Product Description

Make action your middle name, as you control what happens when and where in Burnout Paradise. Welcome to Paradise City. Immerse yourself in the open roads of Paradise City from the downtown streets through the hectic freeways to the sweeping mountain roads; the world is waiting to be explored. Slam, Shunt and Wreck opponents in cross-town race events, where you decide the fastest route to the finish line. Hit the jumps and find shortcuts, smash through barriers and get to the places that other racers can't reach to get that competitive edge. Meet your friends online with the revolutionary EasyDrive system that smashes through the tedium of lobbies and servers and cuts straight to the chase. Burnout Paradise provides the ultimate driving playground for you and your friends to play online on the Xbox 360. Mugshots - Track the length and breadth of up to 2,500 online rivalries Speed, Speed and Even More Speed - The rebuilt, race-tuned Burnout game engine delivers intense speed boost gameplay at a super-smooth and super-fast 60 frames-per-second Crash Deformation - Burnout Paradise features an all-new deformation technology that gives players an astounding close-up and slow-motion view of super-real destruction

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #451 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Electronic Arts
• Model: 014633156393
• Released on: 2008-01-22
• ESRB Rating: Everyone 10+
• Platform: Xbox 360
• Format: NTSC
• Dimensions: 2.00 pounds

Features

• Rock Paradise City—Shred your way across more than 250 miles of open road discovering jumps, stunts, and shortcuts.
• Infinite Possibilities—Blaze your path to glory in 120 unique events, using your knowledge of the city to find the fastest routes and get the drop on rivals.
• Team Up or Takedown—Battle friends online and grab their mugshots, or join forces to complete more than 300 online challenges.
• Showtime: Crash Anywhere, Any Time—Send your car wrecking, spinning and scraping down the road, smashing through traffic and leaving a trail of expensive wreckage in your wake.
• Road Rules—Make and break the rules of each road by setting speed and destruction records all over town. Track how many you own against your friends!

Amazon.com
In Burnout Paradise players are treated to a rarity in the video games universe: a complete reinvention of an established franchise that equals, if not betters any of the previous games in the series. Yes, this is a large claim, but one that can be explained in a single phrase: Next-Gen Freedom.

Driver's heaven is a wide open world

In Paradise City even cars can fly. View larger.

Go for broke in 'Marked Man' Mode. View larger.

Nothing is off limits, even head-on crashes. View larger.

Start a race any time with 'Easy Drive.' View larger.

Although the Burnout series' over the top mobile action has been its calling card since it ignited audiences on the PS2 in 2001, and later on the first generation Xbox console, Burnout Paradise is the first game in the series that has been designed specifically for play on Next Generation consoles. This has allowed game developer Criterion to rip the training wheels off the game and rebuild it from scratch. The result is a new, expansive world that players can roll through at will. And what a world it is.

Enter Paradise City
Heaven on Earth, at least to road-raging, crash-causing Burnout fanatics, Paradise City is your domain and ultimate proving ground in Burnout Paradise. This expansive driver's playground stretches across 250 miles and encompasses all sorts of road driving conditions, from fun-in-the-sun seaside cruising boulevards, to mountain roads and downtown gridlock. But regardless of what stretch of asphalt you find yourself on, the beauty of this place is that nothing is blocked off and your wits are at least as important as the horsepower under your hood when it comes to racing here. Check out Paradise City's five sub areas (click the links for sample images):

• Downtown Paradise City
• Harbor Town
• Palm Bay Heights
• Silver Lake
• White Mountain

Burnout Your Way
Unlike in previous Burnout games, Burnout Paradise not only puts the keys to your ride in your hands, but places you squarely in the driver's seat when it comes to where you can go and what you can do.

Along with wide avenues and crowded highways, the open game design of Paradise City is also jammed full of hidden side streets, back roads and alley ways. These can be used as short cuts in races, that is, if you know where they are. As you explore, commit these potential short cuts to memory because they will definitely come in handy in a tight race. And since we are talking Burnout here, players should not expect uneventful, genteel contests of speed and precision driving. In Paradise City players are always free to slam, shunt and wreck opponents in their bids for supremacy and they will. Also, new to the Burnout series, races can now start anywhere, anytime. Just pull up to a stoplight and spin your wheels to start one in one of five different event classes:

• Classic Race
• Road Rage
• Burning Route
• Stunt Run (new)
• Marked Man (new)

Instant Online
Burnout Paradise also keeps the mobile carnage coming while simultaneously setting the new standard in online social gameplay. With the new `Easy Drive' feature you can find friends online and with the click of a button invite them to a race. Once they've accepted the race will start immediately. That's right, no more annoying wait times at online lobbies and servers. And keeping in touch with friends is easier than ever.

Team up or Takedown
In the winner-take-all universe of Burnout teaming up usually isn't the first option that comes to mind, but on these rough and tumble streets it's a good option to keep in mind. With more than 300 FreeBurn Challenges packed into the game, players always have the choice of going it alone against the field as a whole or joining forces with up to seven of your buddies in user-created race routes. Either way, if you are victorious in your takedown you'll get the chance to talk some trash as you exchange Mugshots with your victim via an optional camera hooked to your gaming system or your gamertag/PSN avatar if you prefer to keep your identity on the down-low.

