[Demo Version Xbox 360] So Cool! Rating:4 out of 5 stars I love this game. The Coolest part about it is that you can take your car and smash civilians and make huge road wrecks. the other cool part about it is that there are ramps with a ton of potential just waiting to explode. The stunts are cool, and if you do them wrong you land on your top and flip out all over the place.
“Must Have” Rating:5 out of 5 stars Burnout Paradise is the best driving/racing game in console history and second best game for XBox 360 to Halo 3. Hours and hours of playability and just as fun to watch as it is to play!
Eh? It’s OK Rating:3 out of 5 stars I have to admit upfront, that racing games are not my first choice in gaming. I’m far more likely to take up a role playing or first person shooter option, but, I wanted to give this a chance and overall I found it to be entertaining but difficult to enter into any sense of progression to where I’d want to keep coming back for more.
My sons, who like racing games, found the experience average and didn’t compare it strongly against other games that they have played.
The best keeps getting better Rating:5 out of 5 stars Burnout Paradise is hands down my favorite game this generation. The open world and seemingly never-ending events and goals keep me coming back a year after initial purchase. The icing on the cake is that the developers are still heavily supporting it. The latest free update has added the ability to restart events and balances the gameplay and vehicles. It’s pretty uncommon for a developer to support a game to such a degree so long after release so I salute Criterion for their effort.
Considering this game is now 1/3 the price it was at launch and arguably 3x better, there’s no reason not it get it. I am seriously considering purchasing it for all three platforms it’s on!
Why… oh why… did they have to mess with a good thing Rating:2 out of 5 stars I’ve played… well obsessed over Burnout 3 Takedown and 4 Revenge and found them each awesome… heck my wife once she played them at my brother in-laws said let’s get a big screen tv and an XBOX360. Seriously… that good of a set of games.
So we took a look at Paradise from the local video store… and were greatly disappointed. The open world denies you that quick bit of unrelenting rage that you can dish out on your fellow drivers in Revenge or Takedown. You start off with a horrible car that you constantly need to fix to even keep up with other cars in race events. The GPS map system has a lot to be desired since you can’t plot new points like in GTA, and the map doesn’t include the route. To navigate you have to wait for annoying “turn signal” flashes (that are out of synch with your speed by the way) to point the way, or memorize the routes (I don’t see how this positively changes the gameplay experience by making an open world with fixed routes that you have to memorize btw). Needless to say- I found myself in last place in a number of races because of being turned too quickly down some goofy road that is in a 5 way intersection. Thus you can’t just jump into the game and smash things here and there. You can’t just exit a race when you do poorly – you actually have to finish it. There are no points for not winning. And from the limited amount we did play there wasn’t the fun meters of death and destruction like takedowns and dollar amounts of damage.
I loved the previous versions head to head competitions for crashes with a single controller. I loved the way you could just switch off after a single event was cleared. This however is just long intervals since you have to keep driving back and forth all over the board to get to the new cars or hunting for cars that become available if and only if you take them out. Burnout Paradise lost it’s value to me when it became an adventure game.
It looks really really really good… but it’s not like it changes time of day, you can get out of your car or anything like that upon taking on a personality like GTA it is competiting with. The damage effects are almost pointless since you can lose a front axle but then drive away after the crash scene completed (seems a bit odd). I liked the previous versions with the events where you fly all over the world and compete – even if they are just a few variations on the tracks. Why screw around with a single city?
What happened is they took an arcade style game and turned it into a reality style game. I loved the arcade style. The reality style… that’s what GTA’s for.
Bottom line – Paradise makes you work hard for your fun. Revenge and Takedown allow you to pop in for a game of takedowns and punch out… quickly – arcade style.
A Blast! Rating:4 out of 5 stars if you’re looking for a solid arcade racing game, Burnout is your best bet. No adjusting weight, no engine micro-management, or adjusting gear ratios here. Nope, just pure speed and wreck induced adrenaline.
Graphics-wise Burnout Paradise is beautiful, the cars look magnificent and the sun-washed vistas and city streets look spectacular. The high speed effects are really engrossing; I’ve had to back off the throttle a few times because I felt I couldn’t handle how fast buildings were zipping past. The wrecks are pretty intense, with bits and parts flying in every direction, and the car models really reflect the amount of punishment that is inflicted upon them.
On the audio front, this game is great. Nothing beats unlocking a new car and laying rubber to the nearest junkyard(where cars can be swapped out) to jump in and just to crank the engine over and listen to the sinister growl of a muscle car, or the nice, tight rev of an import tuner. The crash sound effects are amazing, with screeching steel on steel, thumps, pops, and shattering glass.
– It should be noted that the in game music without a doubt ROCKS.
Game modes are pretty varied, so if you find yourself getting bored with say, just racing, there are plenty more options to choose from. My favorite mode is the crash mode, where you control your car in slow motion steering it through intersections, oncoming traffic and the like trying to rack up as much collateral damage as possible.
With the downloadable content now out on PS3 and Xbox 360 (both free of charge) you can scream all over Paradise city on bikes!
The selection of vehicles is immense, and many gamers will have their hands full unlocking them all. Car customization is basic ranging from a surprising amount of styles, colors, and finishes.
I haven’t played Burnout online yet but from what I see the options for multiplayer are pretty modest, with leaderboards, best times, best wrecks all available real-time.
