"Take me down to the paradise city, where the grass is green and the girls are pretty".
Being a racing series, Burnout has always been pretty linear. You chose an event, pick a car, and you're ready to play. But with Paradise, the formula has been reinvented - and it's for the better. After a short introduction, you pick your car and set off. There is no messing around with menus, you're thrown straight into the action - and you don't even need to race. You see, Burnout Paradise presents you with 250 miles of open road to explore. There are tons of hidden goodies littered all over the city, and I was speeding around trying to find them all before I even thought of taking part in any of the events.
From the get-go you have the whole world available at your fingertips. There is no need to unlock any of Paradise cities massive environments - they are all there, ready to be smashed up. You'll be blasting your way through billboards and gates in no time. They are hundreds to find and it's immensely enjoyable. Of course you can always take a break from collecting stuff by trying your hand at a heap load of events. Each of them is scattered around the city at each junction - all you need to do is pull up and press the left and right triggers to enter. There are five events in all - from the basic race, to such Burnout classics as Road Rage and Burning Route - with new additions being Stunt Run (where you must reach a specified score by earning points performing such tasks as boosting and jumping), and Marked Man (where you must reach a destination without being totalled by rival drivers). All of the new events are enjoyable, although Stunt Mode normally just results in just boosting, looking for a few ramps.
The Burnout series has always had an exhilarating sense of speed, and Paradise is no different. Racing is the best judge of this, especially when you begin to unlock some of the speed based vehicles. The races have been tweaked allowing you to find your own way to the required destination. There are eight different finishing destinations - one for each point on the compass - and finding your way there is up to you. There are two ways to go about this: you can open up the map and plan your route to the finishing line, or you can follow the games compass (located at the top of the screen) and the flashing street sides and indicators - giving you directions for which street to turn onto next. The system works well with every street being named, and I found it a lot easier to follow the games route rather than make my own way there using the in-game map. Of course there's nothing stopping you using the map, but it breaks up the action and you lose that seamless experience that is so evident throughout the whole game.
For this years instalment the iconic Crash mode has been scratched in favour of the aptly named Showtime. This can be triggered at any time during the game, sending your car into the air to cause as much devastation as possible. It uses a similar system to Crash with each AI vehicle costing a certain amount in damages. Your goal is to send your vehicle down a path of destruction, hitting everything in your way, to cause a mass amount of damage. You can steer your flaming wreck, and keep it moving with the boost meter. More boost is added with each collisions - with multipliers coming from collisions into certain objects such as buses. Showtime provides an entertaining arcade break from the racing and the fact it can be used anywhere is a great innovation - especially when you enter the online playing field.
By far the best event on display is Road Rage. Criterion really upped the anti this time around, and Road Rage is just an intense thrill ride of crumpled metal. It's total destruction all the way through, and you can get some exceeding more than ten minutes - racking up tons of takedowns in the process. This is due to the fact that takedowns seem to be a lot easier - probably to ensure maximum mayhem. It's amazing blasting around the world of Paradise city taking out everything in your path. It gets the adrenaline pumping and keeps you on the edge of your seat the whole way through, especially when you witness some of the most amazing crashes ever seen.
However, one of the problems with each event is the fact that they cannot be restarted if you fail. This presents a problem when you've raced for ten minutes only to lose at the finishing line. Rather than press restart to give it another shot you'll have to turn around and drive all the way back to the starting line. Luckily this only really poses a problem when you're in the latter stages of the game - when there are only a select few races left to go. In the early stages, if I lost an event, I would just try a different one that's closer to me. This removed some of the frustrations that could have been found from re-playing the same event over and over - so in a way it was quite a refreshing experience.
Burnout Paradise does a good job of keeping a steady framerate. It normally jumps around between 50-55 frames per second, and this is a great accomplishment considering the size of the world and intense speed and franticness of the action on show. The visuals are great - the whole world looks stunning. Shadows reflect through scenery, and cars damage in a realistic manner. Some of the crashes look truly spectacular, with areas crumpling and breaking on impact. The game managed to main a glossy feel, even with all the destruction surrounded around it.
The soundtrack is typical EA fare with a decent mix of skater rock, R'n'B and dance music - with some old classics from the first three Burnout games. Overall the sound is top notch. Each car sounds distinctly different, with some of the more powerful vehicles sounding really menacing. You can hear the wind rushing through the seams on your coupe as you accelerate past 150mph, and it really enhances that breathtaking sense of speed. Crashes sound brilliant, especially when the game quietens and enters slow motion a split-second before you make impact. And Host DJ Atomika does a good job of explaining different areas of the game, keeping you informed at all times.
The online side of things provides a hugely enjoyable break from the single player. You can enter Freeburn - which is essentially free-roam - with up to eight people on Live. It's great driving around together, completing set challenges, and taking each other out. The seamless experience remains intact, and you'll lose hours just messing around with friends. There are also races to compete that are essentially the same as in the single-player. You can tweak settings like traffic, and car choice, so you can race how you want. It maintains the games frantic nature, and also brings back the Burnout Rivals feature seen in Burnout: Revenge - so you can really get some rivalry's going with your mates.
Burnout Paradise is a great package. The world of Paradise City is great fun to explore - you can get lost within it for hours just trying to find all the billboards and gates. There are a few niggles with the lack of restarts, and unlocking new cars can sometimes be a bit aggravating - you have to find them and take them out before being able to use them. But the pros out-way the cons and Burnout Paradise is certainly the most exhilarating racing game you can find on the market at this moment in time.