www.AnotherGamingWebsite.com
Welcome to Another Gaming Website, offering you the latest from the gaming world. Browse our selection of the current gaming news, and reviews on a wide range of games, from the latest releases, to lesser-known gems. Check out our previews section for a sneak peek at titles soon to hit the shelves. When you've caught up with all the latest news, and heard our opinions, stop by the forum to have your say.
About The Site
AGW was founded way back in December of 2004, by Skittles and Damodar, as a forum in which to document their gaming experiences. Shortly afterwards, Ignignort joined up, and the forum became a meeting place for like-minded friends. Though many people came and went over the years, the small community of friends from near and far remained. Now after several iterations and a number of name changes, AGW is set to be the best it can be, casting a professional yet casual eye over the gaming industry.
Meet The Team
Phil "Skittles" Kitt
Co-Founder and long-time member of original forums, Phil has been an active member through every interation of the website. Phil's primary role is the management of the main website, implementing both coding and content.
Nathan "Ignignort" Tauber
Nathan has been a leading member since the website began, and has even run the website by himself for a couple of years. Now he continues his involvement with the site in his role as the Community Manager.
Alex "Damodar" Gibson
Another veteran member and Co-Founder of the original website, Alex has had a constant influence on the community. With a sharp tongue and a post count that dwarfs most other members, Alex acts at the team's enforcer, dealing out death and judgment.
Review - Burnout Paradise
Burnout Paradise
Written by Skittles
07.02.08
Score: A
Well, here I am again for my second review of the day, hopefully. It's already 10:00pm, and I plan to write quite a lot on this. After work I jumped on the bus and headed into town to pick up a couple of games. After checking out EB, and ducking out of JB Hi-Fi when I saw Rohan, I did the block and ninja'd back into JB to purchase Burnout Paradise. Apparently (and I didn't hear this from Kotaku which is strange) some stores in the mainland broke the street release date on it, and now everywhere was selling it. Following this, I headed back to EB. I was going to buy a DS if I could see even one game there that I wanted to purchase, however there was a pissweak selection on offer, and I ended up asking for Turok instead. As it turned out, the PS3 version was sold out (LOL!) and so I asked for a 360 copy instead. After bagging my booty, I jumped on the bus and headed home to get stuck in.
Naturally I put Burnout Paradise in first. In fact, I don't think I've gotten Turok out of my bag yet. After the game is loaded, you're presented with the intro, which is NOT done by DJ Automica, but by some equally annoying woman, who strongly emphasizes the game's size and freedom – like we hadn't heard that shit enough. But maybe you haven’t heard that shit enough, so I’ll just explain to you what the deal is with Burnout Paradise. In other Burnout games you just had a series of events to blow through. These could be races, take-down races or crashes. You’d select an event and the track would load, much like any other racing game. In Burnout Paradise you have a huge open world to explore, which includes metropolitan areas such as Downtown Paradise in the east, and the mountainous winding roads in the west. The city and it’s surrounds are free to explore at your leisure. Back to the demo.
When she's finally done crapping on, you'll get the same intro from the demo, with everyone's favourite DJ yapping on about the only car you have available, before he kindly marks the nearest repair shop. It’s right around the corner, on Angus Wharf. So far I didn’t have any new impressions of the game, apart from the fact that the intro skipped a little, which was surprising.
Naturally I put Burnout Paradise in first. In fact, I don't think I've gotten Turok out of my bag yet. After the game is loaded, you're presented with the intro, which is NOT done by DJ Automica, but by some equally annoying woman, who strongly emphasizes the game's size and freedom – like we hadn't heard that shit enough. But maybe you haven’t heard that shit enough, so I’ll just explain to you what the deal is with Burnout Paradise. In other Burnout games you just had a series of events to blow through. These could be races, take-down races or crashes. You’d select an event and the track would load, much like any other racing game. In Burnout Paradise you have a huge open world to explore, which includes metropolitan areas such as Downtown Paradise in the east, and the mountainous winding roads in the west. The city and it’s surrounds are free to explore at your leisure. Back to the demo.
When she's finally done crapping on, you'll get the same intro from the demo, with everyone's favourite DJ yapping on about the only car you have available, before he kindly marks the nearest repair shop. It’s right around the corner, on Angus Wharf. So far I didn’t have any new impressions of the game, apart from the fact that the intro skipped a little, which was surprising.
