Burnout Paradise

Bram Hengeveld · Mar 18, 2008

MrMystic · Mar 18, 2008

I do have this game on PS3, and I must admit, the adrenaline pumps when playing this one !

Gameplay is the fastest that I've ever seen, Controls are very good, Damage model is ... simply AMAZING ! Free roaming makes the game even better, and with the simply touch of a button you're online !!

Gareth Hickling · Mar 18, 2008

Ive seen clips of it, The damage is by far the best around, uber realistic.

MrMystic · Apr 5, 2008

You're right Gareth, the damage model is just amazing, and the crash psychics also!

I can also announce that Burnout Paradise has been sold 1 million times since it's launch in January.
If we calculate it together with the older numbers, we can conclude that 15 million people have bought a copy of a Burnout game over the years. A achievement to be proud on I think so !

MrMystic · Apr 5, 2008

Burnout Paradise [Xbox360]

Criterion games has announced that Burnout Paradise has been sold 1 million times since it's launch in January.
Together with the other Burnout games, the total sales are now over 15 million games ! This is an achievement that Criterion can be really proud on !

Antoine Morin · Apr 6, 2008

Got this one too . Amazing soundZ ...!!! but really Arcade gaming , and only 720P

MrMystic · Apr 10, 2008

At the 24th orf April, the Second udpate for Burnout Paradise will be released. Here's a list of the most important fixes:

The Top 10 problems reported by you have been fixed, these are:

PS3 game can crash when a player is taken down and the player that has performed the Takedown leaves the game.
The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems communicating with the rebroadcast server.
Disconnecting the controller before a race begins can mean that race timings can be manipulated with players who didn't cross the line first being awarded the win.
Repeatedly joining and leaving a game with 8 players can cause the game to hang.
Hammering the A (360) or X (PS3) after unlocking a car can cause the game to hang.
East Crawford and Watt St achievements cannot be achieved if the player goes online and sets road rules before attempting them.
Audio distortion when using 5.1 / DTS and looking back at the car.
Enhanced 360 streaming performance stops instances where the game seems to pause for a second or so.
Total time driven in player stats would stick at 145 hours.
VoIP connection problems with 8 player games. This is now live on the Paradise City servers.

The update also adds the following game experience enhancements:

We fixed Head-on Takedowns as these seemed generally unfair and unrealistic. Unfair low speed Takedowns have now been eradicated.
Increase online race timer timeout so players have a greater chance of finishing the race.
Fix drifting bug when drifting and boosting. There wasn't any real control on the brake so players would grind around the walls of the corners. Giving you all better control of the car.
Stabbing the boost has too much of a jerky behaviour in the car handling, when in Stunt Run.
Surround sound fix - Centre speaker was 4dB louder, ruining the mix. The speech has now been positioned correctly.
Increase the # of search results returned for online games.
Increase Picture Paradise timer so it doesn't kick in so quickly.
Post event ticker commentary is not now displayed for disconnected players.
Show player the number of Complete Challenges easily by listing X/50 in the Challenges menu.

Other high priority issues that have been fixed:

Instances where Barrel rolls were not registering correctly in Stunt Run.
Takedowns online were not counting towards the Total Takedowns.
Some instances where Revenge Rivalries desync & don't get fixed until players are updated online.
Some instance where the Host couldn't change the game access if the game was created through an invite.
Online challenge issues where the challenge couldn't be completed if it was started at the exact time that a player left the game.
Incorrect rivalry updates when European players played against English or Japanese players. Online connection issues.
Rich presence on 360 didn't change correctly when there is a change in the game parameters.
Instances where Friends were not being displayed on the mini map.
Some online race start points face the players in the wrong direction.

MrMystic · Apr 10, 2008

At the 24th orf April, the Second udpate for Burnout Paradise will be released. Here's a list of the most important fixes:

The Top 10 problems reported by you have been fixed, these are:

PS3 game can crash when a player is taken down and the player that has performed the Takedown leaves the game.
The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems communicating with the rebroadcast server.
Disconnecting the controller before a race begins can mean that race timings can be manipulated with players who didn't cross the line first being awarded the win.
Repeatedly joining and leaving a game with 8 players can cause the game to hang.
Hammering the A (360) or X (PS3) after unlocking a car can cause the game to hang.
East Crawford and Watt St achievements cannot be achieved if the player goes online and sets road rules before attempting them.
Audio distortion when using 5.1 / DTS and looking back at the car.
Enhanced 360 streaming performance stops instances where the game seems to pause for a second or so.
Total time driven in player stats would stick at 145 hours.
VoIP connection problems with 8 player games. This is now live on the Paradise City servers.

