If u cant handle the heat then don't buy this game!!!!
Every game in the franchise until now has thrown in only simple tweaks to the formula, like the introduction of Takedowns and the Revenge factor, Criterion has managed to hold on their success and even though the previous games where still fun it was running out of fresh ideas and starting to turn into a yearly franchise and the case that of quantity over quality, and let's stop right here cause I could express my opinions towards the publisher and drag this review into a different path...
Welcome to Paradise! Criterion felt like their first true outing on the new generation of consoles (i'm not considering Burnout Revenge for the 360 a true next generation game) should be remarkable and revamp the Burnout series considerably. Instead of taking the player through the world in linear tracks, they've embraced the open world approach, allowing for everyone to choose how to progress through the game, with different race modes spread around the map. The race modes now are:
--Marked man- where the player has the start marker and the finish marker, and while he tries to reach the finishing line, ruthless AI controlled cars will try to take you down;
--Race- there's also a start marker, finish marker and the player has to reach the finishing line in first place against as much as 7 AI controlled cars.
--Road Rage- You are given a number of takedowns to accomplish that progressively increase as you complete these challenges
--Stunt- The goal is to reach a number of points while drifting, using boost, gaining air jumping through gaps scattered around the map, crashing through the "smash" fences and billboards, and might I say this mode isn't well implemented enough and sometimes you won't be able to chain these things together to reach the absurdly high scores you're asked to accomplish later on in the game
--Burning Route- For each car you earn there is a "Burning route" which is a time-attack race which earns you the ultimate version of that car if you finish it within the time. One of the weak points in the game also shows here, cause you'll sometimes drive from one edge of the map to the other to start these races and if you fail you can't simply retry with the press of a button so you'll have to drive all that way back to the "Burning Route" location to drive it again in case you might fail it again.
In top of all this there's the alternative to the Crash mode found in previous games: Showtime
While you are relentlessly, aimlessly driving you can at anytime hold the two bumper buttons of the gamepad and start crashing around, jumping and destroying the traffic in your way, collecting multipliers from any bus you hit, until your showtime meter's empty (your boost meter will state the showtime meter once you enter this mode and it will fill a bit for each traffic car you hit). With Showtime you can set a new record for each of the roads in map (there's 250 miles of asphalt for you to wreck havoc in case you are wondering!), and if you are online these records will be submitted and the other players can try to beat your score.
Now let's try to sum the multiplayer experience...so you are playing by yourself on the huge map and you want to crash against human beings such as yourself, so you'll access the multiplayer options on the Directional buttons, choose a host of host a online game yourself and voila, you and the other players appear on the map in the same spot where they were in the single player game, and the players will drive freely through the map just like in the single player until the host chooses if there'll be a race, a road rage, a boost dispute...whatever, you get the idea, the multiplayer is seamlessly implemented. You'll earn achievements for the online challenges you beat, you'll make online rivals, and when you are tired of destructive socializing you simply drop out and you'll continue driving from where you were but now in single player.
The presentation is great, the menus have a great design and are simple to use, the graphics engine is great and it could be called realistic if you were not crashing your car to have it shiny and new in two seconds and if you weren't driving so fast that your reflexes don't work, only your intuition. =)
The sound is great, the car engine roars and helps a lot to give the great sense of speed only this game delivers, when you crash in showtime mode all the cars use their horns, the tires screech when you use the handbrake...
Now the soundtrack...well it features Guns N' Roses' "Paradise City", Alice In Chains's "Would?", Faith No More's "Epic", "My Curse" from Killswitch Engage and...Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend"...Now everyone's tastes in music are subjective, but how many people who enjoy's teen pop rock are there in Burnout's target audience? It doesn't help the feeling of adrenaline provided by the game's speed and destruction. But we've got Xbox 360's music player and the recent Cagney Update also added this feature for PS3 users. so top notch sound effects.
The gameplay is great, each car handles differently, and you can feel the difference between Stunt cars, Aggression cars and Speed cars.
Now about value...well, 250 miles of road, 74 cars to unlock, about 5 licenses to master, 5 distinct race types, leaderboards, achievements, a completely separate number of online challenges and events...and soon we'll be able to ride Motorbikes for the first time in the franchise's history, a Day/Night cycle, and more content coming soon from Criterion...so YEAH great value!
If you are looking for pure entertainment and adrenaline this game was made for you, If you can't handle extreme speed and destruction you can go somewhere else.