One heck of an arcade racing game, but with a few setbacks (compared to the console versions).
First in my review, I will tell the differences between the the PC version and the console (in my case, PS3) version.
In the console version, the game runs perfectly smooth, as standard with most console games, but the graphics aren't necessarily the best you'll find on a console. On the other hand, the PC version *can* look a lot better, but the biggest setback of the game is it requires high-end processing power to have it look good and run smooth at the same time. I have an Asus desktop with a quad-processor, six gigabytes of RAM, and a Radeon 4650HD graphics card (not exactly the best, but still good), and the only way I can have the game run as smooth as on the PS3, the graphics need to be set to their lowest quality.
One plus about the PC version is, unlike the console version, you can set the motion blur to be on all the time (even in the chase-cam view), and, thankfully, this does not reduce the frame-rate much.
Another setback is the DLC (down-loadable content). It seems that Criterion and EA forgot about the PC community, and left out all of the DLC after the Time Savers Pack, Legendary Cars, Toy Cars and Boost Specials in the PC game. So the Cops N' Robbers pack and Big Surf Island (probably the most important DLC pack) are NOT included for the PC.
Other than those setbacks, the gameplay is just as awesome. There are a total of three main event types: Race, Road Rage, Marked Man, and Burning Routes. And there are A LOT of them.
Race events are quite obviously just races from point A to point B within the city, but there is one twist that is especially helpful- if you can't beat the competition, eliminate it. By ramming you car hard enough into the side or back of an opponent, they will smoothly drift into a wall and crash. And what beauty the crashes are! (after all, this game is pretty much all about crashing things...)
Marked Man events are just events where you're set to run scared. You again race from point A to point B, but all of the other cars are sturdy, heavy muscle cars that are, at all times, trying to take you down. Your job is to get from point A to point B without totaling your car. But the Criterion team were so gracious as to change the laws of physics to make things a bit easier- depending on the strength and durability of your selected car, you are able to crash multiple times before your car is rendered useless.
Road Rage is my personal favorite, and it works well as a stress-reliever. In this, there is no point A or point B. Just the torn-up streets of Paradise City, along with some funky AI drivers who have a grudge against you. Your objective is to crash them, and when you do, you earn what is known as a Takedown. You just need to get a set amount of Takedowns in a set amount of time to complete the event. "But," you may wonder, "why should the fun stop there?" IT DOESN'T. You are rewarded an extra ten seconds on the clock for every Takedown, and, after you've completed the event, you have until the clock runs out to crash as many cars as you can. (NOTE that you do not earn any time for a Takedown after you've gotten to the set amount)
Burning Routes are simple: There is one for every unlockable car in the game. You drive up to the Burning Route specific to your selected car, activate it, and beat the set time going from point A to point B. When you beat it, you earn a better and more souped-up version of your current ride.
The progression system works like this: You have licenses, each license has a certain number of events to be completed until you earn your next license. When you earn your next license, the completed events on the map are reset so you can redo them. The very last license requires you to complete all events on the map, and believe me, it's quite a while until that happens.
The "secrets" part of this game is probably one of the biggest reasons to spend hours and hours playing it. Throughout the city are Burnout billboards, yellow smash-gates, and "Super Jumps." There 180 billboards (I'm pretty sure...), 400 smash-gates, and a certain amount of Super Jumps (can't remember exactly...). If you smash all of the billboards, you get a unique car, as well as smashing the gates and jumping (and landing) the Super Jumps. It takes a while.
There are other ways of unlocking the higher-ranked cars, such as setting an offline time record (there are preset times on all roads) on every street in Paradise City.
Then there is Showtime. The grand-daddy of all crashes, Showtime is a mode that's so insane it's hard to describe. You can activate it wherever you are in the city, and your car spins sideways and flips over. And keeps flipping over. You use your boost to propel your car into the standard cars roaming around Paradise City with no real purpose, and you earn damage points (set in dollars) for each car you smash. Hitting a bus ups the multiplier of your points, which are added up after the epic crash. You earn a little boost for every car you hit, also, so it can go for extreme periods of time. Once your boost meter runs out, it tallies up your score. (there is a Showtime score on every road in Paradise City, just like time records, that, when you beat the set score, you gain a special car)
The actual feel of the game is probably one hundred billion times better than how I describe it. The game is nearly perfect in every aspect, as the cars handle differently, some for stunts, others for racing or heavy duty cars better suited for Road Rages, the cars take a while to collect (the special ones, at least), the difficulty is good for anyone playing, and it's all around a fantastic game for anyone looking to relieve stress, who likes racing, or who like crashing (who doesn't!?). It's pretty cheap now, you are able to get it new for $20 either in-stores or online (through the PSN, Xbox LIVE, or gaming websites such as GameStop), so do yourself a favor and get it.
(NOTE: the cars in the game are not real licensed cars.)