Log in
Consoles
Ask the Experts
Review
People become so focused on their driving skills that their crashes become a fly in the ointment - this isn't so with Burnout Paradise, where the spectacular wipeouts are actually one of the best parts of the game. You feel every impact, every brutal roll and hear every tinkle of glass on the tarmac. Oh, and there's a bit of racing involved too.
As you first start your engine and drive around a reported 250 miles worth of open road, it takes you a while to figure out what exactly it is that you're supposed to be doing other than some righteous doughnuts (and head on collisions to see yet another slow motion destruction derby). The navigation menu is all a bit Russell Brand, but eventually you'll find that your missions involve doing jumps, smashing through billboards and stopping at intersections to initiate various races.
This is where Burnout Paradise exceeds the competition - there are more than fifty challenges to tackle, ranging from basic races across town to taking down other cars by slamming them into obstacles, or how much structural damage you can do within a set time limit. To get the full benefit of the challenges, you'll need to be online so you can play with or against up to seven other players - you can even upload your own photo for your driving license, which'll rise in stature the more races you complete. Online connectivity is also a must to take advantage of the wide range of free bonus content for the game, including bikes and a day/night cycle, though the recently released Ultimate Box package for the game comes with all this as standard.
Games like Need For Speed started the 'prowl the city for action' approach a long time ago, but Burnout Paradise simply side-steps the dull driving around bits of N.F.S. Even between challenges your hands are full looking for shortcuts (yellow barriers you have to obliterate), accidently causing head on collisions by abusing your turbo boost, or going off ramps and punching through billboards. There are hundreds of billboards to find just on their own, so you've got your work cut out for you.