Awesome game! Rating:5 out of 5 stars Very fun game with great graphics. Alot to do in the game such as never ending wrecks where you can control the wreck and what your car does. Alot of fun and I would reccomend this game to everyone who likes racing games
Best driving game ever Rating:5 out of 5 stars I enjoy driving games. I like “arcade” style over “simulation” style, though, because arcade controls are more forgiving. Games like Gran Turismo 4 aren’t my bag, and Project Gotham Racing 4 style sort of rides a good line between arcade and simulation.
Burnout Paradise is that perfect arcade driving experience I enjoy. I started into the Burnout series with Burnout 3 Takedown and they’ve just gotten better since then. With Burnout Paradise, you get the whole package: a huge environment, tons of cars, lots of different events, and downloadable content that they just keep shipping. (You’ll definitely want to check out the “Legendary Cars” pack.)
The interesting thing is that I’m not really big on the racing aspect of the game. I mean, it’s fun, but I much prefer the “Marked Man” and “Road Rage” events. (“Marked Man” is where you have to drive from one point to another while other cars are trying to run you off the road. “Road Rage” is where you have a certain quota of cars that you have to run off the road.) I wish there was a game that was just “Marked Man” and “Road Rage.”
I only have a couple of criticisms.
First, some of the races and “Burning Route” events (get to a certain location in a certain time limit) are REALLY hard. I’m not that good at this sort of game, so it takes a few tries sometimes and can get controller-throwingly irritating. It would be nice to be able to turn down the difficulty. I like a challenge, but I have my limits.
Second, since the map is big, it can take a while to get from one side of it to the other. You have to drive everywhere to get to the various events, and sometimes you want to get to an event on the other side of the map, which becomes just tedious to drive all the way over there. Thank goodness in a recent update they added the ability to restart an event without having to drive all the way back to the starting line – that was ridiculous.
Finally, the menu interface is not intuitive. The right-arrow on the directional pad has a lot of stuff in it that’s not documented in the book. Some functionality is only accessible via the right-arrow menu and you’d expect it to be available in the menu when you hit the start button… but it’s not. Figuring out how to connect to friends online the first time is a challenge. Once you figure it out, it’s no problem, but it’s not really documented well and the first time can be frustrating.
Those are pretty minor complaints in the face of everything else this game offers. Great soundtrack, great graphics, and amazing amounts of fun. Almost endless playability since there are so many events, so many collectibles and hidden items, and generally so much to do. The online experience is fun, too, with lots of challenges to play and various freestyle game modes (you can create custom races, for example). For under $20, the value this thing offers can’t be beat.
Absolutely awesome!! Rating:5 out of 5 stars This is one the most amazing games I have ever played. After playing the previous burnout games this one came as a sort of shock at first. I don’t have xbox live so I don’t this review is only based off my experience from playing offline. I have completed the game 100% and there were only a few faults I could find in the whole game. These faults are so minor compared to the overall quality that I felt it would be wrong to take off a star for them.
Faults:
-no more aftertouch/ crashbreaker. The Burnout team tried to make an cool part of the game better by making it it’s own event. It was a nice try but it would even better if they had put both things into the game. By itself Showtime is still fun and I love bouncy off of bus after bus in the downtown or in the tourist sections of Silver Lake.
-The open world is extremely mind boggling at first. When you start out, you get lost all the time whether you get turn on the wrong road, getting stuck on railroads or freeways, etc. This however, becomes irrelevent once you play the game enough.
-the finishing points are all on the edges of the map. This is a problem because you quickly beat all the events around the finish lines meaning you always have to drive back to the center of town where most of the events are. It would have been nice if they included a finish line in the center of town maybe at the 5 way intersection.
-no restart option. This is only a problem when you are trying to beat a specific race such as burning routes or when you only have a few events left such as when you are trying to get your elite license. I have noticed many complaints that people can’t out of a race. This is a lie because all you have to do is hit the brake and idle for a couple seconds and you will exit the race.
-no split screen. Yes I was disappointed but deal with the fact that it’s a one player game, stop whining about it.
I would like to next state the amazing parts of the game that competely negate any of the problems stated above.
-Knowledge of the city is very fun. It is so cool when, in the later stages of the game you have some sections of the city completely memorized and you know special routes to take from point A to point B. It makes the game get better as you go along.
-It takes a long time to beat. I am a person who likes to beat a game before I get a new one. Since I don’t like spending big money every week on new games, this game was incredible. I spent a month or two playing this game before I finished.
-great graphics. Any random car you hit is almost as superdetailed as your own.
-huge open world. there is never a lack of area to drive around and discover. While I now know some areas like the back of my hand, others are almost foreign to me and there are some roads I have only traveled down a few times. It was really cool when I beat the and the cedits started rolling and I realized that the whole burnout team has a road or area of town named after them.
-thrill of driving over 100 mph through crowded downtown. It can be very challenging navigating through the downtown in the middle of a race and there have been several times I have come close to screaming at the screen because of what I thought of as an unfair crash.
I could go on for hours about this game but I am getting tired of typing so I will end this. I would recommend this game to anyone as long as they understand that this is not a game to beat in a weekend.
