Burnout Paradise Review - Where's the sequel EA?

By Sam Coles:

I don’t know what it was during the period between 2007-2008 but we got some real classics on the Xbox 360 and PS3 with games like Bioshock, Call of Duty 4, Metal Gear Solid 4, GTA IV, Fable II and of course Burnout Paradise. This game is a wonderful game and I don’t understand why EA hasn’t produced a sequel to it for nearly 10 years because it’s a solid concept an over the top racing game with lots of crashing at break neck speeds.

It’s from the moment when you boot up the game and get to the title screen and you hear the first few chords of Guns and Roses song Paradise City, from that moment you know you’re in for a treat. You get into the game and you find yourself in a sandbox playground where you can go and do a few races or just drive around and cause chaos for the residents of Paradise City. This was during a time where open world games didn’t over saturate the industry where an open world game was exciting and not the default game like it is now so it felt fresh and new.

The gameplay is simple you drive and crash emphasis on crashing because it’s hard not to as you’ll be driving at ridiculous speeds. There are a variety of modes in this game you have your standard circuit races and sprint races where you have to drive to a set destination with no laps and you can win by taking down other drivers or utilising shortcuts. There are events where you’re a wanted man and you must escape a convoy of SUV’s as they try and slam you off the road, these events get unforgivably hard as you progress through the game but it is fun and tense.

The presentation still shines even after 8 years of its release with great car models and a huge detailed city for you to cause destruction. I’m really surprised how well this game runs because there is a lot of stuff happening on screen and yet it stays at a stable 60 frames per second which I can’t say for many games of today. The detail on the cars when you crash are amazing with bits of shrapnel flying everywhere as your car does a barrel roll off a cliff, it also helps that this game has great sound design! It’s loud and crunchy you really feel the impact of the crash with the audio ques with horns blearing and the scraping of metal.

Burnout Paradise is an example of what triple A gaming should be doing more often and that is blowing stuff up because sometimes you don’t want a complex narrative, you just want to unwind and take your stress out on a game with explosions and destruction. Burnout Paradise is very easy to find on Xbox 360, PS3 and PC I would recommend getting the Ultimate Box because you get all the DLC cars and the motorbike add on.