Burnout Paradise
comes just over two years after the last installment and, given that it missed the Xmas market and was dumped in late
January, that's usually a sign that all is not well.
However, it would be disingenious of me to state that that is the case because, while it does have some issues that could
do with addressing because they're such a missed opportunity, it's still a cracking good blast.
Burnout Paradise Clip 1:
I won with a quick jump!
Okay, so what's good about the game? Well, it's an audio/visual treat for a start, and in addition to races where you have
to get from A to B across the 250 miles of open road - at the end of which it's a good idea to come first, there are also
'Stunt Runs' in which you should try various stunts such as air, jumps, ramps, takedowns etc, and build up a big combo before
you crash. The thing to do here, by the way, is to look ahead for off-road segments you can run through as they're your best
chance of some cool, extra points.
In addition, there's 'Road Rage' where you must achieve a certain number of takedowns before you total your car or reach your
destination: I can usually achieve many more and it's fantastic fun as the clips below demonstrate. One of the hardest games
is 'Marked Man' which is basically a case of "drive and survive"! Unless your vehicle is built like a tank then the baddies are
likely to strike when you least expect it - or creep up behind if you're on a straight - and it's one closer step to being
'game over'.
Burnout Paradise Clip 2: Nice wreck!
On the downside, this title should've been more structured. This is because you have to drive around to find races, rather
than being selected from a list, like
Burnout Revenge.
That said, it shouldn't be too hard to find one because most races and stunt runs, etc., are found at junctions, so slow
down a bit when you reach one of them and press left and right triggers to start. However, despite there seemingly being
so many (120 according to the back of the box), I did seem to come across a number of them repeatedly, so there's not
nearly so many different ones as there's a lot of repetition going on.
Also, there's no crash mode (a cardinal sin!) and no checking from behind - this just wrecks your car. I miss both of these,
the latter because you could smash into people from up their rear and send them headlong into another one or two cars and get
a nice juicy bonus.
Burnout Paradise Clip 4: Road Rage I!
Other random observations in this game. A quick way of getting a full boost refill is to go through a petrol station
(there's also the Auto Repair place for completely fixing your car and a handful of Junk Yards to get new and better cars),
and those cars can be achieved by upgrading your licence which is done simply by winning race.
There are lots of shortcuts, usually closed off by gates that you can just drive through; if you leave the joypad alone
when not in a race, before too long it goes into a 'pause' mode with soothing classical music and calm driving scenes...
There are also online options but I don't have a Gold membership.
One thing worthy of note is that it *IS* possible for your opponents to be fallible and have a mishap, meaning they get
left behind of their own accord. That makes a great change from most racing games where the opposition can never make a cock-up.
Burnout Paradise Clip 6: I won a Stunt Run
Almost finally, I wish I could turn off DJ Atomica at times, though, as he just waffles and sometimes, early on, his advice
actually almost pauses a race just to tell you something. Shut up, man! This was better handled in the previous game where
advice tips popped up when the game was loading a new race (the times for that, thankfully, being a lot quicker now because
they're cleverly masked with a graphic telling you about the race to be run), whereas here it's like one of those irritating
continuity announcers on TV who won't let you reflect for a moment at the end of a TV show or film as they just must natter
on endlessly and ruin the mood.
Overall, Burnout Paradise is good fun, but not as good as
Burnout Revenge because it doesn't feel as involved and
it's far too repetitive in comparison.
Burnout Paradise Clip 7:
I finished 1st! (by pure chance)
In this review, I've uploaded a number of clips including the ones above, with more to come, which are as follows:
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