The update also adds the following game experience enhancements:

We fixed Head-on Takedowns as these seemed generally unfair and unrealistic. Unfair low speed Takedowns have now been eradicated.
Increase online race timer timeout so players have a greater chance of finishing the race.
Fix drifting bug when drifting and boosting. There wasn't any real control on the brake so players would grind around the walls of the corners. Giving you all better control of the car.
Stabbing the boost has too much of a jerky behaviour in the car handling, when in Stunt Run.
Surround sound fix - Centre speaker was 4dB louder, ruining the mix. The speech has now been positioned correctly.
Increase the # of search results returned for online games.
Increase Picture Paradise timer so it doesn't kick in so quickly.
Post event ticker commentary is not now displayed for disconnected players.
Show player the number of Complete Challenges easily by listing X/50 in the Challenges menu.

Other high priority issues that have been fixed:

Instances where Barrel rolls were not registering correctly in Stunt Run.
Takedowns online were not counting towards the Total Takedowns.
Some instances where Revenge Rivalries desync & don't get fixed until players are updated online.
Some instance where the Host couldn't change the game access if the game was created through an invite.
Online challenge issues where the challenge couldn't be completed if it was started at the exact time that a player left the game.
Incorrect rivalry updates when European players played against English or Japanese players. Online connection issues.
Rich presence on 360 didn't change correctly when there is a change in the game parameters.
Instances where Friends were not being displayed on the mini map.
Some online race start points face the players in the wrong direction.

MrMystic · Apr 24, 2008

In august there will be a major update for Burnout Paradise. One of the things that will be added is a night scnenery for Paradise City. So from august on, the players will be able to show their moves in the dark !

Another thing that will be added are Motorcycles! These vehicles have special races, and to make the experience better, the traffic level is lowered.

MrMystic · Apr 24, 2008

In august there will be a major update for Burnout Paradise. One of the things that will be added is a night scenery for Paradise City. So from august on, the players will be able to show their moves in the dark !

Another thing that will be added are Motorcycles! These vehicles have special races, and to make the experience better, the traffic level is lowered.

TobiasR · May 9, 2008

Burnout Paradise PC Version announced

US, May 9, 2008 - Criterion Games, a studio of Electronic Arts, (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced that the award-winning driving game Burnout Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content.

Originally released for the PLAYSTATION 3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360 videogame and entertainment system, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide. Burnout Paradise delivers an open-world environment built for intense speed, excitement and exploration and sets a new standard in the seamless transition from single-player offline to social online gameplay.

Burnout Paradise for the PC will combine all the open world racing, intense speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version.

Gamers can tune into a live webcast at Criterion Games at 8:00 AM PST on Friday, May 9 for more details on this announcement. For more information about Burnout Paradise, please visit Criterion Games or the EA press website at info.ea.com.

Burnout Paradise for the PC has not been rated by the ESRB or PEGI.

Sounds like good news to me :jumping: One of the only Arcade Racers, I really would like to play.

News taken from IGN.com: Games, Cheats, Movies and More

Bram Hengeveld · May 9, 2008

If the crash models are as good as on the consoles this can be a hit then!

Brett Bagstad · May 13, 2008

Burnout Paradise Review

Paradise City is open and waiting.

by Chris Roper

January 16, 2008 - Criterion Games' Burnout franchise has now long been the king of arcade racing. Its tight controls and overwhelming sense of speed have catapulted it to the top of the genre, and few games have come even close to matching the series' strengths. But while Criterion has garnered tons of praise from both gamers and critics alike, the studio never sits still. With every release, the developer tweaks the core formula in an attempt to offer something new to gamers.

Burnout Paradise sees what are arguably the biggest changes in the franchise's history, with nearly every single aspect of the game having seen some sort of shift in design. Some of it works really well, and some of it not so well, but what we wind up with still remains an intense, blazingly fast and perfectly controlling racer, one that you shouldn't miss.

The biggest change introduced in Burnout Paradise is the move to an open world, the streets of Paradise City (cue Guns 'N' Roses title track). The entire city is open at the start of the game, with the idea being that you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Not all of the events are present at the start, mind you, and you'll have to put in a lot of time to unlock the game's roughly 75 cars, but you're never limited in the options before you.

