or loading screens, you just say you want to go online, and before you know it a bunch of people pop-up on your map. It's something new, and definitely something that will be used in games from this point onwards. Racing with friends allows you to complete online only challenges, as of which there are over 300. These range from racing to seeing how many cars you can barrel roll over... great fun!In presentation, the game is very similar to EA's skate. The stats screen is detailed and let's you see how much of everything you've done, which is great for people who want to finish it all.So what's wrong with this game? Not much at all. When you lose a race you carry on from exactly where it ended, making restarting it a pain, but there are so many other races on the way back you'll be tempted to start another. Perhaps a more in depth car customization would have been good for car enthusiasts, but it doesn't really feel like the game is missing out on much.There's so much that will keep you playing this game, from breaking through all the billboards to the excellent multiplayer. This is a racing game like no other, and deserves to be bought.9.5

4.2.2008

'Burnout Paradise' is the fifth entry in the successful racing/smash-em-up series and is probably the best yet, giving you full access to over 250 square miles of the beautiful Paradise City.GAMEPLAY - 5/5Instead of going through levels like on the previous Burnout games, the city is completely open so you can just drive about finding secret locations, or pull up to the traffic lights (and by holding the L2 and R2 buttons) you can take part in one of hundreds of challenges that include races, takedowns, marked man and burning laps. When crashing into another car, if you hold the L1 and R1 buttons it will start Showtime mode (which is basically the same as Crash mode)

18.1.2009

I've played this game for over 20 hours now and just achieved my Class B License. This game is, in a word, awesome!!! I've not even gone online yet, preferring not to risk embarassing myself against the Burnout Elite until I've achieved my Class A license. There is still much to do in offline mode and one thing I haven't got yet, is bored.The more I play this game, the more I marvel at the sheer attention to detail of Paradise City. The car crashes are a pure work of art with spectacular damage and deformation accompanied by bits and pieces flying all over the place, the likes of which you get in no other driving game. Lamposts get hit with a resounding clank, crates smash and fly into the air,

26.1.2008

This was hyped up to be the first really intense game of 2008. I watched every trailer and video I could find and was really excited for it to come out, especially since just recently buying a PS3 and not seeing too many new games (other than Call of Duty 4,uncharted and sega rally) that sparked my intrest. Anyways, I just got it yesterday.After first going through a long setup and turoral video that plays before you can start they give you yuor first car and pretty much take you by the hand step by step on how to start races, where to get you car repaired, and pretty much everything else that you can do in the game. This is nice since it is such a indepth game.

17.2.2009

First of all, I'm from Germany, so don't care to much about my typing please =)The Game:Seriously, this is Burnout as it has to be without losing any style and gameplay of the old games.You get a free city to drive in and literally at EVERY traffic light in the city you can start a race just by pressing to buttons and it instantly starts without any loadscreen. (By the way, there are never any loadscreens except for the gamestart.)There's always action in the game. You race from junction to junction doing another race in different modes.If you don't want to do different modes, just go for the right color, you always can choose which race you wanna do next.75 Cars (until now)

16.12.2007

I have been a long standing fan of the Burnout series so my hopes for the first next-gen instalment were pretty serious. I have barely been able to stop salivating since I started playing this game.The guys behind this have taken a leaf (or several) off Rockstar's tree and made the entire game roamable, with a nifty map to help you find your way around. In addition to the main game's challenges (which include races, stunt challenges and road rage), there are hidden super-jumps and breakable billboards (akin to Rockstar's hidden packages). That's all pretty nice and keeps the game interesting and fun, even when the challenges become frustratingly difficult. To keep the challenges worth your while,

29.7.2008

I bought this game and didn't start playing until six months after the day I bought it, I didnt think I will get into and I kept leaving for later...One day I was really bored and didn't have anything else to do, and that is when the addiction started...This game is perfect, first of all the offline mode has alot of things that will keep you busy, the races, the challenges, the speeding, everything...then if for any reason you get bored of the offline mode, go online, that is when another addiction will start...there are around 350 online challenges and another new 70 online timed challenges...that is alone will kee you busy enough...There is also another cool new feature which is playing your own soundtracks in the game,

6.2.2009

Playing on Win7 64 bit beta, c2d [email protected], 4Gb ram and HD4870. Set to 1680x1050, 4x FSAA, overall quality: high. Very smooth gameplay, looks good too. Music and DJ less annoying than previous EA racing games (NFS etc)Have just been driving about and have took part in a race and "stunt" challenge. This will take getting used to! In the race, take the wrong turn and lose loads of time, either getting back to where you went wrong, or to get close to where you want to be.I also dabbled in some online play, a VERY easy process. Am using a 360 joypad, just pushing right on the d-pad brings up the menu and takes you online. I joined a game within seconds,

3.1.2008

Well i downloaded the demo on the first day i got my ps3 40gb and i have to say this is by far the best game i have yet seen on the ps3 so far.What i hate about racing games nowdays is these racing games which are neither full simulation (like Forza) or like a classic fun arcade racer like RR1.The last thing we need in the gaming word is another pointless Juiced or need for speed.What Burnout Paradise does it does well, and that is being a pure arcade style racer with focus on speed/fun and crashes not technicalities and real world accuracies.The graphics are simply incredible on my 37 bravia, smooth,

10.2.2009

I've owned Burnout Paradise for the past 3 months and have now sunk 90+ hours into this game and finally got my Elite licence and various trophies for completing all the Jumps, Gates and Events. In my opinion, it is currently the best arcade driving game available today on both the Xbox 360 and PS3. The sheer size of Paradise City is impressive and they have put every other game company to shame by releasing tonnes of free downloadable content in the year the game has been out. This year they will be release "premium" content, and I intend to buy most the updates. This will include a new island and various vehicle packs.Some people may not like the whole city racing concept,

28.1.2008

Burnout Paradise takes the burnout games to a whole new level, its an open world version of the previous burnout games, and it is absolutly stunning. needless to say, there are a few problems with this, they have failed to include a restart option on events so that when you are in a race or a burning route an miss a crucial turn, you can not restart and try again, instead you have to drive all the way back to the start of the race and try again. this does get a little tiring if you are trying to get a car that you need but can not, but most of the time this will not matter because every traffic signal in the game has an event on it,

27.3.2008

burnout paradise is well worth buying but i would recommend you buy it preowned as i dont know anyone who hasnt got fed up with it in one way or another.it has all the right ingredients like great graphics,crashes,sense of speed but throws them all into the wrong pot and that pot is paradise city.you see the city is so dense and samey looking that many of the challenges see you whizzing past turnings that you try so hard to memorise but cant as there are so many of them.gone are the huge arrows that helped you tear along in the right direction in place of a tiny map in the corner that is too hard to see properly when racing even on my 46 inch hd tv.they have added indicators at the top of the

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