When first saw this game i was doubting it.But the old saying is right "Dont judge a book by its cover" cause you'll miss a fun ass game.First of all this is like the midnight club games where you look for the challenges in an open world setting.The new showtime mode is fun but it is way easier than the old crash mode in Burnout revenge.Meanwhile the challenges are quite hard at the end but most are easy and u can breeze through it.The new vehicle types bring in some strategy into the game to see if you wanna win a race by using speed or running the heck over other contestants.The online is very,very,VERY fast and joining online session is as easy as 1-2-3 and it only takes like 5 seconds.You can join online games anytime and its basically the same thing as in story mode except their are other cars you can race or just run over.The bikes on the other hand doesn't have as much depth as the cars and the mission mostly consist of midnight runs or day runs.Also the game supports trophies which bring in some replay value if u get done with the game.Overall this game bring insane speed and is recommended to any racing game fan and anybody who wants to have some serous fun.

I liked playing this game. I wanted to like the whole idea of teaming up with friends to take out "Paradise City" but then i realized everyone just wants to wreck each other. That takes away from the fun, something else i did not like was that radio guy. It was really annoying hearing him every 5 seconds lol. The graphics were tight, the driving was solid, the cars were nice. Fix the online and sound and this game would be a great one.

I am a huge fan of burnout, I have poured hours and hours of my time into previous installments of the franchise. Criterion has been making burnout for years and you can really see their experience of refreshing (if not renewing) the franchise.

Burnout Paradise is a great example a free-roam game, however people complain that you can't jump to events, but jumping to events keeps people from exploring the city and just plain makes the game boring. If you look at need for speed carbon for example, I beat the game in a day and I didn't even know where the starting garage was. This is because when the "jump to location" feature is incorporated it is just to tempting to use it, which causes a lack of want in the exploration area.

The city is molded for a free-roam genre to an almost perfect position, however their is a VERY steep learning curve when learning the routes of the city. So don't through your controller through the tv screen and call it quits straight away.

Now you are probably wondering why I put braindead computer AI in the cons box? well since I couldn't write my own con I put it there for the F***ing traffic cars which look like they are trying to take your soul. When you play the game at the start everything seems fine, but after some sort of mind f*** the traffic count explodes and what makes it better they will do one of three things.
1. Swerve into you (they want to take you with them)
2. Continue on the same path as they normally would.
3. Run into your already crashed car ... yes you heard me after you crash into one car others will go out of their way to extend the lengthy crash scenes (which at first look absolutely insanely OMGBBQ awesome).

Burnout Paradise has plenty of content, 120 events all scattered round the city, 120 builboards, 400 gates (Finding the last 1 is a real bitch), and 50 super jumps. This will keep you busy for at least 30-50 hours. I have played through burnout paradise 3 times (once for well first time through, second for a speedrun (21 hours) and the third time was to get trophies (never been a better time to buy paradise).

When you complete an event it is put forward to your license which is upgraded six times after the learners license. Each time there is an upgrade the events that you have completed are refreshed and you are required to complete more.

Now one big thing to mention is the awesome developers of criterion who are very in touch with the community due to their new forum. However there is more, they keep on developing FREE upgrades which so far have included more challenges and game modes, more cars and bikes. Next up is the "secret" pack and the island pack, which is really amazing seeing not many developers take the time to continue making content for their game at no cost.

I could go on and on about the online (multiplayer does have its flaws like the inevitable lag ... which makes takedowns hell).
I will rap this up and say, Paradise is a little different from previous burnouts, with crash being replaced with showtime, barrier guarded race tracks with go anywhere and make a lot of stupid mistakes gameplay ... But it is still completely and utterly what burnout stands for ... go fast, crash a lot and take people down with you!

*if you every get angry/frustrated from the evil traffic cars watch zero punctuation's review on burnout paradise*

This has to be one of the best racing games I have played in a long time. Crisp graphics 60fps and up to 1080i visuals. I can't compliment it enough but the only criticism I can make is that there are a few annoying sound effects such as the heavy bass outside the Krieger Pioneer (don't laugh I just know the name!).

A definate must buy!

Being a huge fan of the Burnout series, I was super excited about this game, but for some reason, didn't buy it until it dropped in price. I heard mixed reactions on this game, but I'm always one to make my own decisions. This Burnout is very different than the other titles in this series.

First off, the game is set in an open world. No more menus to choose your races, you are able to start an event at any intersection in the game. It's a great way to familiarize yourself with the map and know the ins and outs of each shortcut. And a lot of shortcuts there are. You will find yourself looking for every single shortcut, smashes, billboards, and super jumps in this game. The graphics are amazing in detail, and the controls are very smooth. This doesn't mean that I have a few gripes about this game though.

There is no retry option if you fail a race, so if that race took you to the other side of the map, you now have to drive all the way back to do it again. It's not too bad until you are almost finished with the game; thats when it starts to become a pain. They replaced the Crash Events from previous games to a new mode called Showtime. On any street you can activate this mode to start bouncing up and down the street, crashing into cars until your boost meter runs out. Personally, while this mode is fun, it doesn't compare to the old Crash Events found in the other Burnout's. And then there is DJ Atomica, the voice in the game that randomly tells you how you are doing. It's a feature I wish that could be turned off, cause he starts to get really annoying.

Overall, this is a great game to pick up, and at $30 brand new, I believe it's a must buy. But there will be some fans of the series that will be turned off by the drastic change in this series. Maybe a demo or rent is in line first if you are not sure.