Latest news about Burnout Paradise

Lots of people have been wondering what the new ShowTime will be like. There are no more crash junctions in the game. As you all probably know Burnout Paradise is all free and open and there is no loading. You can crash anywhere, anytime, online and offline. In ShowTime you create the crash mode. You decide where to start and stop the crash; you choose where the crash junctions should be. Basically the player is given the power to create his own crash mode. So far Criterion has not shown ShowTime to anyone so I guess we will just have to wait for the first in game footage before we can really understand what it will be like.

 

To start a race in Burnout Paradise just stop at any of the 120 traffic lights. Races can be customized in numerous ways. First of all the game mode can be selected. You can also setup a series of races (rounds). For each race you can set a start point, and end point and up to 15 checkpoints. To help you setup the races the estimated race time for the current race is displayed. This is to make it easier making the race the correct length. There are another couple of really cool settings that I have been waiting for as well. Traffic can be turned on and off. Traffic checking can be turned on and off. I know a couple of my friends will love this. They have also included another cool setting called Boost Rules. Basically you can setup what kind of boost you want in the race. You will probably be able to select Burnout 1, 2, 3 and 4 style boosting!

 

If you have a favourite event setup you can save up to ten of your favourites. You also have a recent playlist that saves the last events that you have raced. You can easily pick any of these and redo the race.

 

Road Rage is new in Burnout Paradise. Players are no longer constrained by closed courses and the Rage goes on as long as you can keep it going. If your car is really banged up and busted you can just roll across the front of the Body Shop and your car will be repaired in real time and the Road Rage continues. You can roll across the forecourt of any gas station to get your boost bar refilled.

 

Since Burnout Paradise is a totally free and open game there are no laps in the races. The Burnout Team is breaking with previous racing conventions. They don’t need little courses with a set route and laps. It is all about getting from one point to another the fastest way possible. Laps imply constraints. There are no constraints in Burnout Paradise. No more laps for you!

 

When racing in an open world you need a way to find your way from A to B. There is no on-screen map while you are racing. Road names will probably be your best friend as they will guide you through the city. A compass and the distance to your destination are displayed on the screen while you are racing. Before the race starts a map is shown giving you detailed information about the race. It shows start, finish and any checkpoints.

 

All of you have probably heard that you can rip your car in half in Burnout Paradise. Well you can’t. Basically this was an idea the team had 2 years ago but the development of the game has taken a different path. Two months ago they decided that they would not rip cars in half. To me this is no big deal. As long as the game looks and feels amazing at 60 FPS I’m happy.

 

There has been some concern that you can only play with your friends online in Burnout Paradise and that meeting new random people will be really hard. Don’t worry! If you have no friends and you want to hook up with some randoms for a quickie online you will have no trouble doing that in Burnout Paradise.

 

Another thing that is new in Burnout Paradise is that all the cars have a manufacturer and a model name. The blue muscle car that has been seen in some of the in game footage is called the Hunter, Cavalry. Hunter is a fictional US muscle car manufacturer. There is a background story and a badge for each manufacturer.

We will get back to you with more information when we have tried the game.