Besides adding a fantastic new location to Burnout Paradise, the "Big Surf Island" add-on brought nine new vehicles, all of which are pretty rad for plenty of various reasons. But there's one car that I bet 99% of players will never get to test drive, and that's the P12 Diamond.

Before Paradise City met Big Surf, there were only 490 online freeburn challenges (hah, "only"), but the latest downloadable content upped that number to a solid 500. If you don't know where I'm going with this, allow me to make things more clear: the P12 Diamond is obtained by beating every last one of those challenges.

While this isn't new information per se, the folks at Criterion Games have released a video showcasing the "Big Surf Island" vehicles, and it's probably the only time many of us will ever get to see the final, ninth unlockable car in all its glory. Look for it beyond the break and hope your face won't melt.

[Via Joystiq]

I can just see Burnout's technical director, Richard Parr, reading EA's quote about the 360 being maxed out and rolling his eye to high heaven before slamming his face into his palm and muttering something about "idiots being everywhere." In response to such a claim, Parr says that any company who thinks they have "maxed out" a system already really isn't trying hard enough. "That's proof that you're not the best," he told Eurogamer's Digital Foundry channel. "It means you're out of ideas." 

Alex Fry, the games senior engineer, chimed in too, "You always find new ways to do things, the constraints lift. Not just with a new console generation but with every game you do. Whether it's a sequel or whether it's a new game, you learn to do things differently... better. The constraints go away because you learn. While it's nice to say you've maxed something out, there's not really any point."

So next time your friends start bragging about how they totally maxed out their 360 or PS3 with the last game they developed, you can come back with, "No, you didn't. You just suck at making games," and then stick your tongue out before running away. 

With Criterion Games constantly providing such a steady stream of add-ons, Burnout Paradise seems to have more in common with a platform than an actual videogame.

The core experience has evolved time and time again, and the game has yet to stop feeling fresh, but fans like myself have been eagerly awaiting the release of the definitive downloadable content, "Big Surf Island," as if it has some magical healing ability.

Does it live up to the hype? Did it cause me to spontaneously become giddy like a schoolgirl? You'll have to read the full review after the break to find out.

With only a few short days until Burnout Paradise gets its next huge add-on, "Big Surf Island", it's about time we heard a little more about the DLC pricing- and content-wise. Thankfully, we have got those exact details from the fine people at Criterion Games.

The price of "Big Surf Island" is $12.99 on PlayStation Network and 1000 Microsoft Points on Xbox LIVE; about what people expected, I'd say.

The DLC is bringing three silver and seven bronze Trophies to PS3, and five Achievements totaling 110 Gamerscore points to Xbox 360. As expected, these awards range from smashing hidden objects, getting massive air, and more of those lovely Freeburn Challenges. Catch the full list over on Kotaku.

The latest episode of Crash TV is up and it's all about Burnout Paradise's Big Surf Island DLC. The Criterion folks show off the Carson Dust Storm and the guys drive it all over Big Surf Island showing off what makes the new place so special.

As I said in my preview earlier, everything is bigger, better and faster when it comes to Big Surf Island. There are a ton of big jumps, lots of new places to explore and gives new life to the Burnout Paradise experience.

Check out the new Crash TV episode after the break. How's Big Surf Island looking to you? 

Construction on the bridge connecting downtown Paradise City to Big Surf Island is finally complete! Well, the bridge still has some construction going on but that's not going to stop anyone from heading into the island. Plus, all of the remaining construction makes for some pretty sweet jumps!

I got to visit Big Surf Island when I tried out the Cops and Robbers DLC a little while ago and the new island is a great addition to the Burnout Paradise experience. It takes everything that’s great about Paradise City and brings it all together into one place.

Fly on over the jump to find out more about Big Surf Island. 

Criterion Games has just released the first trailer for the long-awaited Burnout Paradise downloadable content, “Big Surf Island,” which hits Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 on June 11.

Based on what I’m seeing here, if you were to tell me that this is an entirely new Burnout game, I’d believe it. But it’s not -- it’s just some sick-looking DLC.

In addition to an entirely new area, the pack will feature nine new vehicles, including the Carson Dust Storm buggy featured in the trailer. “Big Surf” also comes with new events, new Freeburn Challenges, and the promise of the biggest jumps ever, like one through an enormous chocolate and spinkles donut. (Yes, I’m hungry.)

No word on pricing at this time, but seagulls being the most obnoxious birds ever is pretty much confirmed by the trailer after the jump. Plenty of info about the DLC at Criterion Games' Web site.

Criterion Games is hinting that tomorrow it may reveal some solid details on its upcoming Burnout Paradise “Big Surf Island” expansion.

“Almost time to spill the beans,” writes Criterion’s Pete Lake on his Twitter account. “Be watching CriterionGames.com at 4pm BST this Friday. Your questions will be answered…”

So we’ll definitely be doing that “watching” thing tomorrow at 4pm BST. The island expansion was originally announced to be released in Fall of 2008, but things got out of hand -- Criterion made the damned thing bigger than they had originally planned. That would explain what’s taking it so long, and why it won’t be free content.