Now for the actual gameplay. For those of you who haven’t played the demo, the first car to get is the Hunter Cavalry picture above. In the game it’s actually blue, and beaten to shit just like all the other cars you unlock in your garage, but once you take it to the repair shop it’ll look sweet mate. The Hunter Cavalry is a stunt class car, which brings me to my first little section – the types of cars. In the demo we were told the Cavalry was a stunt class car, which means it’s good for jumps and spins. What this actually means is there are other types of cars that are good for different styles of play, and if you do jumps and spins in a stunt car, you’ll be rewarded with more length on your Burnout meter. This means you can pick a car that suits your style of play, and do a lot better in events. Here’s a quick run-down of the cars.
Stunt Class Cars
As I mentioned earlier, stunt class cars reward jumps and spins, so it’s a good idea to take all the shortcuts you can, or small jumps in the road. If you can manage to pull off a flat-spin or barrel roll at the same time, more power to you. If there’s no jumps available, don’t be afraid to drift around corners as much as you can. Stunt Class cars have a green flame for their Burnout meter, which can be used at any time.
Aggression Class Cars
Aggression Class cars are your classic muscle cars. They’ve got a high strength value, so they’re excellent for knocking other cars off the road down the wrong paths, or simple taking them down. Aggression Class cars will reward you heavily for initiating Take-Downs, but will penalise you for being taken down. Aggression Class cars have a red flame for their Burnout meter, which can be used at any time.
Speed Class Cars
As the name suggests, these cars are built for speed. You’ll be rewarded most for driving dangerously, so the wrong side of the road, close calls and traffic checks are the aim of the game. Speed Class cars are the only cars in the game where your Burnout meter cannot be used until it’s at full. These cars are also able to pull off Burnout Chains. A Burnout is achieved when your Burnout meter goes from full to empty in one continuous boost. At the same time, a second meter will fill up whenever you’re driving dangerously, at the end of your boost, the size of your second meter determines how much of your Burnout meter will be refilled. If you manage to fill the second meter to its maximum before you’ve emptied your first meter, you will receive a full meter, and continue the boost. This is called a Burnout Chain.
As you unlock more cars, you’ll start to get a feel for what each car can do, and what events they’re useful in. This brings me to part two of the review, which is your licence, and how to upgrade it.
Stunt Class Cars
As I mentioned earlier, stunt class cars reward jumps and spins, so it’s a good idea to take all the shortcuts you can, or small jumps in the road. If you can manage to pull off a flat-spin or barrel roll at the same time, more power to you. If there’s no jumps available, don’t be afraid to drift around corners as much as you can. Stunt Class cars have a green flame for their Burnout meter, which can be used at any time.
Aggression Class Cars
Aggression Class cars are your classic muscle cars. They’ve got a high strength value, so they’re excellent for knocking other cars off the road down the wrong paths, or simple taking them down. Aggression Class cars will reward you heavily for initiating Take-Downs, but will penalise you for being taken down. Aggression Class cars have a red flame for their Burnout meter, which can be used at any time.
Speed Class Cars
As the name suggests, these cars are built for speed. You’ll be rewarded most for driving dangerously, so the wrong side of the road, close calls and traffic checks are the aim of the game. Speed Class cars are the only cars in the game where your Burnout meter cannot be used until it’s at full. These cars are also able to pull off Burnout Chains. A Burnout is achieved when your Burnout meter goes from full to empty in one continuous boost. At the same time, a second meter will fill up whenever you’re driving dangerously, at the end of your boost, the size of your second meter determines how much of your Burnout meter will be refilled. If you manage to fill the second meter to its maximum before you’ve emptied your first meter, you will receive a full meter, and continue the boost. This is called a Burnout Chain.
As you unlock more cars, you’ll start to get a feel for what each car can do, and what events they’re useful in. This brings me to part two of the review, which is your licence, and how to upgrade it.
This is what your licence will look like, if you’re Jeremy Irons. It basically just has information on when you started playing, what your PSN name is, what class your licence is, and how many points before you get a licence upgrade. After every win you have an option of changing your licence photo, but as if you would want to.
Now, upgrading your license can be achieved by winning points, which basically means clearing any event. Events are scattered all over Paradise City, and can be accessed by pulling up to any intersection, and slamming on your accelerator and brakes. Some events require certain cars, and you will run into them from time to time, but most of them are free to be done in any car you wish. There are four common events, and these are…
Race
Racing is a big part of any, well, racing game, and Burnout is no exception. Races will begin at the intersection you pulled up on, and end at any one of eight locations, one at each point of the compass. These locations are all important buildings, such as the Airport, Docks, Observatory, Ranch, Stadium etc. How you get to the location is completely up to you. Opposing cars will generally follow the same roads, and this gives you the edge if you know your way through the shortcuts, or simply know a better route. Also, there is really nothing pointing you in the right direction. There is no default track to follow, there are merely suggestions on which road to take at intersections, marked by a flashing road sign at the top of the screen. However, you’re probably going to be focusing on your car and the horizon more than the signs, so it’s better to use your instincts, or plot a route at the beginning of the race.
