You may think, "I've seen it all a million times", but you have never seen anything like Showtime in
Burnout Paradise. Pressing [L1] + [R1] turns your car into a huge great pinball, and you can then use the Sixaxis (or the thumbstick) to control its progression down the road. Each vehicle you hit adds to your crash score, hitting buses increments your multiplier.
Early footage of Showtime brought more of its fair share of whinging from the Internet forum bitches.
For us - not just me - it's madness gone mad and hilarious fun too. Many people will hate it... we love it!
Predictably, different vehicles handle in different ways. Most notably, rear wheel drive vehicles drift nicely, while front drive vehicles don't, and you'll soon develop your own favourites. But sticking with one car won't pay off in Paradise City. You'll need to utilise the different characteristics of the vehicles in order to win certain events. Stunt cars, with their low centres of gravity and high strength are good for jumps and spins; other cars are faster, handle better and are best for winning races. Strong, heavy vehicles are best for Road Rage events. So, frequent trips to the junkyard are required for you to complete the game... unless you want to do it the hard way.
By now you're probably wondering about how
Burnout looks. Are you blind?! you've played the demo surely? Or just look at those screen shots. It looks incredible.
Burnout games have always been beautiful to look at, combining hyper-stylised lighting and motion effects with ultra-realistic landscapes and car models.
Paradise takes this to the next level, and looks more stunning than any
Burnout - or any racing game - I've played. High-def graphics and a superbly constructed city combine with awesome car paint effects and beautiful lighting to make the game as much of a joy to watch as it is to play. Criterion has worked hard on the crash visuals, applying particle effects and deformation physics that make crashes the star of the show... they look so good that you almost won't worry about losing a race or getting wrecked, because the crashes themselves are just so spectacular.
Great graphics deserve a great soundtrack, and
Burnout Paradise delivers, right from the obvious Guns’n’Roses intro song (What, what! Did you really expect them to use anything else?) the music keeps pumping and it's all good. Bone-crunching sound effects and sweet engine notes accompany the songs beautifully.
Criterion has seamlessly integrated on-line play into
Paradise, sticking to the game's maxim of no waiting, no loading. At any point in the game, you can hit the right arrow on the D-Pad and you are in the on-line menu, from here you can invite your friends, or create or join a ‘freeburn’. Once you and your friends/strangers are assembled you can issue challenges, which your opponents can choose to accept or ignore.