Burnout Paradise

10 Review to this product

• 

  William Larson
  July 10th, 2008 on 4:44 am

  Rating

  overall gameplay is fun and addictive, but what sets this game apart from others are the graphics. best of any ps3 game I have played. it shows what the system can do, driving around at 200 miles per hour in HD,awsome
• 

  Redfoot
  August 9th, 2008 on 2:18 am

  Rating

  Criterion Games has hit one heck of a home run with this installment of the Burnout series. Paradise is a masterpiece. I liken it to the GTA III installment. (to be clear, it is nothing like GTA, it is as much an accomplishment in game development as GTA III was) The game is huge and really makes you develope considerable skills if you dare to try and completely beat the game.

  Criterion has not stopped with the release disc. They have already had 2 updates, one of which was very big. The largest update, codenamed Cagney, included new cars, more online challenges, and 3 new game play modes for online. Not to mention the bug fixes you expect.

  Upcoming release information can be found on the Criterion Games website. Motorcycles are coming soon, with an update that will look to open up almost as much space as is already available.

  If you like driving games, this is positively a must have!!! Don’t miss out on all the fun. Hope to see you online!!!
• 

  Michael Artman
  August 17th, 2008 on 2:27 am

  Rating

  This game is amazingly fun and addictive. I’m disappointed only in myself for not having picked it up sooner. I didn’t play enough of the demo to really understand how awesome it is.

  For those of you who like building your own rides and customizations, this isn’t that type of game. You win cars through races and running others off the road, and you might get a paint job you like by running through a paint shop. That’s it.

  Highlights, since most people covered aspects of the game …

  Online is great. What I didn’t like about GT5:P was that the online play was choppy. Here, it’s smooth and quick. Hardly any waiting at all. The worst thing is that you might get dropped into a map where you’re on one side of the city and everyone else is on the other. Speaking of online and maps … know your way around. Some of the other players have been playing a while and they know where to go. Learn about the city so you can keep up in challenges.

  The challenges, online and offline, are excellent. Standard races, road rage, marked man, stunts … all of them are well done. I’m not real great at stunts yet … I need practice there. When I get online and someone starts a stunt run, I just go hunting for whoever is winning and play “marked man”.

  With the price drop, this game is more than worth it now. I can’t stop playing and I’m not the least bit sad about that right now. Huge fun.
• 

  Boomzilla
  October 11th, 2008 on 6:08 am

  Rating

  Very engrossing and plenty of sustained fun for my 14 year old son. Graphics are awesome and the controls are very responsive. Great selection of tracks too. The only negative I came across is the weak music selection. Apart from that I’m very happy!
• 

  Anup Surendran
  October 15th, 2008 on 11:18 pm

  Rating

  There is no better way to describe this game other than addictive. The gameplay is exciting, addictive and keeps you hooked on for hours. I own quite a few titles on the ps3 and by far this game has kept me interested than the others. Also its not jus the graphics thats impressive but also the audio. It sounds just amazing on my Logitech THX 5.1 speakers and the visuals and crashes are tremendous on my Samsung full HD LCD TV.All in all a feast of absolute fun on the PS3!
• 

  Ana Carrasco
  December 29th, 2008 on 6:24 pm

  Rating

  In all my years of playing racing games, this is by far, the best game, the graphics are incredible, and it deserved the name it got PARADISE. You may hear people say that they have to pause and look at the map, just to get to the finish….. NOT TRUE!!! Theres a compass that shows where to go, and theres a small map on the bottom left corner, leading you to finish. The game is not hard, online is very clean and fast, the cars are beautiful, and you get to roam around the city, and do what you want. To let you all know earning cars is a little more different now, you need to find the car, and take it down, which is a real challenge.
• 

  Twins Daddy
  February 28th, 2009 on 7:06 am

  Rating

  This game has only a few quirky drawbacks and other than those, it’s PERFECT! Apparently they solved one of them a few days ago by adding a restart feature so you don’t have to go back to the initial intersection to start an event again when you don’t win it. Another thing that irked me was always having to find a Junk Yard in order to change to a different vehicle…Instantly being able to select another vehicle from a pulldown menu or instantly being able to visit the Junk Yard seems so incredibly sensible, that’s probably why you’re instead forced to drive around for 2 or 3 minutes until you locate a Junk Yard to change vehicles.

  Also, on certain Burning Routes, you get bum steers from the flashing turn signals that supposedly lead you on the correct route in order to beat the time. For example, the Burning Route for the V16 Revenge nearly drove me INSANE! It was my final Burning Route and I literally tried that thing AT LEAST 150 times over the course of 2 days, getting extremely frustrated in the process. I will say that our copy of BP is out-of-the-box, no online updates and it gives a turn signal to take Nelson Way (2nd right out of the tunnel). I watched a guy do this on youtube who drove against oncoming traffic and never took his thumb off the boost in order to beat this route taking Nelson Way. You have no idea how incredibly difficult that is to do without crashing at least once. What I didn’t know is there was a much easier route where you take the first right turn (N Rouse Rd) after exiting the tunnel instead of following our copy’s recommended route. I took the first right turn and completed the route on my first try with 20 sec to spare! I’ve seen video of the PC version with N Rouse Rd as the game’s recommended turn, so it appears the PS3 port was intentionally changed to Nelson Way, at least when our version was produced. While I appreciate a gaming challenge (or I would’ve quickly given up on this one), I don’t like being the butt of some inside joke by the developers. I had to find my own alternate route to win the GT500 burning route too.

