Sunday, December 30, 2007

Smashy Smashy! A hands on preview of Burnout Paradise




Gamers can be a fickle bunch. Change too much in a well-established series and watch the flames arise, but rest on your laurels too much and you’ll be hearing cries of the series becoming stagnant (case in point – the Madden series) nonetheless.

Burnout Paradise, the latest in EA’s high-octane, crash and smash simulation series seems to be destined for controversy. On the surface, Paradise, which releases in mid January for the Xbox 360 and PS3 looks like a sharp departure from the series roots. Gone is the one race at a time linear gameplay in favor of a new, wide-open sandbox style gameplay. Gamers can now tool around the massive Paradise City, wrecking what they want - when they want and taking place in events at their own leisure.

While some might cry-foul at the developers for taking such a large step away from the formula that made the series so popular – it must be noted that at its core – Paradise plays and feels just like the older games – only with much, much more freedom.

In most open-world games, parts of the world are locked until you complete certain missions or chapters – not so in Paradise City. Right from the start, the entire city is yours to explore – and it is massive. While you will be able to take part in any of Paradise City’s events in any order you please, you will have to wait to unlock the nicer cars. It’s alright though, even your junker-cars can be given high-class looks by visiting one of the game’s many gas stations or body shops, which get added to your map every time you visit one.

Anyone familiar with The Burnout series knows that it’s not so much about racing as it is causing destruction and crashes – which Paradise looks to take to the next level. I’m no masochist or anything – but crashes look and sound amazing. When you wreck, a grainy, black and white filter slows down the action, allowing you to hear and see your ride bite the dust. I found myself purposely crashing to see how many different ways I could find to see new animations.

Burnout Paradise is different, but a lot of fun so far. Anyone familiar with the series should give it a look when it launches in early 2008. Stay with Blast Magazine for the review.

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