Definitly Worth the Pruchase Rating:5 out of 5 stars Great game, got it at a great price from here. Definitely worth picking up if you like driving/racing games, the open world is really nice but you are often going so fast it may be a little hard to figure out where your going.
Hate Burnout Paradise Rating:1 out of 5 stars I truly wish I would have checked reviews from my friends before trusting the critics on this game. I absolutely hate Burnout Paradise. I loved the games before this one but whoever did this one screwed the pooch. There are no set races you basically just wander aimlessly around a beautifully drawn city with no real goals of any kind. Quite often you’ll accidently start a race only to realize too late you did and smash into something and lose.
WTF reviewed this game, extremely drunk critics perhaps, that thought driving around and doing absolutely nothing else was the greatest game ever? If you love the Burnout Series just think about how the old games are and then play this game and you may hate is as much as I do. I stupidly bought the game new and paid full price.
They’ve done it again! Rating:5 out of 5 stars Burnout Paradise for the 360 was my next step after owning Burnout 3: Takedown for PS2 (yeah, I skipped Burnout Revenge, I’ll go back for that sometime). I was looking forward to seeing the burnout graphics in all their HD glory, and wasn’t expecting much in terms of gameplay given the negative reviews. I was surprised, however, to find that this is largely the same game as Burnout 3, and in many ways better. The graphics, firstly, are nothing short of phenomenal. The crashes are just ridiculously well-rendered with an amazing amount of detail and attention to physics. The whole game plays with such a fluidity to the animations and stark contrast between crashes and fast-paced racing that you really have to wonder how the programmers pulled it off, because the game plays like a professionally rendered movie with zero chop. Burnout manages to take the perceived speed and danger of Burnout 3 up another notch and delivers breathtaking graphics at the same time. Playing this in HD is a real thrill. I don’t think there’s any other racing game out there that can give you an adrenaline rush even close to what this game gives you.
I’ll summarize:
The good:
-The open racing enviroment is huge, with plenty of different places to explore. It’s a pain in the butt to get used to the navigation, but it gets better with time.
-The graphics are just unbelievable. Great car bodies, fantastic scenery.
-Good AI. The AI on this game is way, way better than on the previous games. Little details like the drivers going in the other direction flashing their highbeams at you and swerving out of the way just go to show you that a lot of thought went into this game.
-More involving, thanks to the fact that you’re stuck in the city and have to drive yourself around and everything.
Cons:
-About that… you have to drive yourself everywhere. End a race on one side of the gigantic world and want to try your new car? Sorry, you need to drive all the way to the other side to get to the junkyard. Also, you can’t just end a race or restart it…real pain in the neck.
-Drifting is not what it used to be. Burnout 3′s best feature was its insanely intuitive and smooth-feeling drift. Criterion tailored the drift in this game to work better with the frequent right-turns and such you have to make, but it lost the smooth feeling the old game had.
-Aftertouch takedown. It KILLS me that they removed this. This was quite possibly one of the most inventive parts of Burnout 3, and now it’s gone.
The cons are painful and add up, but it doesn’t prevent this game from getting 5 starts from me. This is a quality game, and for the price amazon is selling it for, it’s really a must-have.
Very Fun Rating:4 out of 5 stars Okay to save people time im just going to say that this game rules.
A must have for anyone. I bought this game along with forza 2 and although there two completelly different games i like this better. One thing that i wish that this game had though was car customization like forza, Forza owns in that catogory. But yah great game i would reccomend to anyone woo!
Lots of fun for the price. Rating:4 out of 5 stars This was one of the first things I got for my 360. I was waiting and waiting for the superior PC version to come out, but after playing my brother’s copy, I gave in.
This game is a steal. It’s a load of fun, has seamless online integration, and since its release, has had a number of free updates which added functionality. Some additional premium addon packs in 2009 only promise to keep it relevant longer.
It’s one of those games that you can play nonstop until you get to a certain point, then find something else for awhile, but always drift back to from time to time.
Burnout Paradise Review Rating:4 out of 5 stars If you have ever been a fan of the Burnout series, you’re likely to fall in love with this one too. If you haven’t had the pleasure of playing a Burnout game, then you may want to get a feel for it before buying it.
For those familiar with the genre, Burnout paradise sticks to its fundamental feeling, while taking away some aspects and adding in new ones. First, the entire game is an open landscape, free-roam driving simulator. No more selecting races from a menu screen, now to drive up to a stop light, and tap the right and left triggers to initiate a race, road rage, marked man race, stunt challenge, or various others. Its executed well, while making it fun to learn the city while you drive around like a mad man. But this brings me to my major problem with the game. You HAVE to learn the city. Because of the open world aspect of the game, it applies to races, road rages, and everything else too. And this is where it gets problematic. Driving around at Burnout speeds, in a city that you don’t know, is troublesome. And it only adds to insult that whenever you crash you get bumped down some 2-3 very important seconds. And to top it all off, there isn’t any sort of retry button. You take a wrong turn, you’re screwed, you can’t just hit ‘retry’ and be back at the beginning.
And this brings me to my main point. For Burnout lovers, you’ll learn the city, and you’ll love the stunt mode, and you’ll love the game and everything about it, but for those who don’t, it WILL be frustrating. And while I myself thoroughly enjoy the game, I would recommend buying Burnout: Revenge (the 2nd most recent Burnout game) and finding out if you really love the series before diving into the Burnout Paradise world.
