Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by
Electronic Arts

Price: £49.99 Players: 1; System link: 2-8; Online: 2-8 Widescreen: Yes 60Hz: Yes (optional) Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes Xbox Live-enabled: Yes 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: Burnout Paradise Clip 1: I won with a quick jump! Burnout Paradise Clip 2: Nice wreck! Burnout Paradise Clip 3: I lost a Stunt Run Burnout Paradise Clip 4: Road Rage I!s Burnout Paradise Clip 5: Road Rage II! Burnout Paradise Clip 6: I won a Stunt Run Burnout Paradise Clip 7: I finished 1st! (by pure chance) Visit my DVDfeverGames Youtube channel.

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.