With its low crime and high takedown rate, you may find yourself wanting to move to Paradise City.
There are numerous things to do once you get to Paradise City, but probably one of the first is to upgrade your license. Not to worry, this will only take a couple of events. Gran Turismo aficionados, may remember the license upgrades with varying degrees of shock, horror and massive fainting spells, though this time around, the process has been simplified quite a bit. You'll need a couple wins for your first license upgrade, around seven or so for your next one, sixteen for the following, which eventually culminates in completing every event on the board for the coveted Burnout Elite license.
The events you can participate in include standard races, road rage type demolition events (take down the most cars to win), marked man events (where you survive driving from point A to point B, while a few cars try to take you down), and stunt runs (use jumps and obstacles to rack up as many points as possible).
The races are pretty standard speedfests from one end of the city to the other, usually involving you plus seven rivals, however, some races are one on one. The marked man type events eliminate the timer that is constantly running on many events in Paradise City, in favor of plain old survival. It's you versus three unmarked cars who try their best to take you down before you reach your destination. Although they aren't terribly smart about it, the sheer number of things in the city that you can smash into means they can get incredibly lucky.
Takedowns are to the Burnout series what apples are to apple pie and they are ever present, especially in the road rage events that litter the city. You have a target number and you simply have to take down that number of cars to win. There is a timer going, but you add time to the clock for each takedown, making it far less obnoxious than in some events. Finally, there are the stunt runs, which are simply using whatever ramps, and jumps and billboards you can find to rack up as many points as possible. If you don't know the city that well, these can be quite difficult.
The other event type is the burning route. Each of the 70+ cars has their own burning route which is simply a get from point A to point B; using that car, under the specified time. Being successful at these earns you special versions of the cars themselves. The early burning routes are a nice, scenic drive, but the later ones force you to take shortcuts and drive flawlessly if you want to beat the times given.
The events reset after every license, so you can replay them for your new license, which is nice, but you may feel repetitive stress disorder setting in, especially after your hundredth or so event.
If you tire of events, you can try and beat the times set on each different street in Paradise City. You're not limited to times, either. The game keeps track of who rules each road in the time category, offline and online, whether its day or night in the game and the biggest crash on each street. If you're the competitive type, there's a lot to keep you busy here.
Aside from that, there are also motorcycle only events and co op online events as well. If all that fails, you can simply take a leisurely drive around the city, enjoying tbhe sights and sounds.
The open world environment, before primarily only seen in role playing games, is used impressively here. You'll never see a menu system, unless you want to. Every event is started by pulling up to various streetlights and revving your engine. Don't like an event? Simply pull to a complete stop and wait a few seconds and it will end.
Paradise City itself looks wonderful. You'll see nice looking reflections in car windows, streetlights will light up at night, and your car's high beams will cut through dark alleys like a knife through bread. You can set the game to match your local time, or have one time of day on all the time. Driving at night carries a certain kind of feel to it, just as in real life. The downtown area of the city is fully lit up and looks great. Dusk or dawn, you may find yourself losing a few races, due to the nifty looking scenery.
The music in the game is an interesting mix. There are a lot of songs that add to the game's intense feel, whether in a close race or a particularly brutal road rage, but why some songs were included is a mystery, such as Avril Lavinge's, "Girlfriend", unless its because of the manic pace of the song. There is also a selection of classical music that you can choose from, while playing the game. This may seem odd at first, but the soothing harmonies are a perfect compliment to the often rushed nature of the game and you'll soon find yourself smiling as you take down a variety of opponents, while Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", is playing.
Driving itself is simple to learn, hard to master. You hit the top right shoulder button to drive, the top left one to brake. The X button is your e brake, which can be used for hard turns. Each car handles a bit differently, as well, not just because of the different makes and models, but also because each car is classified as either a stunt car, race car or aggression car. A stunt car gains boost from jumps and smashing objects, an aggression car gains boost from smacking other racers around, and the race cars get boost by going fast, although they cannot use their boost until the meter is full, unlike the other cars. In addition, cars are rated in the game on the statistics of speed, boost and strength.
If you need to take a vacation and don't mind driving, (a lot of driving,), then a trip to Paradise City may be in order. You can see the sights, hear the sounds, and maybe even smash a car or two, all while listening to the music from the opera, "Carmen".