I'm not a big fan of racing games, but I like to put in time with my favorite series when the newest iteration hits. This year, it's Burnout Paradise, and it's pretty darned good.
It's Burnout, but it's not the Burnout you remember. In fact, it's completely different. The GUI, the menus, the linear races, they're all out the window. As are the beloved Crash races, which is an unfortunate oversight on the part of the creators, but I digress. This is a different approach to game design, one that requires a bit of accommodation to allow yourself to become familiarized with.
Once you have your permit, you're released into an open city to do as you please. There are cars to unlock (which you unlock by crashing into), there are ramps to test (see: fly over a winding ravine to your death), and there are crashes a plenty. It wouldn't be Burnout without the signature crash sequences, and they look better than ever on the next generation of consoles.
Then there's the online functionality, perfect in its execution. The d-pad is your guide to the online, allowing you to at any time during game play, connect to a friend and begin smashing, crashing, flying, and barrel rolling in unison. Up to eight players(!!), and new challenges that open up for each additional guy you bring in, the online is where it's at.
Let us also not forget, that at any point during the game, you have been afforded the ability to turn your car into a traffic missile with a simple button press. Upon depressing the bumpers, your car swerves, flips, and becomes a controllable car missile. You surf traffic, using helpless drivers as launch points and buses as multipliers. This is supposed to replace the missing "Crash Events" from previous Burnout games. It's a fun diversion, but it serves little purpose beyond that, and it's a little disappointing when you compare it with the old days of crashing, when the game actually rewarded the highest level of destruction at an intersection with actual progression. Also, the lack of a retry button on single player races is extremely frustrating later in the game. Having to navigate the roads with a map that can only be accessed by tearing yourself out of the game is sort of against everything they were trying to do by completely getting rid of the UI. It's more realistic, forcing the driver to plot his route ahead of time rather than risk doing so on the fly and screwing up in the process, but it's also annoying in the late game.
Still, this is a stupidly fun game. Online, the experience can't be matched. It's hard to describe, but it ends up playing like a speed induced version of GTA without the on foot parts to bother with. Speed is the weapon, and your car is the blunt object. The city is your playground to race, or crash as you please, and there is plenty to see and do.
What are you waiting for? Go buy it.
It's Burnout, but it's not the Burnout you remember. In fact, it's completely different. The GUI, the menus, the linear races, they're all out the window. As are the beloved Crash races, which is an unfortunate oversight on the part of the creators, but I digress. This is a different approach to game design, one that requires a bit of accommodation to allow yourself to become familiarized with.
Once you have your permit, you're released into an open city to do as you please. There are cars to unlock (which you unlock by crashing into), there are ramps to test (see: fly over a winding ravine to your death), and there are crashes a plenty. It wouldn't be Burnout without the signature crash sequences, and they look better than ever on the next generation of consoles.
Then there's the online functionality, perfect in its execution. The d-pad is your guide to the online, allowing you to at any time during game play, connect to a friend and begin smashing, crashing, flying, and barrel rolling in unison. Up to eight players(!!), and new challenges that open up for each additional guy you bring in, the online is where it's at.
Let us also not forget, that at any point during the game, you have been afforded the ability to turn your car into a traffic missile with a simple button press. Upon depressing the bumpers, your car swerves, flips, and becomes a controllable car missile. You surf traffic, using helpless drivers as launch points and buses as multipliers. This is supposed to replace the missing "Crash Events" from previous Burnout games. It's a fun diversion, but it serves little purpose beyond that, and it's a little disappointing when you compare it with the old days of crashing, when the game actually rewarded the highest level of destruction at an intersection with actual progression. Also, the lack of a retry button on single player races is extremely frustrating later in the game. Having to navigate the roads with a map that can only be accessed by tearing yourself out of the game is sort of against everything they were trying to do by completely getting rid of the UI. It's more realistic, forcing the driver to plot his route ahead of time rather than risk doing so on the fly and screwing up in the process, but it's also annoying in the late game.
Still, this is a stupidly fun game. Online, the experience can't be matched. It's hard to describe, but it ends up playing like a speed induced version of GTA without the on foot parts to bother with. Speed is the weapon, and your car is the blunt object. The city is your playground to race, or crash as you please, and there is plenty to see and do.
What are you waiting for? Go buy it.
