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Burnout Paradise
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Criterion Games
Genre: Racing
Release: January 22, 2008
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Reviewer: Eric
When word got around that the Burnout series was going to be
published by EA things started to look grim. Burnout Revenge was
alright, but it didn’t add too much to the formula. Thankfully
Criterion Games was aloud to take a little longer with the next
Burnout game, there was no pressure from EA. Guess what the wait
was well worth it, Burnout Paradise is the best game in the
series so far.
 Paradise doesn’t have the click and play mission play like all
the past games in the series. This time around you drive around
Paradise City and you rev your engine at the stop lights to
start any mission. The amount of missions in Burnout Paradise
seems endless, if you get bored of the missions you can always
click a few buttons and head online to play with either other
people.
During your time in Paradise City you will also have the
opportunity to take on other rival cars. If you are able to take
these cars down you will be able to use that car whenever you’d
like. The extra things like this really make Burnout Paradise
stand out as the best game the series has seen.
The size of Paradise City is fun to travel, you can get lost
just driving around trying to find all the games short cuts and
billboards you need to smash. At times it can be a pain in the
add trying to get all the way back to some missions you need to
complete, certain missions require special cars. Even when you
are playing online you might find yourself driving a few extra
minutes just trying to find your friends.
In order to really get into Burnout Paradise you might have to
remember some of the games short cuts and what path is best to
get over to the baseball park. Some of the games races require
you to learn short cuts, if you don’t expect yourself starting
all over again. Listening to the games path is easy to do, your
blinker comes on and automatically you think that’s the proper
way. Trust me Criterion only did this for new fans to the
series, find another way to make sure that number spot is yours.
One of the worst ideas Criterion Games did with Paradise was the
amount of backtracking you had to do if you failed a race. Yes
people if you play a race and it goes from one end all the way
to another you had to go all the way back to restart it. If you
want to unlock all the cars and earn every achievement point in
Burnout Paradise you better get use to doing this. Like I said
before you better learn those short cuts as soon as possible.
 Crash mode is what made the Burnout series, which is why crash
mode is no longer available. Showtime mode replaced crash and it
is much better. In order to enter this mode you just need to hit
the two shoulder buttons. Now you are set to crash and flip your
car into anything else on the road. As long as you are able to
move your car you can keep your points going. It does seem a lot
easier compared to crash mode, but it is defiantly has a lot
more fun aspects to it.
The best part to Burnout Paradise has to be the online play. All
you need to do is press a few directions on your D-Pad and
you’re set. Within a few short seconds you will be placed into a
game, even the location of your car is the same one. The menus
are easy to understand, click on different options and you can
have your friends join in on the fun. Out of all the online
games out there today Paradise might have incorporate online
features to its fullest capabilities.
You can easily start events when playing online. There are a
total of fifty challenges for each player. So if you have the
total amount of people in one game you can loose track of time,
better make sure you don’t have something important to do the
next day? Everything you do online is fun, just driving around
and playing bumper cars is fun.
Final Verdict
Burnout Paradise has its fair share of problems. When you sit
down and play the last game of the series you will be waiting to
put Burnout Paradise back in, the game is that fun. Online mode
is the biggest strength Paradise has, along with smooth graphics
and the same controllers that made this the best racing game.
What are you waiting for, pick up Burnout Paradise right now!
Rating
9 out of 10
Burnout Paradise Trailer
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