There are bits of good and bad to this. The good is that the city design is great, offering up plenty of varying spots for you to race in and tons of hidden areas to find. There is no shortage of tucked away passages, underground runs and all sorts of cool spots to hit. You'll find jumps littered everywhere, including small ramps with kickers on the side to send you into a barrel roll, which are great for the Stunt runs (which we'll come back to in a bit).

The main downtown area of Paradise City is very reminiscent of the downtown tracks in the last couple games, while the western section of the city harkens back to the long, winding, countryside courses of past games as well. A couple of highways will put you dead in the middle of traffic and give you plenty of road to get up to speed on.

The car designs are fantastic.

Paradise City is very dense, especially the eastern, downtown section, offering you a myriad of ways to get through a race. When a race starts, you simply must race from point A to point B as fast as you can, along whatever route you want. While this means that you're given the freedom to create your own course, it also means that you'll be stopping the action and referring to the map fairly often to make sure that you don't take any wrong turns. Since there are so many different tunnels, highways and such to take, it can be easy to make a wrong turn and wind up going off course for a bit. Until you've memorized the bulk of the map, which given its complexity, will take quite a long time, you'll likely have to pause and check the map two or three times during a race to make sure that you're on the right path.

There's an in-game indicator of where the finish line is, but it just points in the compass direction and doesn't help with turns or anything of that sort. This is understandable to a degree since Criterion (rightfully so) wants you to create your own routes and not rely on what it thinks you should do, but it does mean that you'll be at the mercy of the pause screen until memory starts taking over.

Another downside to the overall design of the open world setup is that you cannot simply pause and restart an event. This means that if you race from one side of the map to the other, which you will often do, you'll need to turn around and drive all the way back to the starting point to try again if you lose. While this sounds, and can be, annoying, changing the way that you approach the game helps to overcome this for the most part. Knowing that this was the case, instead of trying to perfect every event as we went along, like we've done in the past, we instead tried an event and, regardless of the outcome, just tried something else nearby when it was over. Playing this way makes for a much more organic experience and will help greatly in lessening the annoyance of not being able to quickly restart, though if you're aiming for a 100% completion rating then you will inevitably have to drive back to the starting line when you're down to the last few events in the game.

Of course, races aren't the only event type to be found in Paradise City. Of everything in the game, it's perhaps Road Rage that has seen the smallest amount of change, which is perfectly fine by us. The only major difference this time around is that instead of having three target cars at any one time, you'll now have five or six at a time to take down. It's a small change, but Road Rage is even more chaotic now because of it as you'll see more cars than ever before crashing in front of you and flying over your windshield. We still can't get enough of it.

The Crash mode of old is essentially gone, replaced by Showtime events. Rather than racing up to a streetlight and spinning your wheels to begin it like most every other event, Showtime can be started at any time (even as you're already crashing) by hitting two shoulder buttons. Your car will immediately begin flipping and you'll start racking up a score for the street that you started the Showtime on. While the street that you begin the event on is where your score will apply to, you can actually flip and crash across the entirety of Paradise City if you're good enough.

There are major differences between Showtime and the Crash events of old, however. You can keep your crash going so long as you keep moving, which you can prolong by bouncing your car if you have some boost. Boost is earned every time you hit a car, which also increases your score, of course. However, you only earn points for cars that you actually hit, not those that crash around you, and you only earn multipliers for hitting busses. The bus-only multiplier thing is disappointing because you can go for 10 minutes without seeing a bus during one Showtime, but start another and hit a handful right away, thereby giving you exponentially more points simply because of randomized luck.

Regardless of that, there isn't a whole lot of skill involved in the Showtimes, aside from seeing how absurdly long you can keep it going. But the required scores are easy as pie to hit, and since there's no planning or anything involved in what you're doing, it feels like most of the challenge (and thereby fun) of the old Crash modes is gone.

Road Rage is largely the same, but it's still the best incarnation yet.

Showtime events are coupled with timed runs for each street. If you head to one of the ends of any road in the game and start driving on it, a counter will begin ticking up that shows you your time. It's a very simple and very natural way of including time trials in the game, and as simple as it is, it works really well.

Stunt events are the freshest addition to the Burnout formula, tasking you to rack up a certain amount of points in a given timeframe. While you'll earn points for sliding around turns and boosting, you'll only earn valuable multipliers for jumping off ramps, crashing through gates or performing a barrel roll, which gives you double goodness. It's a pretty awesome event that'll have you screaming down streets, looking for just one more ramp to hit to help keep your combo alive. The only downside here has to do with the different types of cars you can choose and how they affect a Stunt event's difficulty...