But who can complain? The free updates and support for Burnout Paradise has been out of control since the game’s launch; these guys deserve your cash.

On a side note, Lake also mentions on his Twitter that Grasshopper Manufacture’s Suda 51 visited their studio a few days ago. Is a No More Heroes/Burnout cross-over in the works!?!? (That’s a joke, but seriously… think about that for a second.)

Could a Criterion Games-developed Need for Speed be on the cards for a 2010 release? Seeing as how EA is currently overseeing the production of not one, but three separate NFS games, I'm willing to believe almost anything at this point.

Primotech is reporting that during "an internal presentation by John Riccitiello at EA headquarters in Redwood City last week," the strange, yet intriguing announcement was made. When asked to comment, an EA rep told the site that "right [now] we're focused on Need for Speed World Online, SHIFT, and NITRO."

The folks at EA must have some insane concentration, because that seems like a heck of a lot to focus on at once, if you ask me. As someone who has often preferred the Burnout series over Need for Speed, I'm very eagar to see what Criterion can bring to the table. That's if this whole thing ends up being legit, of course.

This past week, EA invited me out to give the new Cops and Robbers DLC for Burnout Paradise a test drive at their Redwood Shores studio. Can you believe that it’s been over year since Burnout Paradise launched, and they’re still supporting this game with new content? Criterion loves you all very much.

The Cops and Robbers mode is very simple -- one team is the cops and the other team is the robbers. The goal for each team is to find and retrieve gold that’s located somewhere in Paradise City, and return it back to their home base.

Hit the break for more on the Cops and Robbers DLC.

This is my last post about the "Cops and Robbers Pack" for Burnout Paradise, I swear! The downloadable content has been priced recently (and dated a while back, actually), which is kind of important.

Look, I'm no angel, but doing a bunch of news posts about something only to cease talking about it at the very end would be a total dick move, and that's not how we roll ... usually. The "Cops and Robbers" DLC will be up on Xbox LIVE Marketplace and PlayStation Network starting on April 30, and it's going to cost you 800 MS Points/$9.99.

With one new mode and 33 Paradise City Police Department cruisers, I'm not entirely sure what to think about the pricing. From the outside, it doesn't seem like a whole lot of content, but a great amount of work was put into giving the familiar Burnout Paradise rides a police-style makeover, and the Cops and Robbers mode could have more longevity than I'm giving it credit for.

Perhaps this is one of those scenarios where you need to wait it out and see what your friends think before taking the plunge.

After a few weeks of showing literally everything about the Burnout Paradise "Cops and Robbers Pack" without actually revealing exactly how the new mode would play, Criterion has answered our cries for gameplay footage.

The boys are back to their usual antics of goofing off while simultaneously demoing the latest addition to Paradise City in episode 31 of Crash TV, which can be found post-jump

In Cops and Robbers, the robbers and the PCPD compete to bring a stack of gold bricks back to their hideout. If someone has the pile of gold, you simply need to take them down to grab the loot for yourself. The best part, by far, is the fact that the gold itself is physically visible and hugs the rear bumper of whoever currently has it in their possession.

I can only hope this DLC isn't too costly, because it looks to be an absolute blast.

Because the recent teaser for the Burnout Paradise Cops and Robbers Pack wasn't nearly enough footage to satisfy the Burnout aficionados in the audience, we have got a second helping of video content for the premium DLC.

On episode 30 of Criterion Games' Crash TV series, a good portion of the newly-skinned police cars are shown off in all their glory. Spanning across multiple nationalities to several different decades, the gang at Criterion has pretty much got you covered when it comes to varied police cruiser styles.

Since there has been some confusion as to what exactly the Cops and Robbers Pack is, let me set the record straight: it is an actual freeburn mode in which a team of robbers flee from a team of cops, not simply a pack of new skins. Got it? Good!

Check after the break for the video.

Disclaimer: the screenshot above is not from Criterion Games' latest trailer for the Burnout Paradise Cops and Robbers Pack. Why? The better question is, why not? In all seriousness, the image has more pizazz, but the video (after the break) has less blur; it's an equal trade-off, I think.

Probably the coolest thing about this DLC that you might not know is that every car, excluding the Burning Route and Carbon cars, will have a police skin.

Once I got all of the smashes, billboards, jumps, and completed far too many online challenges in Paradise City, I figured it was a good time to take a break. 50 or so hours in about three weeks? Kind of insane, considering I'm not usually huge on racing games.

Chances are, I'll have had enough of a cool down period by the time the new DLC comes out to start playing again. Anyone else going to as well? There's also going to be a more in-depth trailer for the Cops and Robbers Pack in the very near future, so be on the lookout for that.