ALOT of fun, even if there is little subtance Rating:5 out of 5 stars WOW this game is fun! If you love racers, then I don’t see how you could possibly go wrong with this title (especially at the price it is being offered for now!)
It is an “open racer” which means you are not limited the standard “loop” that most racers impose. You are free to explore the vast maze of streets. The goal of a race is to get to the finish line first. How you get there (whether you follow the route, find a shortcut, make your own shortcut, or just destroy all your opponents cars) is up to you.
The physics are absolutely ridiculous. I can take a 90 degree turn at 150 MPH in a 20 year old junker car I found at the junkkyard. I can jump 500 feet in the air, land, and just keep driving every time. I can knock over traffic lights, lampposts, and plow through dumpsters – and just keep on driving.
The AI is also kind of stupid. Cars kind of just wander around the track and are pretty easy to trick into crashing. (albeit I am not that far into the game, maybe they get smarter.)
None of this, however, even slightly detracts from how FUN this game is. Sometimes you just want to drive around, crash in to things, enjoy the gorgeous graphics, and perform ridiculous stunts.
Try running this game on a big screen with surround sound for the full effect. Yeah, I think I’ll take another “sick day” today!
DRUNK DRIVING!!!!!!! Rating:4 out of 5 stars this game is a lot of fun. pay some xtra money and download the extra cars. my favorite is the night rider car. The only bad thing is it doesnt have multi-player and the destruction event like in revenge. get this game if your just looking for something different then hard gore racing games. PEACE
Perhaps you baled too soon Rating:5 out of 5 stars Well, first things first — there is a crash mode, it’s just not implemented the same way — and true, it’s not as good. The original versions were nice little destruction puzzles that required thought and skill to solve. These new ones are just mindless crashing for short-lived online bragging rights.
Even so, this is easily the best game in the series — but one must play it a while and get used to it — and to discover why this is the case — my guess is that most of the haters never gave it a real shot. Too bad, because it’s a seamless, fresh, and ambitious take on a great series of games. To me the Burnout series is the only car game series worth playing — and this is the best in that series.
BTW, I played the demo and was completely unimpressed, but playing the actual game for a while is another story entirely.
now this is what i call a car game! Rating:5 out of 5 stars the burnout series has been doing great these past few years. this title however does not have the crashes (where you do as much damage as possible to cars, buses, and anything else you could hit and get points for) that made the previous titles so much fun!
burnout paradise has other things that have never been put in a burnout game before too though so i’m okay with the crash mode not being there. it’s a huge and immerse experience. this is what need for speed should have been all these years! great game, great add-ons available online, hours and hours and hours of gameplay. i’ve been playing this game since the day i got it and i’m still playing it! what can i say, you never get sick of it. playing online is a breeze and so much fun as well! definitely get this game if you like cars.
Screwed up a great franchise Rating:2 out of 5 stars First off, I’ve played Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge so I have some experience with past games. Somehow they managed to mess up a good thing, as after playing this for about an hour or so I was already frustrated. Instead of just picking events you want to play, you have to drive around to the one you want. & considering how huge the map is, it’s more frustrating then fun. & a lot of times I lost races just because of glare from the sun (yes, I have no idea why they’d put glare in the game.)
Honestly I’d just play Burnout 3 or Revenge, they’re more fun than this game will ever be.
Different, innovative, but it lacks the basics of the originals and the cars are so-so. Rating:2 out of 5 stars I would make some word play by calling this review “Burned-out” but this game dosen’t feel old despite being the 5th Burnout title. This game has the fun of the last 2 but this time the creators, for some child-like reason, gave into their dislike for loading screens by giving US and sand box enviorment, so in other words this game is like Midnight Club but without convieniant check points or arrows. You’ll be driving +150 with an El Camino wanting to ram you into that oncoming van but oh weight, you gotta pause the game to pinpoint that next turn, then you return to the game only to see your Chevelle wrecked. Many of us are aware that the game lacks a restart option and crash mode but my main complaint is that most of the interesting cars are DLC, that would be okay if this games cretors were nice BUT wait, they want us to pay money! Sure its only a few dollars but come on, thats a few dollars just for some data plus over 40 kind car modellers have contributed cars for Midtown Madness’s 1 and 2, the Need For Speed series, the Carmageddon series, and many other PC games, they’ve done and are doing it for free. Despite the supposed poor shape of our economy, game companies still want your dough. The cars that you get are your average Tuners, muscle cars, and truckssuvs, no Tow truck or Garbage trucks like before. I’d suggest that you’d pick up Burnout Revenge as its more user friendly or Burnout 3, this game feels incomplete and you can’t play split-screen which is a feature that you could find on SNES games.
{ 25 comments… read them below or add one }
[Demo Version Xbox 360] So Cool!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
I love this game. The Coolest part about it is that you can take your car and smash civilians and make huge road wrecks. the other cool part about it is that there are ramps with a ton of potential just waiting to explode. The stunts are cool, and if you do them wrong you land on your top and flip out all over the place.
“Must Have”
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Burnout Paradise is the best driving/racing game in console history and second best game for XBox 360 to Halo 3. Hours and hours of playability and just as fun to watch as it is to play!
