With so much to do, this is just a great game!
Let's start with the inclusion of free roam, a first for the burnout series. I was blown away by the amount of stuff to do when you're not racing. In the big wide world of Paradise City you can smash gates, smash billboards, challenge road rules, fly majestically over super jumps and finally, cause total chaos in showtime. For those of you who don't know, showtime is basically where you bounce along the road smashing cars and gaining boost each time you smash a car. And it's crazily brilliant. Showtime ends when you run out of boost.
And there's also a lot to do when you are racing. Not just boring old races, but also stunt runs, burning routes, midnight rides (on DLC), road rages and marked man. Road rage and marked man are gloriously frantic, giving you a sense of triumph when you complete them, but not making you too annoyed when you don't. And online racing is even better, with opponents crumpling delightfully around you, as you sore to the observatory, lone stallion ranch, wildcats stadium or any other of the eight destinations to race to.
The cars are amazing! And with 700 and something to collect, it would take a long time to collect them all. And guess what? There's even more cars on DLC! And all the cars, including DLC, look amazing, until you go 220 mph into a oncoming car. In fact, everything in Paradise looks amazing.
If I were to have any minor complaints it would just be that Paradise is such a good game that it deserves a good multiplayer, which it only gets in a shallow 'Party Mode' DLC. 'Party Mode' is fun at first until you get thrown into exactly the same challenges over and over.
Aside from that, and of course the brain-numbingly annoying DJ Atomica, this is an amazing game, filled with so many hours of incredible racing! And you may have noticed how much I've been using the word smashing. Know why? Because this simply is a smashing game! So I agree with the song! "Take me down to the Paradise City!"