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msstateorellana's Burnout Paradise (360)
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| [April 26, 2009 01:54:12 PM]
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Burnout Paradise is the seventh game in the Burnout series of releases by Criterion Games in January 2008. Several platforms are supported such as Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Windows making the game available nearly to everyone.
The game brandishes sandbox style game play taking place in the fictional Paradise City. This style of game play lets the user play in a “sandbox” about the size of New York City (it’s huge!) engaging in races with the AI opponent or online players. The game world features realistic looking building that you would come to expect from the Burnout series. Weather conditions are absent; however, with an update download, night races are available. The game world can best be described as a valley and an ocean that sandwiches the city in the middle. Roads take the player through different sceneries ranging from mountains, busy highways, straight-aways, tunnels, and off-road. Street level design is very detailed with realism extending towards showing off billboards of the 2008 presidential race of then Sen. Obama; displayed only on the Xbox version of the game.
The game has racing modes designed to challenge the player in various ways. Hitting brake and accelerate at the same time will put the player in one of the following racing modes:
Point-to-point – These are races against the AI. You must finish in first place to win.
Takedown- In this mode, you attempt to crash your opponent a set number of times before the time expires.
Stunt runs- In this mode you perform drifts, jump using ramps, and other wreck less acts to gain the maximum amount of point before the time expires.
Duals- With duals, you race against another opponent in a one on one match. If you win, you get your opponents car. Nothing happens if you lose however.
Survival- In survival mode, everyone is after you. You must make it to the checkpoint without being totaled.
The user interface of the game features a map towards the bottom right of the screen and a GPS navigator at the top. The navigator is somewhat awkward if you’re new to this game as it looks nothing like a navigator that you would find in your car. Instead, the navigator serves as guide by displaying left or right arrows during active play (it’s off during passive play). By pressing “select”, the user can bring up a menu which displays a large array of statistics the player has accumulated thus far.
The cars brands are fictional in this game. My guess to that is to avoid legality issues. They do however, exhibit remarkable resemblance to Honda’s civic and classic 70’s muscle cars from Ford and Pontiac. Each car in paradise city has its strengths and weaknesses. Depending on what type of challenge you want, say for example, Survival mode will benefit from a muscle car as sports cars are too delicate. You must weigh in your options. You can always switch which car you drive by going to the repair shop.
When the game is first started, you get a learner’s permit and a beat up old car. You must take this car to the repair shop and complete several wins before earning your class D license. Class A is the highest license you can get with each license from D to A being more difficult to obtain. One thing to notice when you first start playing is that you don’t really have a character inside your car or any car in Burnout Paradise. I was disappointed with this omission; however, putting characters in the car would mean a gruesome outcome when you run into a wall at 200mp- Would have certainly given the game a different rating. A good thing is that when you crash, you get to wait a few seconds before your back in action. You also get to see a replay of your crash seconds before impact. There are several hidden roadways in Burnout Paradise. You can get to those by going through yellow sign that say “Do not Enter”. Those are usually shortcuts and bonuses when you’re racing.
Concluding this review, Burnout Paradise features a fast-paced intense experience. Players who like racing games will love this game for its intensity, good graphics quality, different cars, and challenging levels. Its reward system is enticing for those who like challenges and its crashing replays will leave your friends laughing (at your bad skills most likely) when you wreck your vehicle.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Apr 26th, 2009 at 14:01:32.
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msstateorellana's Burnout Paradise (360)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 8 April, 2009
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