Eh? It’s OK
Rating:3 out of 5 stars
I have to admit upfront, that racing games are not my first choice in gaming. I’m far more likely to take up a role playing or first person shooter option, but, I wanted to give this a chance and overall I found it to be entertaining but difficult to enter into any sense of progression to where I’d want to keep coming back for more.
My sons, who like racing games, found the experience average and didn’t compare it strongly against other games that they have played.
So all I can say is that it’s fun in small doses.
3 stars.
Bart Breen
The best keeps getting better
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Burnout Paradise is hands down my favorite game this generation. The open world and seemingly never-ending events and goals keep me coming back a year after initial purchase. The icing on the cake is that the developers are still heavily supporting it. The latest free update has added the ability to restart events and balances the gameplay and vehicles. It’s pretty uncommon for a developer to support a game to such a degree so long after release so I salute Criterion for their effort.
Considering this game is now 1/3 the price it was at launch and arguably 3x better, there’s no reason not it get it. I am seriously considering purchasing it for all three platforms it’s on!
Why… oh why… did they have to mess with a good thing
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I’ve played… well obsessed over Burnout 3 Takedown and 4 Revenge and found them each awesome… heck my wife once she played them at my brother in-laws said let’s get a big screen tv and an XBOX360. Seriously… that good of a set of games.
So we took a look at Paradise from the local video store… and were greatly disappointed. The open world denies you that quick bit of unrelenting rage that you can dish out on your fellow drivers in Revenge or Takedown. You start off with a horrible car that you constantly need to fix to even keep up with other cars in race events. The GPS map system has a lot to be desired since you can’t plot new points like in GTA, and the map doesn’t include the route. To navigate you have to wait for annoying “turn signal” flashes (that are out of synch with your speed by the way) to point the way, or memorize the routes (I don’t see how this positively changes the gameplay experience by making an open world with fixed routes that you have to memorize btw). Needless to say- I found myself in last place in a number of races because of being turned too quickly down some goofy road that is in a 5 way intersection. Thus you can’t just jump into the game and smash things here and there. You can’t just exit a race when you do poorly – you actually have to finish it. There are no points for not winning. And from the limited amount we did play there wasn’t the fun meters of death and destruction like takedowns and dollar amounts of damage.
I loved the previous versions head to head competitions for crashes with a single controller. I loved the way you could just switch off after a single event was cleared. This however is just long intervals since you have to keep driving back and forth all over the board to get to the new cars or hunting for cars that become available if and only if you take them out. Burnout Paradise lost it’s value to me when it became an adventure game.
It looks really really really good… but it’s not like it changes time of day, you can get out of your car or anything like that upon taking on a personality like GTA it is competiting with. The damage effects are almost pointless since you can lose a front axle but then drive away after the crash scene completed (seems a bit odd). I liked the previous versions with the events where you fly all over the world and compete – even if they are just a few variations on the tracks. Why screw around with a single city?
What happened is they took an arcade style game and turned it into a reality style game. I loved the arcade style. The reality style… that’s what GTA’s for.
Bottom line – Paradise makes you work hard for your fun. Revenge and Takedown allow you to pop in for a game of takedowns and punch out… quickly – arcade style.
A Blast!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
if you’re looking for a solid arcade racing game, Burnout is your best bet. No adjusting weight, no engine micro-management, or adjusting gear ratios here. Nope, just pure speed and wreck induced adrenaline.
Graphics-wise Burnout Paradise is beautiful, the cars look magnificent and the sun-washed vistas and city streets look spectacular. The high speed effects are really engrossing; I’ve had to back off the throttle a few times because I felt I couldn’t handle how fast buildings were zipping past. The wrecks are pretty intense, with bits and parts flying in every direction, and the car models really reflect the amount of punishment that is inflicted upon them.
On the audio front, this game is great. Nothing beats unlocking a new car and laying rubber to the nearest junkyard(where cars can be swapped out) to jump in and just to crank the engine over and listen to the sinister growl of a muscle car, or the nice, tight rev of an import tuner. The crash sound effects are amazing, with screeching steel on steel, thumps, pops, and shattering glass.
– It should be noted that the in game music without a doubt ROCKS.
Game modes are pretty varied, so if you find yourself getting bored with say, just racing, there are plenty more options to choose from. My favorite mode is the crash mode, where you control your car in slow motion steering it through intersections, oncoming traffic and the like trying to rack up as much collateral damage as possible.
With the downloadable content now out on PS3 and Xbox 360 (both free of charge) you can scream all over Paradise city on bikes!
The selection of vehicles is immense, and many gamers will have their hands full unlocking them all. Car customization is basic ranging from a surprising amount of styles, colors, and finishes.
I haven’t played Burnout online yet but from what I see the options for multiplayer are pretty modest, with leaderboards, best times, best wrecks all available real-time.
Fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Pretty fun game. You win the races you get the cars..nothing special but entertaining nonetheless
Awesome game!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Very fun game with great graphics. Alot to do in the game such as never ending wrecks where you can control the wreck and what your car does. Alot of fun and I would reccomend this game to everyone who likes racing games
Best driving game ever
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
I enjoy driving games. I like “arcade” style over “simulation” style, though, because arcade controls are more forgiving. Games like Gran Turismo 4 aren’t my bag, and Project Gotham Racing 4 style sort of rides a good line between arcade and simulation.