Road Rage
Road Rage is the standard Take-Down race. The event still has a beginning and an end, but you’ll need to achieve the Take-Down quota before finishing to complete the event. It was the selling point of Burnout 3 : Takedown, and it’s just as fun in Paradise.
Stunt
Stunt events are actually fairly scarce, and they require you to perform as many stunts (spins, jumps, drifts etc) in the time limit as possible. Stunts performed within 5 or so seconds of each other and linked together in combos, and the bigger the combo, the faster you’ll reach your target score.
Marked Man
As the name suggests, you’re the marked man. You have to get from A to B without begin destroyed by your opponents. That’s it. There’s no implied route, and no time limit, just a destination and a couple of people that want you dead. The key to surviving in these events is to plot your course through repair stations, which will keep you alive long enough to reach the end.
Now, upgrading your license can be achieved by winning points, which basically means clearing any event. Events are scattered all over Paradise City, and can be accessed by pulling up to any intersection, and slamming on your accelerator and brakes. Some events require certain cars, and you will run into them from time to time, but most of them are free to be done in any car you wish. There are four common events, and these are…
Race
Racing is a big part of any, well, racing game, and Burnout is no exception. Races will begin at the intersection you pulled up on, and end at any one of eight locations, one at each point of the compass. These locations are all important buildings, such as the Airport, Docks, Observatory, Ranch, Stadium etc. How you get to the location is completely up to you. Opposing cars will generally follow the same roads, and this gives you the edge if you know your way through the shortcuts, or simply know a better route. Also, there is really nothing pointing you in the right direction. There is no default track to follow, there are merely suggestions on which road to take at intersections, marked by a flashing road sign at the top of the screen. However, you’re probably going to be focusing on your car and the horizon more than the signs, so it’s better to use your instincts, or plot a route at the beginning of the race.
Road Rage
Road Rage is the standard Take-Down race. The event still has a beginning and an end, but you’ll need to achieve the Take-Down quota before finishing to complete the event. It was the selling point of Burnout 3 : Takedown, and it’s just as fun in Paradise.
Stunt
Stunt events are actually fairly scarce, and they require you to perform as many stunts (spins, jumps, drifts etc) in the time limit as possible. Stunts performed within 5 or so seconds of each other and linked together in combos, and the bigger the combo, the faster you’ll reach your target score.
Marked Man
As the name suggests, you’re the marked man. You have to get from A to B without begin destroyed by your opponents. That’s it. There’s no implied route, and no time limit, just a destination and a couple of people that want you dead. The key to surviving in these events is to plot your course through repair stations, which will keep you alive long enough to reach the end.
There are also other events you can take part in, that don’t reward licence points. These are…
Crashes
Crashes are just like you remember in previous Burnouts, except complete different. Pressing and holding…L2 and R2 I think it is, but don’t quote me, initiates Crash Mode (which has a name but I forgot it). During this mode time slows down a little, and your Burnout meter stays on the screen. You can now control your crash to a ridiculous degree, choosing to make the car hop up and bounce forward to traffic or changing direction completely to hit a car you missed. Your Burnout meter allows you to bounce around quite a bit, and by hitting expensive cars like Limos and trucks, it can stay full for quite a long time. Hitting busses awards multipliers, and at the end of the run the distance in yards that you travelled will be multiplied by 100, and added to your score. It’s pretty ridiculous, and would be good fun if they didn’t butcher a perfectly good mode in the old Burnouts. In the old Burnout games it was as much about angling your car, and hitting the right speed to collect multipliers, as it was about directing your car once it landed. I enjoyed that aspect, and it’s a pity it’s gone.
Offline/Online Times/Scores
All over the map are scattered stretches of road that have best time scores for offline, and online players. Challenge yourself by trying to beat them.
There’s also offline and online scores for Crashes along various stretches of road. Beating these is a test of your skillz0rs.
Smashes and Signs
Also scattered around Paradise city are barricades, which usually block off shortcuts. These are extremely flimsy, and can be driven straight through. Smashing a new barrier adds it to your total Smashes count. There are 400 smashes scattered around Paradise City, can you find them all?
