Burnout Paradise is EA’s newest iteration of the old Burnout series and really moves away from the tried and true formula of Burnout to a more open world almost Need for Speed feel. Many loyal fans to the old Burnout games will quickly see the change in feel and game play and may be turned away from a solid driving game.

Presentation and Graphics: Burnout Paradise looks great, EA and Criterion really spent a long time perfecting the look of the cars and even more impressive are the wrecks. When you wreck your car in Burnout it opens up a cut scene so you can watch every bone crunching second of the crash and your mangled ride. The most annoying part of the wrecks is that you can’t turn this off so you are forced to watch these often, which gets a bit old fast. The other pet peeve I have about the look of this title is the lack of a driver in your car, so when you wreck your car and the doors fall off all you see is an empty car. 8 of 10

Sound and Music: The sounds of Burnout are right on; from the crashing and crunching noises to the radio there are a pretty large medley of songs available that range from songs from old Burnout titles to current real songs that are on the radio. Of course the main song of the game is Paradise City from Guns n Roses, which can get on your nerves after hearing it too many times. My main complaint in the game is DJ Atomica form radio BIG, this guy is a massive tool and if you have played any other BIG titles you know what I am talking about, for the next one I suggest much less DJ Atomica. 8 of 10

Gameplay: The game play in Burnout Paradise has been redone to embrace an open world atmosphere where players can drive freely from area to area and look for races that are spread out through the intersections of Paradise City. This in concept is fun and allows for you to roam around and find different shortcuts without having to do actual races, but does get annoying in that you have to look for races or events to compete in. You can actually spend more time looking for Super Jumps, Smashes, gas stations, junkyards and shortcuts than actually driving in events in Burnout Paradise.

The biggest downfall of the open world environment aspect is that there is no way to restart a race if you lose. So if the race was a long race that took you across the world and you lost, you have to schlep all the way back to try it again. Another annoyance in the game is the fact that you may actually redo a lot of the same races either by not knowing or because you have upgraded your license and now you can redo the same races again to upgrade your license again.

Another big detractor for the game is the horrible on screen map that is supposed to guide you around during races. Since it is an open world environment there is no set way to win a race and you can choose any path you like, which sounds good unless you get lost because of the crappy mini-map. The mini-map is about as good as a blind seeing-eye dog, it is very easy to take wrong turns and lose races and your mind along the way.

The sense of speed I this title just was not there for me and did not compare to the older titles I was used to. The frame rate was stellar and the graphics gorgeous but it just didn’t have that blurring effect of the old titles that made me feel the Burnout. Also cars now seem a lot more fragile and tend to go flying off the road and wreck a lot easier. Gone are the days of traffic checking and using traffic as your weapon of destruction, this has been toned down a lot.

There is also a severe lack of Crash Mode, I am sorry but he new Showtime mode is a sorry substitute. Now you can hit both bumpers together and bring up Showtime mode which makes your car flip over and go hurling toward oncoming traffic, this is fun for a bit but does not hold a candle to Crash mode what so ever! 7 of 10

Lasting Appeal: Online play gives a good bit of replay value on this title as well as racing with friends, unfortunately Road Rage and Marked Man are non-existent online. There was little to no lag online and you can navigate changes on the fly, which makes it pretty open ended. This one will keep you busy getting new licenses and cars for a long time to come. 7.5 of 10

Final Word: Burnout Paradise took a fairly large leap away from the original franchise and introduced this open world feel. For those that are new to Burnout this is a great racing game and they will get a lot of enjoyment out of it. For those that are fans of the old Burnout titles like me, you will be far harder on the game and actually crave some of that old non-open world Burnout we grew to love so much. This may be a rental for some to get a feel for the game before you actually purchase it.

Overall: 7.5 of 10

Click here to see what our scores mean