Showtime: Crash Anywhere, Any Time
And finally since a new Burnout release wouldn't be complete without a little something special in the wreckage department, Burnout Paradise continues the carnage with an update of its familiar 'Crash Mode.' Renamed 'Showtime Mode,' players can now crash, bounce and scatter their ride in any location and replay the wreckage over and over in slow motion. One of the most addictive and down right fun features of the game, players activate the mode by simply pulling both triggers on their controller and if they are good enough can also immortalize their Showtime moments on the leaderboards for all to see.

Driving fans this is Next-Gen at its best and definitely the Burnout title you have been waiting for.

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Customer Reviews

Fun game
I do like the idea of the game, where you can drive where ever you want, and start an event and any red light. But for some reason, I seem to keep driving on the same road and can't find all of the events. It's not like the map is that big, but I like to drive looking at the map, not the road. DJ Atomica is kind of annoying. Overall, it's a fun game for many hours, it just seems like I'm stuck. On races, I can't seem to slow down and make the turn on the correct street, and it seems like I always get separated towards the end of the race and it's too late. That is frustration also.

A nice change of pace
I am not a fan of racing games. With the exception of silly ones that end with the word "Kart," I stay far, far away from this genre. That said, I AM a fan of huge explosions, causing chain reactions from said explosions and figuring out intricate ways to cause all sorts of virtual mayhem. It's because of this second part that I enjoy the Burnout series.

But Burnout has become a stagnant series, in my opinion, with subsequent sequels simply tweaking the modes and gameplay while relying on slicker graphics to attract gamers. And so it is that we have Burnout Paradise, a game that tries to completely re-invent the series by making it more about an open world.

This completely changes the way the game plays, both for the good and the bad. The freedom to traverse a beautiful city, see the sights and plan your attack is liberating and makes the game feel less like a racing game. This isn't Grand Theft Auto, so don't expect to see cops trailing you for the mayhem you cause. If anything, it's an explosion simulator.

While you're busy driving around the city, you'll come across many events for you to partake of. These events are grouped into five categories, Race, Marked Man, Road Rage, Burning Route and Stunt Run. Race and Marked Man have you racing around the city, with Marked Man having other cars chasing you. Road Rage has you attempting to destroy as many cars as you can withint a set time limit and Burning Route is a time trial, using a certain car. My favorite is the Stunt Run, which tags you with trying to string combos together with various stunts ( boosts, jumps, drifts, reverse driving, near misses, etc.).

The controls feel just right and spot on. A lot of recent driving games have felt loose to me and it was nice to "get behind the wheel" and feel like I actually had control over my car. I've already mentioned the graphics (they're beautiful in case you missed it) and the sound is also meaty, with some nice explosions and a pleasant soundtrack adding to the immersion.

Utilizing varous system-specific peripherals (Xbox Live Vision in this case), you can take a picture for your driver's license and when you take the game online, you'll show your driver's license to whoever you're playing against. It's kind of a cool feature.

Since this game has been out for awhile, you can also partake in some expansions that add a ton of different content and modes to both the online and offline game. So it's nice to see Criterion support the game post release, especially with some of the free updates.

The biggest problem is one inherent in an open-ended game. It's easy to lose focus and pacing when you're not being pulled along a more linear course. I think this change is a good one for Burnout, but, unfortunately, as far as the crashing goes I think the earlier games were better. That said, it's nice to see a company not simply coast through with minor tweaks and actually release a product that dares to be different. It's still the best place to go if you want to cause untold amount of car-related virtual destruction.

Almost Paradise
I have every Burnout and love them all. Went out and bought this on release day, it's still in the mix of games I play. While single player can get repetitive and seriously aggravating having to go all the way back, it gives you a better chance to know where you need to go or what you need to do. Never did I get mad that I had to go all the way after a last sec crash, you just move to the next event.

The open world is great and it's seriously easy to know the areas once you've played the game enough. Which is you've done ea event at least once AND paid attention to where you are/were. Not every game city has to be a known place.

Showtime is no crash mode but is still very addictive once you get the hang of it. Way more fun than trying to launch at a certain angle or just missing that multiplier and waiting to blow you car up.

I see a lot of complaints on no traffic checking. It's not needed but you can still knock cars into your opponent from the sides. While it was fun, this game is about smoothness and that slowed it down.

Online is the main key to this game. So if you don't have friends, guess this game would suck as would most others these days. It would have been nice to have 2-4p split screen, maybe next time. Easy to get on and very little load or waiting to go from sp to online. Even though almost all the challenges are the same from 2-8p, it's gets better with more people. Unless you have someone that can't do something and you're waiting on them. The Host can create a race instead of using the preplanned ones. Best of all is they have down loadable content(dlc) coming to extend the online life. AND IT'S ALL GOING TO BE FREE!!!

FREE DLC!!!! http://criteriongames.com/ to keep track of what's coming

3 things I'd like to see in the next Burnout is local split screen, tune your car and paint you car.