Each of the 70+ cars in the game falls into a certain category, either Stunt, Speed or Aggression. The Aggression vehicles are large and heavy, perfect for Road Rage, but not so much for events that require agility. Cars with the Stunt classification are designed to be good for jumps and drifting, and most resemble the rides that you'll find in past Burnout games. Speed cars specialize in excessive boosting as they allow you to chain together Burnouts to keep your boost going forever, but they have a downside in that you can only start a boost when your meter is full.

Having to wait until your boost meter is full means that the Speed cars are more finicky during races, though the payoff on long straightaways can be greater. But during Stunt events they wind up being terrible picks since a quick tap of the Boost in any other vehicle will immediately extend your combo meter. In a Stunt or Aggression car, you can take a jump for points, cruise for a bit while looking for your next jump, and then tap the boost for just a second when your combo is about to expire to extend it. Not so in the Speed cars. This boosting difference would make more sense if the Speed cars were noticeably faster than the other types, but they're not.

One pretty cool thing relating to the vehicles in the game is how you earn them. When you get a new license, you'll be rewarded with a new ride in your junkyard for driving immediately. All of the other cars, however, have to be taken down first. When you "unlock" a car after an event, it will then appear somewhere in Paradise City and drive around on its own. In order to fully earn it, you have to find said car and then take it down. Like our approach to event selection, we found this to be best when we didn't bother hunting them down after unlocking them, but instead kept doing our thing while keeping our eyes peeled. Then when a car crossed our path, we'd drop everything and head out with a new ride in our headlights. It's a pretty awesome mechanic that helps instill life into Paradise City.

Perhaps the most well-implemented addition to the franchise is the way that online play works. Instead of having to jump out to a separate menu to get online, invite friends to your game, set up challenges or whatever else, all of this is manageable in-game with the D-Pad. Pressing right on the D-Pad opens up the online menu where you can then hop online, invite friends to your game, set up race events or whatever else you want, all while your engine is still running.

When a friend or two (or seven) hop on, you have a number of options. You can create a custom race where you can set start and end points and drop any number of checkpoints onto the map. You can even save these routes for play later on so that you don't have to keep making them. You can also start a Freeburn Challenge of some sort. There are 50 challenges for each number of players in the game. In other words, there are 50 challenges for two player, 50 different challenges for three players, and so on and so forth, giving you an absolute ton of Freeburn runs to complete (yes, 100% completion will take a long time). These are as simple as having two players race from opposite sides of an open bridge and crashing in mid-air to having every player do a barrel roll through a hoop. They're all good fun and give you tons of different things to do.

Speed, speed and more speed. Oh, and some extra speed for flavor.

Regardless of everything we've talked about, the most important part of any Burnout game, and the reason they've been so successful in the past, is simply how well (and fast) the driving mechanics work. Criterion has nailed the formula once again, offering gamers the pinnacle of arcade racing mechanics with cars that control exactly how you would expect them to, with the perfect amount of inferred weight sent to the player. As well, the sense of speed we've seen in the past is here 110%, with roadside objects blurring by your outside mirrors at uncountable speeds.

Lastly, it's worth mentioning that Criterion has also once again delivered a game that runs incredibly smooth and sounds fantastic. The game runs at a blistering 60fps, which ties perfectly with its controls, and it looks impressive at that. The crash effects are fantastic, slowing down to show you your crumpling wreck as the steering wheel is shoved into the driver's seat. Were there a virtual driver sitting there, he'd be dead.

Closing Comments
Burnout Paradise has its share of flaws, but it's also incredibly fun. The change to an open world brought its share of issues, like having to use the map as a crutch to get around for a while, but it also allows for freedom unseen in any recent racing game. Most importantly though, Criterion has once again delivered a racing experience that can best be described as controlled chaos, one where even crashing is immensely rewarding. If you're even a remote fan of racing games, be sure to check this out.

Bradley Wint · Jul 9, 2008

Burnout: Paradise Update #3 in 1 Day’s Time

Well it’s just a about a day again before the Criterion Games team releases the third Burnout Paradise Update called “Codename: Cagney” or “Cagney”. This update includes a wide range of updates for the game including 3 new Freeburn Game Modes, 70 new Freeburn Challenges, new vehicles and liveries, a variated ranking system, custom sounds and the usual bug fixes. For a detailed list of updated, check out the Criterion post here. The update is set of be available for download (for free) at 8:00AM GMT or 4:00AM EST (for us night owls). You can also check out some of the past news and previews of the Cagney update here.

