What will make Burnout Paradise perfect?

Xan, must say you hit the nail on the head with these 3 simple rules.. these are the things that make burnout burnout... and its what keeps me coming back :)

theres a thin line between genius and insanity... i think i've fallen off...

Though i understand what xandu is trying to say, all the Burnout games are similar or should i say familiar, speed, danger and its crashes, if you mess up, but Criterion are trying to push the envelope, other games have come out, that can be compared against (but are not Burnout mind), NFS, C&B, FOUC, the racing simulators etc as well as the burnout spin offs like Legends and Dominator. Paradise is going to be Burnout, but its going to have more stuff in it, gimicks per say (sorry at the moment they feel like it, no disrespect, but now that i have said that, it is). There is going to be Boost strips in the garages on the sides of the roads, and 'pick ups' that will either aid you or hurt rival racers like in Mario Kart (but they have to be earned i think), this has already be talked about and written about on other sites/forums( I wrote some of them). There is going to be car washs to keep your car nice and shiney (mine will stay dirty unless it really effects performance). There are even going to be trains that you have to jump through/avoid. Also with the drivers license, it only enables you to drive so well, no mater what car you drive or earn, until you have finished most of the game you are only going to drive as well as your license says you can.
We know the graphics, speed(frame rate) and sound effects are going to be awesome, it is the one thing that is consistant through all thier games and with this generation of consoles thats a given. What the main problem is will it handle the same as the others, driving, drifting, take downs? Burnout 3 was perfect (barring some glitches that cheaters abused), graphics fit with the generation, sound etc(This is back-ward compatable and is great, though voice communications is very muted and it gets laggy/glitchy when alot is going on, frame rates are dropping i think, but worth it). Revenge, looked very pretty(i can't spell a better word, sorry and i quote from drunk on the first day he played it), depth of field, dust effects, 60 fps(so did 3), handled well, etc but road raged sucked and with the car locking feature, caused once again cheaters to abuse this problem and the rubber band effect narked alot of racers too(But it did make it fair for the ones left behind so it was understandable it was put in, hopefully in Paradise it is not so noticable or can be turned off). Burnout 2 was the best single player racing game yet for its time and still stands against the test of time (If this was back-ward compatable i would still be playing it more than i do). Not keen on the first game, but it was still ground breaking and my hat goes off to the work and effort that Criterion were trying to achieve so early on when nothing could match it.
So Burnout Paradise is the new child with ancestors that are giants and are still worshiped today (hence the site). So it has alot to live up to and against. I hope it's a Bastard child(in a good way) and does break all the rules and gives the bird and the two fingers to its founding fathers, with rasberry sauce on top. I know Alex Ward is in charge(strange fellow but i like him, don't know him but he has had a lot of press and pressure from the fans and can handle himself as he looks off in to the distance). He made the others and it is his, to do as he pleases, he is good, sorry, great at what he does and he has a talented team of people to do his bidding and he is a gamer, he does not want to make a shyte game, no game developer does. He wants to make a great game that he will love(got to really it has been in the womb alot longer than any child) and for other gamers to love too. But he also he has to sell it, to pay for all the work he and his team have done, for this game and the past others and others to come. In one of his interviews he was talking about a bike racing game TT-something (sorry i write from memory and people know its not that special or is it, pinky held to right side of mouth) that was great but very hard to play, it was a challege to the gamer to play this game, and it was not hard because it was made badly, it was because it was made well. Will this be applied to Burnout Paradise, its definetly going to be some of the flavor, and they are not going to wreak some thing that is not broken either. But the blur effect on the previous games was an accident, and this game is being built from the ground up so they have to make the blur effect now, as well as millions of other things. But they are going to have to spice it up, and with the things i wrote above and on other sites, that i learned from other articles etc.
Of course this game is going to have speed, boosting, drifting, jumping, flying, driving dangerously, crashing and abusing other racers, but it going to have to be more than that, and that 'more' is scaring the Burnout fans, because it's the unknown, the not knowing, factor. Today most of the Burnout games are still played, years after they were sold, and resold in this day and age of trade-ins, the nostalgia wells up in the 'aholics' as we jump on 'Takedown' or 'Point of Impact' and the races are still just as tight on 'Revenge'. I don't think Revenge was played as it should have been, it was the next step from Takedown, but the takedown part was muted so people just raced to get lap times and not abuse each other. I have a friend who would rather hunt people down, or get in the way to cause a big crash rather than race which was Revenge's real goal i think, it just did not go that way because of the muted takedowns, or should i say easy takedowns. For Paradise i want to fight a rival, not fart in his general direction, so he crashes. I want the speed and danger and the earned skill to achieve this, if something more is thrown in the mix to make this a better experience, so be it. Time and sales will tell if the boys(and girls, i hope with equal opportunities these dayz) in Guilford(England) have go it right?
I say Criterion just bring it, and i'll break it till that lonely burning wheel rolls off on its own, down the road, and whuggaduggas((TM). Na, not really but i like it) to a spinning, melting, smoking stop. (Would it still whuggadugg if it was melted? Yes, it's the metal rim that makes the noise. See detail, that is what the Burnout games also hands out in spades.)

Oh yeah, as for the amount of players, i like the idea of ten players per room, more people to takedown, more per side in road rage, or even a chance for multi-team. An assasination event would be cool too. Or Kamakazi races (racers race in opposite directions). The more options Paradise has, and more control a Host has over game types the better, no traffic, same car as host, the list would be mighty. But since i am not a game developer nor have i a real way of funding that sort of thing, so i'll keep stumm but this is me writing so sod it, but its late so i'll write one another day.

Simply put lets all just wait and see, play it, before we get our knickers in a twist, and if it don't work, heaven forbid, there is still the past games to play.

PS, i hope one day though that Car Wars(Steve Jackson Games, was a paper, big maps, dice, turn based game), will come to next generation, it looks possible and to play in real time.

Patience is something I taught myself, so I never know when its going to run out?