Burnout Paradise is that perfect arcade driving experience I enjoy. I started into the Burnout series with Burnout 3 Takedown and they’ve just gotten better since then. With Burnout Paradise, you get the whole package: a huge environment, tons of cars, lots of different events, and downloadable content that they just keep shipping. (You’ll definitely want to check out the “Legendary Cars” pack.)
The interesting thing is that I’m not really big on the racing aspect of the game. I mean, it’s fun, but I much prefer the “Marked Man” and “Road Rage” events. (“Marked Man” is where you have to drive from one point to another while other cars are trying to run you off the road. “Road Rage” is where you have a certain quota of cars that you have to run off the road.) I wish there was a game that was just “Marked Man” and “Road Rage.”
I only have a couple of criticisms.
First, some of the races and “Burning Route” events (get to a certain location in a certain time limit) are REALLY hard. I’m not that good at this sort of game, so it takes a few tries sometimes and can get controller-throwingly irritating. It would be nice to be able to turn down the difficulty. I like a challenge, but I have my limits.
Second, since the map is big, it can take a while to get from one side of it to the other. You have to drive everywhere to get to the various events, and sometimes you want to get to an event on the other side of the map, which becomes just tedious to drive all the way over there. Thank goodness in a recent update they added the ability to restart an event without having to drive all the way back to the starting line – that was ridiculous.
Finally, the menu interface is not intuitive. The right-arrow on the directional pad has a lot of stuff in it that’s not documented in the book. Some functionality is only accessible via the right-arrow menu and you’d expect it to be available in the menu when you hit the start button… but it’s not. Figuring out how to connect to friends online the first time is a challenge. Once you figure it out, it’s no problem, but it’s not really documented well and the first time can be frustrating.
Those are pretty minor complaints in the face of everything else this game offers. Great soundtrack, great graphics, and amazing amounts of fun. Almost endless playability since there are so many events, so many collectibles and hidden items, and generally so much to do. The online experience is fun, too, with lots of challenges to play and various freestyle game modes (you can create custom races, for example). For under $20, the value this thing offers can’t be beat.
Absolutely awesome!!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This is one the most amazing games I have ever played. After playing the previous burnout games this one came as a sort of shock at first. I don’t have xbox live so I don’t this review is only based off my experience from playing offline. I have completed the game 100% and there were only a few faults I could find in the whole game. These faults are so minor compared to the overall quality that I felt it would be wrong to take off a star for them.
Faults:
-no more aftertouch/ crashbreaker. The Burnout team tried to make an cool part of the game better by making it it’s own event. It was a nice try but it would even better if they had put both things into the game. By itself Showtime is still fun and I love bouncy off of bus after bus in the downtown or in the tourist sections of Silver Lake.
-The open world is extremely mind boggling at first. When you start out, you get lost all the time whether you get turn on the wrong road, getting stuck on railroads or freeways, etc. This however, becomes irrelevent once you play the game enough.
-the finishing points are all on the edges of the map. This is a problem because you quickly beat all the events around the finish lines meaning you always have to drive back to the center of town where most of the events are. It would have been nice if they included a finish line in the center of town maybe at the 5 way intersection.
-no restart option. This is only a problem when you are trying to beat a specific race such as burning routes or when you only have a few events left such as when you are trying to get your elite license. I have noticed many complaints that people can’t out of a race. This is a lie because all you have to do is hit the brake and idle for a couple seconds and you will exit the race.
-no split screen. Yes I was disappointed but deal with the fact that it’s a one player game, stop whining about it.
I would like to next state the amazing parts of the game that competely negate any of the problems stated above.
-Knowledge of the city is very fun. It is so cool when, in the later stages of the game you have some sections of the city completely memorized and you know special routes to take from point A to point B. It makes the game get better as you go along.
-It takes a long time to beat. I am a person who likes to beat a game before I get a new one. Since I don’t like spending big money every week on new games, this game was incredible. I spent a month or two playing this game before I finished.
-great graphics. Any random car you hit is almost as superdetailed as your own.
-huge open world. there is never a lack of area to drive around and discover. While I now know some areas like the back of my hand, others are almost foreign to me and there are some roads I have only traveled down a few times. It was really cool when I beat the and the cedits started rolling and I realized that the whole burnout team has a road or area of town named after them.
-thrill of driving over 100 mph through crowded downtown. It can be very challenging navigating through the downtown in the middle of a race and there have been several times I have come close to screaming at the screen because of what I thought of as an unfair crash.
I could go on for hours about this game but I am getting tired of typing so I will end this. I would recommend this game to anyone as long as they understand that this is not a game to beat in a weekend.
Definitly Worth the Pruchase
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Great game, got it at a great price from here. Definitely worth picking up if you like driving/racing games, the open world is really nice but you are often going so fast it may be a little hard to figure out where your going.
Good
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Great game. I love that graphics and it is a lot of fun to play.
Hate Burnout Paradise
Rating:1 out of 5 stars
I truly wish I would have checked reviews from my friends before trusting the critics on this game. I absolutely hate Burnout Paradise. I loved the games before this one but whoever did this one screwed the pooch. There are no set races you basically just wander aimlessly around a beautifully drawn city with no real goals of any kind. Quite often you’ll accidently start a race only to realize too late you did and smash into something and lose.