Burnout signs are also scattered around the city, some up high, others just in hard-to-reach locations. I think there are 100 of these around, but it could be a much lower number.
Special Takedowns
Finally, there are special takedowns. Special takedowns are a method of acquiring new cars, and I have to say, it’s a pretty brilliant thing to include in the game. After winning events you receive licence points, however, every now and then you will also get an alert that a car has been spotted tearing ass across the city, and if you can find it and take it down, you’ll win it for yourself. So far I’ve found three of these cars, and it’s bloody brilliant. One time I was just driving along a street and this car sped past me going the other way, I slammed on the handbrake, and spun around. After about 5 minutes of chasing him, I took him down and one an awesome pimp-mobile.
So that’s about it for the basics of the game. Time to wrap this thing up.
Gameplay : 9/10
It’s a brilliant game to be sure, but it could do with a few little tweaks. It would be nice to be able to end an event before you finish it, if you know you’re going to lose and just want to start again. It would also be hand to be able to quick travel to events. Perhaps not straight to the event, as that would take the fun out of driving around the city, but maybe quick travel between Junkyards would have been a wise move. Overall it’s a kickass experience.
Sound : 8/10
The engines sound like engines, crashes sound spectacular, and overall the sound effects are spot on. However, the soundtrack leaves much to be desired. Paradise would have been the perfect game to make use of hard drive songs, but unfortunately the only thing on offer is EATRAX. Fortunately you can edit your personal playlist from these songs, so you don’t have to listen to Avril Lavigne. At the moment I’ve got Twisted Sister, Jimmy Eat World, the Burnout Paradise Theme, some classic Burnout tracks from other games, this song by Seether which is catchy, and of course Paradise City by Guns n Roses, which may be over played, but I don’t think it’s overrated. Plus what else were you going to put in Burnout Paradise? Also DJ Automica is a fag.
Graphics : 9/10
Burnout Paradise is naturally the best looking Burnout yet, and HD is a must. Being able to actually see cars on the horizon is a refreshing change, and prevents you from smashing into cars every five seconds. At these speeds, you really need some visibility. Some of the buildings look a little rough, and the scenery on the horizon could look a little better, but honestly Burnout isn’t about scenery, it’s about going goddamn fast and not crashing, so I really don’t care. Room for improvement just like any other game, but still amazing.
Multiplayer : 10/10
Finally someone does it right. There’s not much to it, but there doesn’t need to be. All you need to be able to do is quickly get online with friends, or join a random group of people for a piss-fart around, and Paradise does it perfectly. With one touch of the D-Pad you’re presented with the option to Freeburn online, or join up with some friends. Invites can be sent to friends while you’re still driving, and within seconds they can pop into your city. I knew I was going to be writing this review today, so right before I rushed off to work I picked up the controller and selected Freeburn Online. Five seconds later I was in a city with five other people. Perfect.
Burnout Factor : 10/10
As far as Burnout games go, it’s perfect. They’ve kept all the classic features of the game (except for the crash mode I liked) and really fine tuned them. One problem I did have with the demo was that Takedowns were too easy, but that seems to have been fixed with the final release. The cars are great, and the methods of unlocking them even better. Putting us in a huge open world could have been a dangerous move, since some people like to get in the game, and in a race quickly, but in my opinion it’s brilliant. There’s so much to do from one location to another that you really don’t mind driving across the map to get to another event.
It's better than... Any other Arcade Style racer. Period.
Overall I think it’s a brilliant game, and I look forward to playing some more tonight (I might save Devil May Cry 4 for the weekend). I strongly encourage Nathan and Gibbo to pick it up, if you even got a little enjoyment out of the demo. If you’re thinking it’s like skate. , that it will just be more of the same think then don’t. There’s a lot of extra things to do in this, and it would be a perfect game to play online together, either for a relaxing cruise, or a competitive drive.
Crashes
Crashes are just like you remember in previous Burnouts, except complete different. Pressing and holding…L2 and R2 I think it is, but don’t quote me, initiates Crash Mode (which has a name but I forgot it). During this mode time slows down a little, and your Burnout meter stays on the screen. You can now control your crash to a ridiculous degree, choosing to make the car hop up and bounce forward to traffic or changing direction completely to hit a car you missed. Your Burnout meter allows you to bounce around quite a bit, and by hitting expensive cars like Limos and trucks, it can stay full for quite a long time. Hitting busses awards multipliers, and at the end of the run the distance in yards that you travelled will be multiplied by 100, and added to your score. It’s pretty ridiculous, and would be good fun if they didn’t butcher a perfectly good mode in the old Burnouts. In the old Burnout games it was as much about angling your car, and hitting the right speed to collect multipliers, as it was about directing your car once it landed. I enjoyed that aspect, and it’s a pity it’s gone.
