Burnout Paradise

[Zeus]

I forgot how awesome the demo was and why I wanted this game so much. It kinda fell by the wayside during the year but I picked it up a couple of weeks ago (it's $20 used or less now) and finally popped it in.

This is an incredible racing game....with very little racing. It's really more of a racing platformer with huge emphasis on exploring the world (in this case, island). I spent an hour and a half just driving around finding billboards, superjumps, and fences. (got 102 of the 400 so far; they will get A LOT harder to find soon).

The closest thing to it is Rush 2 or Rush LA. Those games emphasies racing around finding stuff (like the Mountain Dew cans) in a track and stunts. I played the snot out of both of them. Burnout Paradise takes it to a whole new level. The one island is a great idea and they actually encourage you to learn the layout of the city. The fact that you can enter and exit races/tasks at any time and just race around is awesome.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who liked Rush 2, Burnout 3, or is intrigued by a racing platformer. Gran Turismo or PGR this ain't. But man it kicks ass. And it's got a budget price to boot not to mention a whack of free download upgrades (nightime/rain, bikes, etc.) that greatly expand the game.

[Shellie]

I absolutely loved Burnout Revenge...you should have heard me play it, I think I would have made a sailor blush! lol I loved the racing, and takedowns...and being takendown only to get revenge! The crash games were awesome as well. It's one of my top favorite 360 games. And you should see how awesome it looks on a 65" HD tv

However, I did NOT like the demo for Paradise. I did NOT like having to drive all the way back to the start of a race to start it over. If I remember correctly, you couldn't even pause partway through and restart. I didnt care much about the super jumps or finding any secret stuff. I just wanted to race!

[Zeus]

And I'm exactly the opposite, racing is the last thing I want to do in this game. I've played for 4 hours over the last 3 nights and have found over 250 fences, 25 Superjumps (missed a crazy one off the mountain last night as I crashed at the very end), and about 50 billboards. Found all but 9 of the paint shops / junk yards / gas stations and I think 90 or so of the races (intersections). And I took out the one rival guy and stole his rice rocket (fucker kept crashing himself when I was chasing him). All I've been doing is just driving around the place having a wild time. What a great island.

One thing: how the FUCK do I start the Road Races and Showtimes? You know, the street-specific stuff? I can't for the life of me figure out how to start either of those. I can push up on the directional pad and see what the online and offline records are but I can't activate jack. Is it you just start at one end of the street to the others and it automatically registers your time or do you have to activate it? And is the Showtime one (the crashes) you just hit the two triggers together and it's supposed to work? I can't get it to work.

[Shellie]

From what I remember you have to find a specific point and rev your tires(both triggers maybe..) to activate it...but its been a long time since i did the demo..

[Zeus]

From what I remember you have to find a specific point and rev your tires(both triggers maybe..) to activate it...but its been a long time since i did the demo..

I have the actual game now, not the demo. You only played the demo?

[Shellie]

Yeah, I hated the demo too much to buy it..even at 20 bucks.

[Zeus]

Yeah, I hated the demo too much to buy it..even at 20 bucks.

Ah, k. The only real drawback is having to go back to the street light to start up a race again. So if you fail it is a bit of a pain in the ass to start it up again.

But really, other than that, there's SO much in this game even if you don't like the finding of secret stuff. One of the big things is trying to find ways to get the billboards and finding secret routes throughout the city to help you with your races and stunts (that's where you'll get the fences). But it does require you to start memorizing the city layout. So if you're not into that stuff, you will likely not get into the game much.

[bovine]

I hate that one single wrong turn can ruin your race and then you have to endure a drive of shame ALL the way back to the start just to start it over again. You'd think with so many patches and added content that they might put a little retry button in there or something. Or perhaps it's too difficult a procedure.

[Zeus]

I hate that one single wrong turn can ruin your race and then you have to endure a drive of shame ALL the way back to the start just to start it over again. You'd think with so many patches and added content that they might put a little retry button in there or something. Or perhaps it's too difficult a procedure.

They would probably have to record the race from the beginning to end and "reset" you. Not everyone has a HDD so they can't expect everyone to do it.

The only real drawback to the open-world environment they created IMO. Even if it only takes a minute or so to go across the vast majority of the city it's still a pain.

[SineSwiper]

Yeah, with Revenge, it was:

1. Crash cars
2. Retry
3. Repeat 1000 times

Some of the events I would stop in-between and just start over, and over, and over, and over again, especially getting the right crash. Despite the loading times, it only took me about 10 seconds to get back to where I was. Not having a retry button in the game devalued the sequel to total garbage.

Why play Paradise when you have a million things to do with Revenge? Just get a used copy of Revenge, and you'll have the best racing game in known space.

[Shellie]

hehe...I liked the racing more than the crashing. Especially..I forgot the name of the type of race..where they blow up the car in last place at timed intervals. That really got your heart pumping.."oh god, oh god, that effer crashed me and Im in last place now...6 seconds to get out of last place!! ahhhh!!!"

[Zeus]

Why play Paradise when you have a million things to do with Revenge? Just get a used copy of Revenge, and you'll have the best racing game in known space.

Because it's Revenge and then some. You can exactly what you just listed you can do in Revenge.....and then do the platforming elements (finding billboards, fences/shortcuts, and superjumps), the different types of races at each intersection (including stunts), the challenges for each road, and the excellent online interface.

Other than the one drawback Seraph mentioned, it really is a perfect example of what a sequel should be

[SineSwiper]

But that drawback is like inventing a car without a steering wheel: it's fucking critical to the game!

[Zeus]

But that drawback is like inventing a car without a steering wheel: it's fucking critical to the game!

No, man. Not unless you're the type of guy who has to do the exact same thing over and over again. It's design well enough to stop you from having to go all the way across the island to start the exact same race again or you can't do anything.

You can stop any race at any time (ie. if you're losing or out of it completely by a wrong turn or crash or something) by just stopping for about 10 seconds or so. Then to start a new event or race all you have to do is make it to an intersection (there are TONS of them EVERYWHERE; something like 120 or so) and bam, another race for you to do.