Burnout Paradise was the game I was looking most forward to playing right next to Army of Two this past week. I missed my chance at getting my hands on it during E3 so I was extremely happy that I had another shot at it. Not only that, but some of the lead developers from the game also showed off a few neat things to the press before we could get some play time.
Hit the jump for my unfortunately short report on Burnout Paradise.
First off, Burnout Paradise was made from the ground up. They didn't take anything from the previous games at all for Paradise. They've also changed how the game will be play like now. For instance, everything on the map is already opened up -- no need to unlock anything. You can go anywhere you want to at any time and participate in any race or event. Also, the map will be huge (think in terms of Test Drive Unlimited huge).
The folks representing Criterion got up on stage and showed a new feature where by pressing the D-pad you can get a hold of your buddies and challenge them to an event or race. As soon as they set up an event, a challenger jumped in and you can see him trying to approach you on the map. They both got to a starting position and race up a long and curvy hill and then each took a turn at the barrel jump event. An example of that is in the first few seconds of this video:
Did I mention the game is drop dead gorgeous? Everything you saw in this video is all in game. The game is running at a blazing 60 frames per second on the PS3 and Xbox 360. Not only that, but all of the car crashes are running on their own engine so every crash will be unique.
Now I'd love to be able to tell you how the races and event modes were, but when Tristero and I finally got our hands on the game, the network crashed. So we could only race around by ourselves and crash into random objects. We couldn't even try out the Live Vision and Eye Toy features. Apparently, when your buddy forces you into a crash, the cameras will take a quick snapshot of you and send that too all of the people who you are currently racing with.
I played for about ten minutes on the PS3 and Xbox 360 version and I can only say that the controls are very solid and the graphics are spectacular. Simply put, Burnout fans will not be disappointed.
Hamza Aziz, Destructoid's Community Director, has been here since day one. He was born when a tiger coughed up a hairball into a pool of ooze. He was one of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before budget cuts. Hamza works as a previews editor and manages a team in San Francisco. To date he has given away tens of thousands of dollars in prizes to readers. What a dick. Actually, Hamza is as kind as he is hairy.
Likes
Super Mario RPG, Halo, iPhone, Videogame cover bands, Super Nintendo
Meet the rest of the team
this does look awesome, my sisters boyfriend who works for EA has been slaving away on this game for months! I guess for good reason as it looks really impressive!
Well it's not like you HAVE to do the stunts. You can always just race. Shit, didn't know so many people were against extra features that you didn't have to do ... :P
God I love Burnout. It's the only franchise I even care about anymore. Need for Speed Pro Street will have to fill the void until it's release though. Hopefully that's good.
Man, that crash at the end makes me cream my pants every time.
You say you played it on 360 and PS3, which one looked better. All reports have said its looking and running better on the PS3, did you see the difference?
Very balanced preview, considering our crushing disappointment over not being able to race each other. I did have a lot of fun running into things, waiting for you to show up.
UltraDSA: I'd have to say that the PS3 version looked just a little better than the 360 version. As for running better, I can't really say until I get better hands-on with it. EA, you reading this?! I want more play time! Grrrr.
I love the game, but the idea of seeing my gurning face at the moment of destroying my speed-machine sounds worrying. I mean, I'm hideous already, lol.
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Contest:
5:26 PM on 09.12.2007
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...And the cars and that, innit.
stupid flesh...
jk
Man, that crash at the end makes me cream my pants every time.
To me.