Burnout Paradise
In Burnout Paradise players are treated to a rarity in the video games universe: a complete reinvention of an established franchise that equals, if not betters any of the previous games in the series. Yes, this is a large claim, but one that can be explained in a single phrase: Next-Gen Freedom.Driver's heaven is a wide open worldIn Paradise City even cars can fly. View larger.Go for broke in 'Marked Man' Mode. View larger.Nothing is off limits, even head-on crashes. View larger.Start a race any time with 'Easy Drive.' View larger.Although the Burnout series over the top mobile action has been its calling card since it ignited audiences on the PS2 in 2001, and later on the first generation Xbox console, Burnout Paradise i...
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My credentials: long-time gamer, played many a game, many a racer, have my Burnout license and nearing the Elite license. Burnout, in my opinion, has always been the most fun and easiest racer to pick up and play. It’s not a SIM and of course isn’t trying to be…So here’s the pros and cons vs other racers, other arcade racers, other Burnout franchise releases and the 360 vs PS3 versions.
PROS
- Burnout is easy to pick up, easy to understand, easy to play…obviously there is some challenge.
- open-world racing is the future and it is a much better presentation
- ROAD RAGE takedowns are easier and more fun
- realism of the textures, physics and the environment seem to have been improved. The attempt here is for a real city, not fake arcade racer routes with the gigantic “for dummies” lighted arrows telling you where to go
- they’ve added some more things to do such as parking, jumps, crash through billboards and gates, etc…there are tons of these.
- it wipes the mat with other “fun” racers like Flatout, which can be so difficult and frustrating (for some) the fun is simply turned down to zero…
- racing games are probably the most frustrating of any gaming genre (RPG, FPS, whatever). Burnout is the least frustrating of any racer ever.
- crashing into things doesn’t (always) crash your car as per previous Burnout installments
- achievements (360-only) are no longer impossible, as it was with Burnout Revenge…
- popping in-and-out online is easy
- you can put your own face on your license if you have a cam. Mine has my middle finger.
- helpful “turn indicators” letting you know when you need to turn (because you are flying at a million miles an hour – you’ll need `em)
NEUTRAL
- open-world racing isn’t new. Criterion seems to think they have created some kind of next-gen revolution here. Test Drive Unlimited did this already and did so successfully (and technically so has Grand Theft Auto if you allow it to partially be in the genre). TDU clearly isn’t as much fun as Burnout, but it isn’t supposed to be. Criterion could learn some things from Eden games and vice versa.
- no upgrades. TDU has a tinge of SIMs flavor where you collect money, properties and cars. Win more races, collect more cars, upgrade upgrade upgrade. Upgrades give you more to do. Sort of like an RPG. Burnout has none. You just get a new car, done, that’s it.
- TRAFFIC ATTACK has been removed, but in REVENGE, the dollars would pop-up blocking your view making that event difficult and annoying anyway
- ELIMINATOR is gone, but I don’t miss it that much
- TAKEDOWN REVENGE is gone. Whatev.
- PS3 vs 360 versions: barely a discernable difference and hat’s off to Criterion for caring about both platforms. 360 gets achievements; PS3 gets sixaxis (which could be a blessing or a curse if they don’t know what they are doing…see LAIR). Whatev.
CONS
- some idiot thought it was a good idea to remove one of the most fun things in the most fun racer of all time: CRASH MODE. They replaced it with this horrible Katamari-esk “SHOWTIME” thing where you just perpetually roll and bounce off of cars because that’s definitely more realistic and fun… This is unforgivable. CRASH events were formerly an integral (AND FUN) part of Burnout in which you couldn’t progress through the game without completing them. I could giggle for hours doing these events where you cause millions of dollars of damage by slamming into huge tanker trunks. Now, you don’t need to even do them at all, and why would you, since they’re no longer fun whatsoever. They had a great opportunity to create some epic accident scenes here where hilarity would ensue. This is like playing HALO and discovering they took out plasma grenades…EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!!
- AFTERTOUCH is gone. Another one of the most innovative, cool and fun things to do…GONE. FAIL!
