Burnout Paradise

by Darren Arquette - 2008/01/18 3:45pm

Before playing this demo, I wasn't expecting much from the game. I assumed it would be like the others. However, I've never really played any of the others, so I decided to give this one a go and boy was it fun. It was nicely done had a nice intro to the city with constant voice-over giving out tips, which may become annoying if it were to repeat itself, unless your playing online which means it will always be different, more on that later. Also, I noticed we only got to play a small section of the city and blocking the way to the rest is a road block with a small message, "Re-opening January 2008", which I thought was a nice touch.

Now, sure you can pretty much start a race anywhere there are traffic lights, but there are only 3 missions and you can complete them in about 10 minutes combined. However, you can quickly take the game online with the touch of a button, which allows you to do many other tasks against others online, so you can get lost in this mode for hours. Sure we've had online multiplayer demos and betas and what not, but online integrated with a single player demo? That's surely a first.

Also, a nice feature that comes with the game is the Playstation Eye TAKEDOWN! picture. Essentially, if you have the camera you get to pose for your license and whenever you're taken down online the camera takes a picture of you and sends it to your opponent. It's a nice feature, but for gods sake don't play nude!

The graphics are pretty slick and you get the feeling of real speed. You can even feel sudden stops and watch yourself crash in slow-mo. It's just a shame there isn't a rag doll body in the car like with Motorstorm. The controls feel tight and just right for the PS3, but I don't think there is any Sixaxis support (I could be wrong).



I think I may pick this game up on my birthday in March, and then maybe do a review. Overall, this was a pretty good demo, maybe even one of the best I've played, but I still prefer the Uncharted demo. If you don't have it, download it from PSN/XBL now.