Game Review: Burnout Paradise

Developer: Criterion Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Console: Xbox 360/PC/PS3
Release Date: January 2008

The Good
Paradise City is gorgeous. Plenty of traffic, building variety, a lake, sea shore, country side, and countless off-road shortcuts.

No loading while driving around. Paradise City is huge, and as you’re driving to a new area the game loads without you ever noticing it, except for a little icon at the top left corner. There is loading before and after each event, but it’s not terrible.

Marked Man events. You must go from point A to point B, but there will be 3 or 4 black cars out to get you. They will try to make you crash enough times to the point where your car won’t be able to race, and you will lose. These guys mean business.

Road Rage, my favorite event, is back. Opponents seem a little easier to take down this time around, but as you get new licenses the takedown score to beat becomes pretty high.

Online races are a lot of fun. You can also complete online-only challenges with friends, like meeting inside a baseball stadium, jumping together from the same ramp, or making teams to take down opponents.

Located all over Paradise City are breakable billboards, hidden shortcuts marked by yellow fences, junkers, repair shops, gas stations, paint shops, parking areas and super jump ramps that you must find to unlock achievements. I’m having a lot of fun searching for these.

Sound effects are sharp and crystal clear as expected. Tires screeching, glass shattering, engines revving, metal twisting, etc. The in-game Dolby Digital 5.1 never gets old.



The Bad
No offline multiplayer, not even 2-player split-screen.

Events can’t be restarted. That means that if you mess up an event, like a 3 minute race, you have to reach the finish line for the event to end, and if you’d like to retry it you have to drive back to the starting point. This is incredibly annoying.

DJ Atomika, the announcer, just won’t shut up. He says the most obvious and idiotic things, like, “try not to crash” and “use boost to go faster.” I don’t think a single gamer likes him.

Stunt Runs are a bit on the lame side. You are given a limited amount of time to reach a high score by completing stunts, like clearing super jumps, performing barrel rolls or breaking billboards. It’s not terrible, but it becomes dull and repetitive quick.

You can no longer pass an event by finishing on 3rd place. You don’t even win medals anymore. Either you finish 1st, or you don’t finish at all.

No crash mode. Every Burnout has had a crash mode. What the hell was Criterion Games thinking? There’s a Showtime mode where you crash and your car starts tumbling down the road as you try to hit as many cars as possible, but it is not nearly as fun as the previous crash modes. Lame!

The music selection, while not bad, is not as cool as I had hoped. My favorite one is “Paradise City” performed by Guns N’ Roses.

Cars are still driven by ghosts. Is it too hard to put some freaking drivers inside the cars?

In Burnout Revenge you could steer your wrecked car after a crash and slam into opponents for an after-touch takedown. Not any more. Another problem with takedowns is that if you perform a takedown on a car and that one makes other cars crash, you’ll only get 1 takedown point, unlike before where you could get as many takedowns as there were opponents.

There are no weather changes. It’s always daytime, with clear skies. It’s a gorgeous-looking city, but come on, not even a single drop of rain or nighttime? Lazy programmers.

Burnout Revenge introduced the Crashbreaker Race, where you could make your car explode after crashing to take some of your opponents with you. This is gone, sadly.

For whatever reason the Burnout series has never featured licensed cars, so every vehicle looks somewhat similar to real cars, but aren’t.

Car-checking is no longer allowed, so if you hit a car from behind you will wreck your car.



Bottom Line
If you’re new to the Burnout series you’ll love Paradise, but fans of Revenge will miss many features that are inexplicably absent. Also, if you’re not planning to go online, forget about playing locally with your friends. Still, there’s plenty to do in Paradise City to keep you pushing the pedal to the metal for a long time.

GameStop Gets Exclusive Special Editions: MGS4, SCIV

Do you like to give your hard-earned money to GameStop? Well then, there are a couple of special editions you may want to inquire about.

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots will have a special limited edition at GS. For $85, you'll get the game (of course), plus a case with new art work by Yoji Shinkawa, and a BR disc with 'making of' specials, and a soundtrack record. Catch it June 12. SNAAAAAAKE!!

On July 29, Soul Calibur IV is coming, it was just announced. And GS will have a special limited edition of that game, too. For $80, you'll get the game in a tin box, plus a t-shirt (design has not been shown..), an art book and 'some sort of exclusive downloadable content'. The game is on both PS3 and 360, but it seems the special editions apply to both consoles.

Game Preview: The Club

Imagine an organization so hidden and secretive, that only a few people around the globe know of its existence. Powerful leaders in The Club "recruit" outsiders to fight in their violent underground blood spot, like ancient gladiators. The combatants have only one option: kill or be killed.

At first glance, Sega’s The Club looks like every other shooting game out there. Big guys carrying even bigger guns running around killing everybody. Been there, done that. But on closer inspection you realize there’s more to it than that. Developed by Bizarre Creations, the guys behind Project Gotham Racing, The Club feels more like an arcade game than your typical shooting game.



The objectives of the game are simple: kill everybody as fast as you can. The camera is behind your character’s shoulder, similar to Gears of War, but unlike that game you won’t be finding cover behind walls and obstacles or you will lose. On the contrary, the game encourages you to sprint as fast as possible, killing off your enemies in as little time as possible to score massive points and combos. You get more points the closer you get to shooting an enemy’s head, with head shots giving you the most points, and satisfaction. This is why it feels like an arcade game. No time to waste staring at the pretty graphics.