WTF reviewed this game, extremely drunk critics perhaps, that thought driving around and doing absolutely nothing else was the greatest game ever? If you love the Burnout Series just think about how the old games are and then play this game and you may hate is as much as I do. I stupidly bought the game new and paid full price.
They’ve done it again!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Burnout Paradise for the 360 was my next step after owning Burnout 3: Takedown for PS2 (yeah, I skipped Burnout Revenge, I’ll go back for that sometime). I was looking forward to seeing the burnout graphics in all their HD glory, and wasn’t expecting much in terms of gameplay given the negative reviews. I was surprised, however, to find that this is largely the same game as Burnout 3, and in many ways better. The graphics, firstly, are nothing short of phenomenal. The crashes are just ridiculously well-rendered with an amazing amount of detail and attention to physics. The whole game plays with such a fluidity to the animations and stark contrast between crashes and fast-paced racing that you really have to wonder how the programmers pulled it off, because the game plays like a professionally rendered movie with zero chop. Burnout manages to take the perceived speed and danger of Burnout 3 up another notch and delivers breathtaking graphics at the same time. Playing this in HD is a real thrill. I don’t think there’s any other racing game out there that can give you an adrenaline rush even close to what this game gives you.
I’ll summarize:
The good:
-The open racing enviroment is huge, with plenty of different places to explore. It’s a pain in the butt to get used to the navigation, but it gets better with time.
-The graphics are just unbelievable. Great car bodies, fantastic scenery.
-Good AI. The AI on this game is way, way better than on the previous games. Little details like the drivers going in the other direction flashing their highbeams at you and swerving out of the way just go to show you that a lot of thought went into this game.
-More involving, thanks to the fact that you’re stuck in the city and have to drive yourself around and everything.
Cons:
-About that… you have to drive yourself everywhere. End a race on one side of the gigantic world and want to try your new car? Sorry, you need to drive all the way to the other side to get to the junkyard. Also, you can’t just end a race or restart it…real pain in the neck.
-Drifting is not what it used to be. Burnout 3′s best feature was its insanely intuitive and smooth-feeling drift. Criterion tailored the drift in this game to work better with the frequent right-turns and such you have to make, but it lost the smooth feeling the old game had.
-Aftertouch takedown. It KILLS me that they removed this. This was quite possibly one of the most inventive parts of Burnout 3, and now it’s gone.
The cons are painful and add up, but it doesn’t prevent this game from getting 5 starts from me. This is a quality game, and for the price amazon is selling it for, it’s really a must-have.
Very Fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Okay to save people time im just going to say that this game rules.
A must have for anyone. I bought this game along with forza 2 and although there two completelly different games i like this better. One thing that i wish that this game had though was car customization like forza, Forza owns in that catogory. But yah great game i would reccomend to anyone woo!
Lots of fun for the price.
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
This was one of the first things I got for my 360. I was waiting and waiting for the superior PC version to come out, but after playing my brother’s copy, I gave in.
This game is a steal. It’s a load of fun, has seamless online integration, and since its release, has had a number of free updates which added functionality. Some additional premium addon packs in 2009 only promise to keep it relevant longer.
It’s one of those games that you can play nonstop until you get to a certain point, then find something else for awhile, but always drift back to from time to time.
Burnout Paradise Review
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
If you have ever been a fan of the Burnout series, you’re likely to fall in love with this one too. If you haven’t had the pleasure of playing a Burnout game, then you may want to get a feel for it before buying it.
For those familiar with the genre, Burnout paradise sticks to its fundamental feeling, while taking away some aspects and adding in new ones. First, the entire game is an open landscape, free-roam driving simulator. No more selecting races from a menu screen, now to drive up to a stop light, and tap the right and left triggers to initiate a race, road rage, marked man race, stunt challenge, or various others. Its executed well, while making it fun to learn the city while you drive around like a mad man. But this brings me to my major problem with the game. You HAVE to learn the city. Because of the open world aspect of the game, it applies to races, road rages, and everything else too. And this is where it gets problematic. Driving around at Burnout speeds, in a city that you don’t know, is troublesome. And it only adds to insult that whenever you crash you get bumped down some 2-3 very important seconds. And to top it all off, there isn’t any sort of retry button. You take a wrong turn, you’re screwed, you can’t just hit ‘retry’ and be back at the beginning.
And this brings me to my main point. For Burnout lovers, you’ll learn the city, and you’ll love the stunt mode, and you’ll love the game and everything about it, but for those who don’t, it WILL be frustrating. And while I myself thoroughly enjoy the game, I would recommend buying Burnout: Revenge (the 2nd most recent Burnout game) and finding out if you really love the series before diving into the Burnout Paradise world.
ALOT of fun, even if there is little subtance
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
WOW this game is fun! If you love racers, then I don’t see how you could possibly go wrong with this title (especially at the price it is being offered for now!)
It is an “open racer” which means you are not limited the standard “loop” that most racers impose. You are free to explore the vast maze of streets. The goal of a race is to get to the finish line first. How you get there (whether you follow the route, find a shortcut, make your own shortcut, or just destroy all your opponents cars) is up to you.