- CRASHBREAKER is gone. Yet another EPIC FAIL! This was incredibly fun to both do and watch…
- the little trophies for performing this or that trick are gone.
- the BURNING ROUTE events which are supposed to give you better versions of your vehicle often give you equal or even worse versions…
- stats for some vehicles don’t seem to make sense. The 4×4 truck is supposed to be as tough, but faster than the van, but I’ve played with both for quite awhile and there’s simply no way in h*ll the truck is faster than the van.
- no instant retry/restart race. What? Why? You have to drive all the way back to restart…
- no split-screen vs. Huh? What’s that about? I can’t have a buddy sitting right next to me play with me? WTF?
- DJ Atomica is a massive tool. I have nothing against his sexual preference. Frankly, I think it’s none of our business. I fully support gay rights 100%. But aside from all that, this guy is completely annoying.
END RESULT: Criterion has given with one hand but taken with the other. Open-world is a nice and pleasing presentation and takedowns are as fun as ever, but the removal of MANY of the things that made game fun to play in the first place is puzzling…
I traded it away this morning and there is this great sense of calm in my soul. You see, Revenge was maybe my favorite 360 game. Maybe my favorite racer ever. It was near perfect. Not realistic, but who wants that? Each race was beautiful chaos. That’s the problem here. Risk no longer equals reward. Burnout Paradise is the Alien 3 of this series.
The most frustrating aspect of this game is you’re better off playing it safe to really pushing the envelope. Because, unless you memorize every inch of the CITY (not track like the previous game, here there is no track), you’re doomed to catch some pointless extention to a guard rail here, a side mirror on a parked car there, etc. trying to avoid a non-combative car in your way that you no longer can rear end and use as a pinball physics weapon on the other drivers. Nope, here everything is death. Now I’m pro death and like hard games, but the best offense in this game isn’t mayhem, it’s Sunday driving. Casually drive around without turbo unless you’re trying to force a car off the road. It terrible.
Marked Man makes no sense because you can’t actually LOSE the cars chasing you, they just pop up. So why go fast? Just drive carefully, it’s not like time is a factor. Rampage? Again, the enemy cars don’t get you 90% of the time, some random bystander does. So why go fast?
Maybe that this game’s greatest flaw. It’s ironically repetitious. The events all feel the same. The cars all feel the same. You just change cars as another time killer (drive to the junkyard) so that you have one that doesn’t die on two hits or will spin around in a Stunt event. This formally was accomplished by selecting the car before the race as a menu. MUCH FUNNER! Thanks guys. Given, chasing down cars and crashing them to “earn” them between event is fun… but that’s all you do. So again, boring fast and better when it was called Rampage with eight other cars.
I like the Technical merits of this game and understand why they felt this was the “next step”, which keeps me from giving it a 1. But this game should be a warning like Tony Hawk Underground and Shemue that walking/driving/skating from event to event is not in itself a good game. GTA was good because the mini-games were varied and the stealing/killing/rooming “menu” had it’s own charms. Burnout does not for the most part.
Often when a game company says they are going reinvent a game, especially one that has such a great history as Burnout, I get a bit nervous. Unfortunately my worries were warranted. Yes the open map is great. The graphics look outstanding and the sense of speed is still there. The big problem is that they removed or drastically changed two of the best parts of the game. No split screen makes the game single player only unless you want to hook up two xbox 360s on lan or use xbox live. The lack of co-op takes this down a full two stars for me. Playing with a friend or roommate was some of the most fun I’ve had with this console. The other star is removed because of the lack of a restart and crash mode. I’m not really sure why they thought that it would be less annoying, because no restart makes this one of the must frustrating racing games right now. Then we have the lack of crash mode. Seriously, your franchise was sort of built on this idea and you remove it? Showtime is not even remotely the same except for the money you gain. Which, by the way, I have yet to find a use for. The challenge of having to play a run to hit cars and figure out how to create that stunning chain reaction is completely gone. Now, you can just enter Showtime mode at anytime. However, all you do is flip and hit cars. If you can get the timing down, you can essentially bounce across the entire map. Which is just boring. All in all, it’s a great racing game and a great looking game, but this isn’t Burnout.