Bradley Wint · Jul 10, 2008

Cagney Update Delayed For Xbox 360 Users

CAGNEY UPDATE DELAYED FOR XBOX 360 USERS

With 7 and a half hours again for the 3rd free update to the Burnout Paradise series, Criterion Games has announced the delay of the Xbox 360 update. Apparently Microsoft was able to pick up some bugs in the update, so it is being held of for maybe a week to a week and a half tops.

“The 3rd and most ambitious FREE software update for Burnout Paradise will arrive later than expected for Xbox 360 players.
We’ve picked up some additional bugs in our final test phase for the 360 version of Cagney and will delay until these issues are resolved.
We’re unable to give an exact timeline for release, but as soon as we have confirmation, we’ll post here on the criteriongames.com. For the moment, we’re expecting this to have an impact of around a week-and-a-half. Right now, we’re looking at 24th July as a projected date.”

From my viewpoint, it’s worth the wait. Don’t want to get an update that’s buggy. It’s just one week basically. Criterion ended off their post with an overall perspective of the new update. It is one we look forward to.

“It’s an ambitious and complex overhaul of Burnout Paradise, and it’s this scope that’s caused a few last-minute delays. We’ll bring you more news as we have it.”

Source: Criterion Games

Bradley Wint · Jul 10, 2008

Burnout Paradise Cagney Update Available

BURNOUT PARADISE CAGNEY UPDATE AVAILABLE

Well the 3rd update in the Burnout: Paradise series is here. The Cagney update has already been unveiled for PS3 fans in Japan (9th July) and is now available to the rest of us in Europe, Asia and the United States. The update features totally revamped modes and add-ons including “3 new online game modes, special calendar events, new cars, 70 multi-part, timed Freeburn Challenges and a wealth of improvements to the existing game”.

It should be noted that the Ranked Racing Leaderboard will be reset. Some of the reasons for the reset board include:

Removal of custom drives and more focus on action of the 40 Paradise Drives
Racing traffic in on-only mode
If you disconnect, You will be rated as finishing last
Hosts will be unable to kick players

Some other notes to take note of:

“If you’re ranked racing in Burnout Paradise without the Cagney update, you won’t be able to earn points towards the old or new Leaderboards just yet.
We’ve taken a snapshot of the Leaderboards, and imposed penalties on players who we’ve deemed to have used exploits. The penalties are outlined here:

Any players using second accounts for race fixing (deliberately losing to other players to boost their points) will have their points reset to 0!

Any player who has gained points from race fixing (winning against another player who has deliberately lost) will have their points halved!

Any player with more than 15% disconnect rate will lose the disconnect % of their total points!

The decision to penalise a player will only be made if we are 100% sure they’ve been using these exploits. We’ve created a Hall of Fame for our top racers and will post this on the site soon. There’s also a reward for the top 10 players on the board.”

More details coming soon.

Bradley Wint · Jul 28, 2008

Yet another delay

Well it is bad news yet again for Xbox 360 Burnout Paradise fans. Criterion games has posted that the Xbox version of the Cagney update has been delayed yet again. The update was initially set to be released on the 24th (yesterday) but the developers posted news of the delay, saying that it is now in its testing stages. At least we can say it’s done and just being checked for errors. However the update is not set for release till the 4th of August, which is another week and a half from now. The update was initially pulled from the set release date, because Microsoft found some glitches in it when they were doing their review of it for release on the the Xbox Live system. Otherwise, PS3 fans have been overly joyous with the new updates and report nothing but positive comments about the update. Stay tuned for more.

Bradley Wint · Aug 4, 2008

Users at the Criterion Forums have finally confirmed the release of the Burnout Paradise: Cagney Update for the Xbox 360. Many (including me) thought the update would come at 12:00 GMT, since it wasn’t released as planned initially, but they did stick to their 9:00am deadline like the PS3 update. It was initially set for release alongside it’s PS3 counterpart about 2 weeks ago, but Microsoft were quick to pull it off the Xbox LIVE system because of a discovered security problem. Criterion fixed and tested it and now it’s out.

Hopefully Xbox fans can now enjoy the latest additions to the Burnout Paradise series.