The physics are absolutely ridiculous. I can take a 90 degree turn at 150 MPH in a 20 year old junker car I found at the junkkyard. I can jump 500 feet in the air, land, and just keep driving every time. I can knock over traffic lights, lampposts, and plow through dumpsters – and just keep on driving.
The AI is also kind of stupid. Cars kind of just wander around the track and are pretty easy to trick into crashing. (albeit I am not that far into the game, maybe they get smarter.)
None of this, however, even slightly detracts from how FUN this game is. Sometimes you just want to drive around, crash in to things, enjoy the gorgeous graphics, and perform ridiculous stunts.
Try running this game on a big screen with surround sound for the full effect. Yeah, I think I’ll take another “sick day” today!
DRUNK DRIVING!!!!!!!
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
this game is a lot of fun. pay some xtra money and download the extra cars. my favorite is the night rider car. The only bad thing is it doesnt have multi-player and the destruction event like in revenge. get this game if your just looking for something different then hard gore racing games. PEACE
Perhaps you baled too soon
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
Well, first things first — there is a crash mode, it’s just not implemented the same way — and true, it’s not as good. The original versions were nice little destruction puzzles that required thought and skill to solve. These new ones are just mindless crashing for short-lived online bragging rights.
Even so, this is easily the best game in the series — but one must play it a while and get used to it — and to discover why this is the case — my guess is that most of the haters never gave it a real shot. Too bad, because it’s a seamless, fresh, and ambitious take on a great series of games. To me the Burnout series is the only car game series worth playing — and this is the best in that series.
BTW, I played the demo and was completely unimpressed, but playing the actual game for a while is another story entirely.
Alot Of Fun
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
This game is alot of fun, but also very different from the other Burnout games
now this is what i call a car game!
Rating:5 out of 5 stars
the burnout series has been doing great these past few years. this title however does not have the crashes (where you do as much damage as possible to cars, buses, and anything else you could hit and get points for) that made the previous titles so much fun!
burnout paradise has other things that have never been put in a burnout game before too though so i’m okay with the crash mode not being there. it’s a huge and immerse experience. this is what need for speed should have been all these years! great game, great add-ons available online, hours and hours and hours of gameplay. i’ve been playing this game since the day i got it and i’m still playing it! what can i say, you never get sick of it. playing online is a breeze and so much fun as well! definitely get this game if you like cars.
Screwed up a great franchise
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
First off, I’ve played Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge so I have some experience with past games. Somehow they managed to mess up a good thing, as after playing this for about an hour or so I was already frustrated. Instead of just picking events you want to play, you have to drive around to the one you want. & considering how huge the map is, it’s more frustrating then fun. & a lot of times I lost races just because of glare from the sun (yes, I have no idea why they’d put glare in the game.)
Honestly I’d just play Burnout 3 or Revenge, they’re more fun than this game will ever be.
Different, but still fun
Rating:4 out of 5 stars
Coming from Burnout Revenge, Paradise was a big difference:
GOOD
-The fun is still there – ever crash is just as fun as it was in Revenge
-I love the open world and the organic feeling it gives, versus selecting individual events from the menu
-Paradise City is designed really well, with diverse landscapes and plenty of hidden areas to find
-Unlike Revenge, each car seems much more unique: either it looks different or drives different
-Three classes of cars give some diversity
-The method of unlocking cars is great – once you win a car, you’ll have to take it down when you see it in paradise city to drive it
-There’s plenty to do – smashes, billboards, events, and showtime
-The free bikes DLC is a lot of fun
BAD
-Showtime mode, the replacement for crash mode, is not nearly as fun – more of a gimmick
-It takes a while to get into the game – you go through at least 10-12 screens before you actually get to drive when you boot the game
-Music isn’t as good as previous games: there’s a few good songs, a bunch of remixes from older burnout titles, and then some classical stuff (!?)
-There’s a bunch of upcoming DLC for the game, but it all seems to be overpriced: $2-3 for a new car?
Overall, Paradise is a great game, and a great deal for under twenty bucks.
Different, innovative, but it lacks the basics of the originals and the cars are so-so.
Rating:2 out of 5 stars
I would make some word play by calling this review “Burned-out” but this game dosen’t feel old despite being the 5th Burnout title. This game has the fun of the last 2 but this time the creators, for some child-like reason, gave into their dislike for loading screens by giving US and sand box enviorment, so in other words this game is like Midnight Club but without convieniant check points or arrows. You’ll be driving +150 with an El Camino wanting to ram you into that oncoming van but oh weight, you gotta pause the game to pinpoint that next turn, then you return to the game only to see your Chevelle wrecked. Many of us are aware that the game lacks a restart option and crash mode but my main complaint is that most of the interesting cars are DLC, that would be okay if this games cretors were nice BUT wait, they want us to pay money! Sure its only a few dollars but come on, thats a few dollars just for some data plus over 40 kind car modellers have contributed cars for Midtown Madness’s 1 and 2, the Need For Speed series, the Carmageddon series, and many other PC games, they’ve done and are doing it for free. Despite the supposed poor shape of our economy, game companies still want your dough. The cars that you get are your average Tuners, muscle cars, and truckssuvs, no Tow truck or Garbage trucks like before. I’d suggest that you’d pick up Burnout Revenge as its more user friendly or Burnout 3, this game feels incomplete and you can’t play split-screen which is a feature that you could find on SNES games.