Offline/Online Times/Scores
All over the map are scattered stretches of road that have best time scores for offline, and online players. Challenge yourself by trying to beat them.
There’s also offline and online scores for Crashes along various stretches of road. Beating these is a test of your skillz0rs.
Smashes and Signs
Also scattered around Paradise city are barricades, which usually block off shortcuts. These are extremely flimsy, and can be driven straight through. Smashing a new barrier adds it to your total Smashes count. There are 400 smashes scattered around Paradise City, can you find them all?
Burnout signs are also scattered around the city, some up high, others just in hard-to-reach locations. I think there are 100 of these around, but it could be a much lower number.
Special Takedowns
Finally, there are special takedowns. Special takedowns are a method of acquiring new cars, and I have to say, it’s a pretty brilliant thing to include in the game. After winning events you receive licence points, however, every now and then you will also get an alert that a car has been spotted tearing ass across the city, and if you can find it and take it down, you’ll win it for yourself. So far I’ve found three of these cars, and it’s bloody brilliant. One time I was just driving along a street and this car sped past me going the other way, I slammed on the handbrake, and spun around. After about 5 minutes of chasing him, I took him down and one an awesome pimp-mobile.
So that’s about it for the basics of the game. Time to wrap this thing up.
Gameplay : 9/10
It’s a brilliant game to be sure, but it could do with a few little tweaks. It would be nice to be able to end an event before you finish it, if you know you’re going to lose and just want to start again. It would also be hand to be able to quick travel to events. Perhaps not straight to the event, as that would take the fun out of driving around the city, but maybe quick travel between Junkyards would have been a wise move. Overall it’s a kickass experience.
Sound : 8/10
The engines sound like engines, crashes sound spectacular, and overall the sound effects are spot on. However, the soundtrack leaves much to be desired. Paradise would have been the perfect game to make use of hard drive songs, but unfortunately the only thing on offer is EATRAX. Fortunately you can edit your personal playlist from these songs, so you don’t have to listen to Avril Lavigne. At the moment I’ve got Twisted Sister, Jimmy Eat World, the Burnout Paradise Theme, some classic Burnout tracks from other games, this song by Seether which is catchy, and of course Paradise City by Guns n Roses, which may be over played, but I don’t think it’s overrated. Plus what else were you going to put in Burnout Paradise? Also DJ Automica is a fag.
Graphics : 9/10
Burnout Paradise is naturally the best looking Burnout yet, and HD is a must. Being able to actually see cars on the horizon is a refreshing change, and prevents you from smashing into cars every five seconds. At these speeds, you really need some visibility. Some of the buildings look a little rough, and the scenery on the horizon could look a little better, but honestly Burnout isn’t about scenery, it’s about going goddamn fast and not crashing, so I really don’t care. Room for improvement just like any other game, but still amazing.
Multiplayer : 10/10
Finally someone does it right. There’s not much to it, but there doesn’t need to be. All you need to be able to do is quickly get online with friends, or join a random group of people for a piss-fart around, and Paradise does it perfectly. With one touch of the D-Pad you’re presented with the option to Freeburn online, or join up with some friends. Invites can be sent to friends while you’re still driving, and within seconds they can pop into your city. I knew I was going to be writing this review today, so right before I rushed off to work I picked up the controller and selected Freeburn Online. Five seconds later I was in a city with five other people. Perfect.
Burnout Factor : 10/10
As far as Burnout games go, it’s perfect. They’ve kept all the classic features of the game (except for the crash mode I liked) and really fine tuned them. One problem I did have with the demo was that Takedowns were too easy, but that seems to have been fixed with the final release. The cars are great, and the methods of unlocking them even better. Putting us in a huge open world could have been a dangerous move, since some people like to get in the game, and in a race quickly, but in my opinion it’s brilliant. There’s so much to do from one location to another that you really don’t mind driving across the map to get to another event.
It's better than... Any other Arcade Style racer. Period.
Overall I think it’s a brilliant game, and I look forward to playing some more tonight (I might save Devil May Cry 4 for the weekend). I strongly encourage Nathan and Gibbo to pick it up, if you even got a little enjoyment out of the demo. If you’re thinking it’s like skate. , that it will just be more of the same think then don’t. There’s a lot of extra things to do in this, and it would be a perfect game to play online together, either for a relaxing cruise, or a competitive drive.
Related Reviews