  Also, because I simply drove off of one of the Super Jumps at a low speed, I never got credit for it and I crossed it off my list of potential Super Jumps…So I needlessly spent several hours cruising around the area looking for the final Super Jump. Another Super Jump can be made 2 different ways (without giving a spoiler away)…Do it one way and you don’t get credit…Do it the other way and you get credit. These programming failures make no sense to me. Finally, the Stunt Runs were so incredibly difficult, that’s the only part of the game I couldn’t complete (out of choice). After winning 7 of them, I just stopped because they weren’t fun. It was simply too hard to score points in the given time…

  So with all of those quirks and gripes out of the way, this really is a masterpiece of a game! Just playing offline should provide one with about 150 hours of gaming time before it reaches the point of diminishing returns. Not bad for 20 bucks! Play it enough and you might even find an easter egg-type bonus. For example, boost through the Angus Wharf fuel station (with Paradise Ferry on your right) and the Best Buy Oval Champ pops a wheelie as you exit. Pretty cool, but doesn’t work going the other way.

  The game’s graphics are truly STUNNING, even at speed. I recently purchased Motorstorm: Pacific Rift and was so disappointed in the vehicle controls and painfully slow graphics (after playing BP) that I couldn’t even play it more than a couple of hours. This is an expanse of a game that will quickly ruin your left thumb if you’re playing the stick without glove protection. It gets intense, then you can cruise at your leisure until you’re ready for it to get intense once again. The sound effects are also so well done that you’ll start to believe you’re really driving the vehicle at times…The ultimate achievement for a game developer.

  Most of the vehicles are easy to master and you’ll soon be doing jaw-dropping jumps and crashes right out of the box — Just like I like em! One other curiosity is the DJ. He’s Chatty Cathy at the start of the game throughout the soundtrack…Then someone shot him or something because you suddenly hear nothing else ever again from him throughout the rest of the game. Not that I missed him or anything, but he just went dead-air for the DJ with no explanation (unless I missed it). Overall, this is a near perfect PS3 racing/driving game…Too bad I played it before any of the others!
• 

  Shawn E. Davis
  April 17th, 2009 on 1:27 pm

  Rating

  This game is a lot of fun and enjoyable. Great, lengthy soundtrack and fun gaming.
  
  Unfortunately, I never recieved my order from who I purchased it from,
  
  so I got a refund and purchased it elsewhere.
• 

  Jose Marval
  April 29th, 2009 on 10:34 am

  Rating

  When you used to play racing games, didn’t you wish you could take any road you wanted to get to any place you wanted?, have different cars with different specs that made it hard to choose the “right”?, Been able to just jump into the online action from the very road you were driving at the moment? enjoy the adventure of discovering your surroundings?. Paradise city gives you all of the above, and more.

  The graphics are excellent, the sound is great and gets better as you get the best cars. You can try to beat the best time for any road, offline and online. I’ve been trying to beat a friends best times in downtown paradise, since my current cars cant beat it even if I race perfectly, im encouraged to get better cars and “rule the roads”.

  By the way, theres a challenge or race waiting for you at all intersections in the city. I heard some complaint about people hating the fact that you had to drive back to the begginning of a race to race it again, thats FALSE. Just open the fast menu and select “restart previous race” or something, and your back.

  I could talk about the many things this game offers, but part of the fun is to discover it. Im still figuring it out and have been playing for several days now. Recommended 100%
• 

  korova
  September 9th, 2009 on 7:52 am

  Rating

  There are plenty of comprehensive reviews about Burnout Paradise already, so I’ll cut to the chase: Burnout Paradise is a great game.

  Look, I’m long past my teen years. I grew up slamming the single red button on my Atari 2600 joystick and winning free ships in games that rewarded fast reflexes. This means I’m not too good at doing complex button combos (that means YOU, Heavenly Sword) and I don’t have much patience for configuring a racecar with 500 separate components (sorry, Gran Turismo).

  Burnout Paradise is, at its heart, an arcade racer. People like me can get started and slam through a few races without much hassle. If you are looking for a Totally Realistic Race Car Simulation, this isn’t it. As for me, I like how it’s possible to play without having to earn licenses or pass skill tests. All too often, driving games force players to go through a lengthy training period and wade through screen after screen of configuration options. I just wanna drive like a maniac, man!

  Additional thoughts:
  
  *Great graphics–Paradise City contains lots of areas to explore, all in stunning physical settings.
  
  *Online play is fully featured and well-designed, with lots of different challenges and activities for both individual and group play.
  
  *Fans of the two previous games in the Burnout series will miss the awesome (and awesomely fun) destruction of Crash Mode.
  
  *Something that is frustrating at the beginning is that it is incredibly easy to get lost. When you’re in the middle of a race, especially on a big TV, it is impossible to drive and watch the radar/map display at the same time.
  
  *Something that is frustrating throughout the game is that the race finish lines are often in the middle of nowhere. That means a lengthy drive to get back to the start of a race. This becomes really tiresome when you’re close to finishing the game and need to win just one or two more races.
  
  *The narrator’s voice, attitude, and script is incredibly annoying. I wish there was a way to shut him up entirely.
  
  *What pushes Burnout Paradise from a four-star to a five-star game is the incredible amount of FREE updates Criterion has made available. If only more game studios and publishers realized that giving some decent content away makes players more likely to pony up for the paid stuff! Thank you, Criterion, for continually updating the game and for not nickeling-and-diming your customers to death.