General Comments
Clearly, as is the case with many Burnoutaholics, I’m obsessed. Having now played through BP on the PS3 3 ½ times (twice on my main account, once on my second account and part way on my third account) I naturally thought I should go and do it again on the PC version. At this point I am about 50 wins away from Criterion Elite and have spent enough time on the PC version that I feel like I can make a reasonable comparison.
Because of the tremendous number of variables involved in setting up a PC, anything I say here should be viewed as subjective at best. What I see as differences could come down to the hardware I am using, how I have stuff configured or even how far I sit from the screen and speakers. So take all my comments with a grain of salt.
With all that in mind, here are some thoughts on the PC version of the game.
Gameplay
Single Player
With the exception of the introduction of some PC specific billboards, the PC version appears to be virtually identical to PS3 version of the game. There are no noticeable differences in the way the cars handle and single player events such as stunt run, marked man, burning routes and road rage seem unchanged.
Getting all of the superjumps, smashes and billboards seemed a lot easier than I remember from my most recent run through which was just after the PS3 trophy support was added. I’m sure this is simply a function of the color changes designed to enhance the visibility of these items.
Online
Accessing online is exactly the same as on the PS3 and from what I’ve seen, online is very consistent with the console versions. An obvious exception is the messaging systems used by the two consoles and that of the PC differ.
Online is still pretty quiet. It will be interesting to see what the composition is of the PC players of this game. Mostly people who previously played on a console or players who are completely new to the game?
Racing
I have not done any racing at all on PC and have not done any on the PS3 version is quite some time so I really don’t have any basis to form an opinion here. What I will say is that, for better or worse, the racing will be exposed to all of the problems that have cropped up in the PS3 environment with race and boost class switching.
As with any PC based game, at some point there will probably be user hacks introduced to the game. I imagine some of the first will involve racing, closely followed by something takedown related such as invincibility.
Magically Appearing Cars
More accurately described as late spawning traffic. While it is difficult to tell on the smaller PC screen, it appeared to me that this was less of a problem on the PC version. Not a lot less but in certain spots where I tend to see traffic spawn at the last moment it seemed as though the traffic cars were visible a little bit sooner than on the PS3 version. For example, if you are doing a speed run on Newton Drive going in a counter-clockwise direction there is a particular spot just before where Newton Drive splits that I find the traffic spawning late is a recurring problem. It didn’t seem as bad on the PC. I’ll need to continue to look at this before I’ll know if I’m just imagining things.
Graphics
As a practical matter, any perceived differences between the graphics on the PS3 and the PC versions of the game are most likely a function of the PC hardware I am using and the video settings I have configured in the game. That said, I expected that the PC version would be superior graphically to the PS3 version but didn’t find that to be the case. Some things I noted are:
· The PC version offers a fair amount of adjustability for the video settings including:
o Quality of texture maps
o Quality of shadows
o Level of anti-aliasing
o Display resolution
o Display ratio; automatic, 4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10
o Motion blur
o Brightness
o Contrast
· Distance draw in seems to be somewhat better on the PS3 than the PC.
· Getting the anti-aliasing setting right on the PC is key. Without anti-aliasing you’ll find that shattered windows on cars simply turn grey. The detailed shatter patterns we are use to seeing in game on the consoles only appear after anti-aliasing is turned on. This is easily done via an in game menu but you need to know to do this.
· The motion blur can be set to “always” which I believe is a difference from the console version. I’m certainly noticing it more on the PC.
Audio
I was actually quite surprised to find that I like the PC audio better than the PS3 version. The audio equipment I’m using for the PS3 is superior; a full blown surround sound home theater system using a digital optical feed from the PS3 to the receiver. On the PC I’ve got a middle of the road 5.1 surround sound speaker system hooked up with conventional RCA plugs. The sound on the PS3 should be better. However, I think my PCs internal audio board may be better than the PS3s. Or it could just be the speakers are better positioned around my PC than my PS3.
One thing that I either haven’t figured out how to do yet or simply isn’t available is custom sound tracks on the PC. I never bothered to copy all my MP3 files to the PS3. But since they were already on the PC I figured it would be worth looking into. Hopefully, I’m just not finding the right menu option.
Controllers
I found the default keyboard control layout to be less than ideal but as it is easily changed this doesn’t present a problem. I was surprised that the game didn’t recognize my game pad. While I can program the game pad to use the keyboard controls, I found that to be less precise than what I was used to.
The easiest solution was to simply buy an Xbox controller. Windows immediately recognized it and installed the drivers. The game also saw it immediately. Best of all, the game allows you do assign buttons to functions as you see fit. No more accidentally turning on the lights and siren when cornering in the Citizen.
Getting used to the Xbox game pad layout vs. that of the PS3 proved to be no problem at all.
Conclusion
The PC version of the game is one of the better console to PC ports I’ve seen. Provided you have the hardware to run the game I don’t think you lose anything going from the console version to the PC version.
The question is why buy it if you already own a console version? Few reasons I can think of:
· You’re as obsessed with the game as I am and this will give you an excuse to play through it one more time.
· You have a high end gaming machine that can use the maximum setting for graphics. I would expect that at those settings the game would be better looking than on either console.
· You have friends on the other console you’d like to play against. Provided you have a PC that can run the game well, buying Burnout Paradise for PC is a cheap way to have access to a whole new group of online players.
Hardware Comparison
I’ve included detailed specs of the hardware I’m using below. As mentioned above the PC video settings can be heavily customized. It is worth noting that, while I’m using a fairly powerful PC, I am not using the highest setting available in the game as, based on the Vista “Windows Experience Index” my system does not have the capability to run the game at it’s highest settings. The Windows Experience Index is intended to be a simple way of ranking your hardware to determine if it is capable of handling a particular game. Burnout Paradise requires a minimum rating of 4.3 and a maximum of 5.0 (on a scale of 1 to 5.9). My PC generates a 4.8 rating which is based on the weakest component of those tested.
PS3
Burnout Paradise original disc updated to version 1.6
PS3 specifications
· 60 GIG model with full PS2 BC
· 320 GIG hard drive upgrade
· HDMI video out
· Optical audio out
· Dual shock wireless controller
TV Specifications
· 32 inch Samsung LCD using HDMI input for 1080 display
Audio
· Denon 7.1 surround receiver using DTS for PS3 audio
· Acoustic Research speakers
PC
Burnout Paradise Ultimate Box for PC
Dell XPS 720
· Intel Core 2 Extreme QX6600 2.4 GHz
· 4 GB ram
· 1 TB hard drive
· Twin nVidia GeForce 8800 GT video card 768 MB on board memory
· Xbox gamepad
· Vista Home Ultimate 32 bit edition
Display
· Viewsonic 22” widescreen LCD
· 1280 x 768
Audio
· Cambridge Soundworks 5.1 surround PC speakers
· Soundblaster X-Fi audio
Thanks to Khanon for clarifying some of the graphics issues I was having!
