GAMEFURY

Burnout: Paradise – Review (X360, PS3, PC)

EA continues their streak of shoveling out crap and major game reviewers continue their streak of not seeming to notice. If you get a chance, check out Game Informer’s review. They didn’t say a single good thing about the game but gave it an 8.5 and ‘game of the month’ honors. I firmly agree with everything their reviewer said and have no clue where they got the final rating from. There is not one aspect about this game that isn’t done much better in countless other arcade racers (including previous entries in the series).

New to the series is the open world environment. Every event takes place in a fairly small city and races are started at most intersections. The setup is much like Test Drive: Unlimited but has far less options. There is no way to move quickly around the city; you must drive everywhere. This is fine in the beginning, but later in the game it feels like a complete waste of time. There is also no way to see where the races are without being at their exact location. For example, if there is one particular race type you enjoy, there is no way to find out where all the events like it are. You must simply wander the city until you spot one. This game lacks most of the basic features that are commonplace in nearly every other open world racer.

The races play out like any typical arcade racer. When you are behind, your opponents drive like beginners. When you take over the lead, they race like gods. I realize that this is done to make the game more action packed, but it is dumb that the best way to win a race is to hang back out of first place and boost past them on the final stretch. The cars control well enough, but the hand brake is totally unpredictable and useless. This is especially disappointing because arcade racers usually rely on the handbrake to pull of sharp corners. The boost system that the series is known for is completely ruined in this game. In past Burnout games, boost was built up by driving in oncoming traffic lanes, near misses, causing your opponents to crash, and other similar actions. This added a new aspect to the races where you were forced to create action packed sequences in order to keep the boost meter full. In this game, it is still done the same way but the boost is much easier to get. Mildly agressive driving will keep your boost gauge maxed for just about the whole race, making the above mentioned actions pointless to attempt. Also, every race is open at the beginning of the game. There is absolutely nothing new to see or do (other than unlock cars) that isn’t available right from the start. This game is guilty of the one thing that I absolutely hate when a racing games does; if you don’t finish first, you completely fail the race. To make matters worse, there is no option to restart an event (like you can do in any other racing game). If you know you are going to lose, you can quit the race but then must drive back to the starting line if you want to try again. This would have been a minor addition that could have greatly improved the overall flow of the game.

In a monumentally moronic decision, EA decided to remove the crash mode that was the favored aspect of the series by many players. It was replaced with the ability to start a crash at any time by pressing the top two shoulder buttons. The problem is that you have far too much control over your car while it is rolling through the air and with a minimum of effort, the crash can be extended almost indefinitely. The action is always viewed from the normal racing view, so you don’t get a good look at the aftermath of your wreck. There is also no option to view a replay of the accident, like in past versions of the series. Add to that the fact that there is basically no reward or point to these crashes and this gameplay aspect quickly looses it appeal.

The only part of the game I enjoyed was the Takedown mode. In these races, you goal is to force a set number of other racers to crash while they try to do the same to you. There really is no challenge to these events because I regularly got more than four times the number of takedowns than the event required, but it is still a blast to play. I really liked this mode until I remembered when I played the version of Burnout on the PSP that came out over a year ago. This version of the game had the same exact Takedown mode but with more variety in the ways you can make your opposition wreck. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the old PSP version of the game is far superior to this version. EA strikes again.

Most arcade racers make up for their lack of depth by having more bells and whistles, like car customization. Not so here. There are absolutely zero options to customize or upgrade your car. You do have the option to unlock a second version of every car, but many times the new version isn’t even as good as the old one. Every car comes with one decal set and that can’t be changed or even removed. There are even a couple of cars that are covered with rust and have taillights out. No amount of repairs or paint jobs will fix them. You can paint your car different colors, but the procedure for this is fairly stupid. You must drive through the paint shop and a color is randomly chosen for you. If you don’t like the color, you must turn around and drive through again and again until you get the color you want. Since the color is random, it could take a while to find the one you want. I have even managed to get the same color multiple times in a row. Back at your garage, you can choose among the colors that have already been applied to your car, but there is no way to unlock all the available colors without driving through the paint shop over and over with every car you own. Each car has a performance rating in only three categories and none of them is handling. The cars handle very differently and the only way to know is to drive every one. With 75 cars in the game, it is impossible to remember how every car drives. There is absolutely no reason why they couldn’t have put a fourth category for handling the way nearly every single other racing game in the history of the world has.

The graphics are fairly good. When crashing, the cars crumple far more realistically than I have seen in other games. During a wreck, the game goes into slow motion and the mayhem can truly be enjoyed. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t wait until the car comes to a rest to reset the action. The more spectacular accidents will be cut off right in the middle, far sooner than in past games of the series. In takedown mode, your opponent’s wrecks are even shorter, so you can’t really enjoy causing them to crash. There are also no drivers in the cars. I’m sure this probably had something to do with the ESRB rating (although it is EA, so they may have just been too lazy to put them in) but it is very disappointing to so plainly see driver-less cars all over the place.

This title is another example of EA removing features and releasing half a game for full price on a yearly basis. All this game made me want to do was dig up a copy of the last Need for Speed: Underground or Midnight Club. If you want some trademark Burnout action, save yourself some money and buy an older version of the series. Don’t waste your time with this.

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