First Look at Burnout 5 (page 2 of 3)

We want one thing to lead to another. A race could become a Road Rage, which could then become a Pursuit, and then in the middle of that [the player] could get taken down and start flying through the air."
--Alex Ward, Criterion

The city's massive scope gives Criterion the freedom to do away with menu-driven gameplay, too. The Burnout Revenge experience was broken into discrete chunks: Gameplay was segregated by location, and each location had its own events that had to be unlocked one at a time.

No longer. The old menu system is all but gone. Burnout 5 will allow players to play how they want, when they want, anywhere in the city. "We want one thing to lead to another," Ward told us. "A race could become a Road Rage, which could then become a Pursuit, and then in the middle of that [the player] could get taken down and start flying through the air." From there, you could decide to record the episode as a crash, and "seamlessly blend into what you thought you knew was Crash Mode-because we are taking that to a whole new level. It really is about blending experiences together. We want the player to be able to start things and end things anywhere."

And from the very beginning of the game, the player really will have ready access to any part of the city. No walls will prevent you from getting to certain zones. No glowing barriers will direct races one way or the other. Unlockable content will be a thing of the past. Instead, Criterion has thought up a new method of tracking your accomplishments in-game: You'll earn yourself a driver's license.

Advancement in an Open World

Reflect on any huge racing game on any recent console and it's indisputable that one particular car will dominate the rest. Especially in online play, players will generally gravitate towards the best vehicles -- and that fact isn't lost on Criterion's developers. "If you've got one 'best car' in the game, that limits the online game," said Criterion. "If you've played Project Gotham Racing where everyone just drives the Ferrari F50, or Test Drive Online where everyone drives the Celine all the time," they said, you've likely noticed it. "Putting a 'best car' in the game really restricts game progression, choice, and player experience."

The game is constantly tracking what you are doing, whether it be performing takedowns, speeding, or exploring the world to increase your driving skills"

So instead of having a wide variety of cars with an unstoppable car waiting to be unlocked by the end of the game, Criterion came up with the Burnout Driver's License. The Burnout Driver's License logs your in-game accomplishments: crashes, high-speed runs, stunts, running other cars off the road, and so on. While logging your achievements, the License levels up the driver's abilities to match. "The game is constantly tracking what you are doing, whether it be performing takedowns, speeding, or exploring the world to increase your driving skills," the developer told us. "These abilities are being tracked both offline and online."

While individual cars do have their own stats, those stats can be modified based on a driver's skill set. Thus, if you manage to track down a particularly awesome car early in the game, it will likely be incredibly hard to drive, as your driver stats will skew the car's stats. Level up your license, though, and you'll be able to take that wheel without much difficulty.

And as for managing your cars, Criterion's thought of that too: They've implemented permanent enhancement shops all over the city. Repair shops, for instance, can be used to fix up your newly acquired cars after you've run them off the road. A chop shop in the game will allow you to add special abilities to any given car. You can drive through gas stations to grab speed boosts at any time, and, because dust and grime is persistent in Paradise City, there will even be car washes to help keep your paint shiny.

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