I must admit my adrenaline was pumped while blazing through the levels, especially in Time Attack mode. The timer is constantly depleting, like, super fast, and only killing your opponents fills it up a bit. You also have to find and shoot clock signs hidden throughout the levels, which improve your chances of success. Did I mention there’s also a set target score for each difficulty level? Yes, you’ll have to beat a time limit and a target score.

With four levels of difficulty, 20 different kinds of weapons, 8 massive stages, a time attack mode, tournaments, and intense multiplayer it seems like The Club will be a sadistic fun ride, at least until the next big shooter comes along.

Game Preview: Devil May Cry 4

With the exception of part 2, the Devil May Cry series has been great fun. Capcom has just released a demo of Devil May Cry 4 for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 and here are my impressions.

The demo is divided into two parts. On the first you can play through a bunch of the game’s environments for 10 minutes. What you do in those 10 minutes is up to you. The other part pits you against a few Frost enemies (remember them from the first DMC?) and then a boss fight with Berial, a big ass fire demon. There’s no time limit here but it’s all over way too quickly. As a demo it works because in the first part you’d like to just stare at the gorgeous graphics and jump all over the place breaking boxes, benches, crates and stuff to collect red orbs but you can’t because of the annoying time limit, and on the second part the stage ends when you beat Berial and with practice you can own him pretty quickly and easily. You end up with an itchy trigger finger and a thirst for demon blood. Capcom’s Dead Rising demo was similar and I ended up buying the game just because the demo was so damn fun.

In the demo you only play as Nero, the newcomer who looks way too much like Dante and controls almost identical. The only difference is that he only has one handgun instead of two and has glowing hand that does more than look cool. That hand (glove?) is called the Devil Bringer, and can make Nero perform powerful throws, travel to hard-to-reach places, like Link’s hookshot. Nero pulls of devastating combos with his sword, handgun and Devil Bringer, killing off enemies with just a few hits. I’m guessing the demo is set to easy.

The music is rocking, as expected, and all the familiar sound effects from previous games are back and sounding better than ever thanks to in-game Dolby Digital surround sound.

I’m really looking forward to the full game, that should be released on February 5 on both consoles. Fans of the series will not be disappointed.

Game Preview: Turok

It’s been 6 years since the last Turok game was released on the PlayStation 2, Turok: Evolution. That game sucked so bad it almost completely killed the franchise. Now, Propaganda Games and Touchstone Studios (I’ve never heard of them before either) are resurrecting Turok on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC this February. The game will simply be called Turok.

Even thought I wasn’t expecting much from a game studio I’ve never heard about I was still disappointed by the demo. It’s better than Turok: Evolution, but Popeye on the NES was better that Evolution, so that’s not saying much. It’s all so average and ugly. It runs on the Unreal Engine 3, the same one used for Gears of War, but doesn’t look even half as good as Gears. The character models are ugly and the background textures are boring and very last generation. The weapons are not impressive and the dinosaurs are lame. The most fun I had was using the combat knife, pulling off one hit kills when an enemy or reptile gets too close.

I’ve heard good things about the multiplayer modes but I don’t know if that’s reason enough to buy it. Maybe I’ll rent it and write a proper review. The again, maybe not.

Yoda and Darth Vader Invade Soul Calibur IV

Namco Bandai and Lucas Arts have shocked the video game world today with the announcement that Star Wars' Master Yoda and Darth Vader will be joining the cast of Soul Calibur IV. This would normally seem bizarre, but Soul Calibur II included Link, Spawn and Heihachi as playable characters, so anything goes these days. Although I can't say I'm completely surprised, I can say, however, that I didn't see this coming.

Unfortunately we won't be able to pit the light side of the Force against the dark side because each character will be exclusive to one particular console. The Xbox 360 gets the little green Jedi Master and the PlayStation 3 gets the Dark Lord of the Sith. It's both awesome and sucks space balls at the same time. Namco sure knows how to make hardcore gamers spend extra money on their games.





Be sure to head over to http://www.soulcalibur.com/ to watch the high resolution trailer directly from the CES '08 event.

Game Preview: Burnout Paradise

The Burnout Paradise demo has been available for download on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for a while now, and as a fan of the series for many years I thought I’d go ahead and write my thoughts on it.

The main feature in Paradise is that the game is no longer linear. You are free to roam around Paradise City and choose which challenges to participate in. I wasn’t sure this was going to work, but playing is believing. The demo only allows you to race on two events and do a single stunt run, but what’s there is exciting enough to make me want to own it when it’s released next month. Oh, and the graphics are sick! Expect a full review early next year.

Game Trailer: Final Fantasy XIII

After almost a year Square Enix has finally released a new trailer of Final Fantasy XIII, one of the few PlayStation 3-exclusive titles. It shows Lightning, the female lead character, kicking ass with her acrobatics, shooting skills and fire magic. At the end, a mysterious blond guy in a motorcycle that seems to be a transformed ice esper Shiva, shows up to help Lightning when she's outnumbered by soldiers. The game should be released sometime in 2008, hopefully.

Game Trailer: Grand Theft Auto IV

Those who know me know I don't care about the Grand Theft Auto franchise, but who am I to deny its fans of the new GTAIV trailer? The graphics look pretty bad compared to other recent Xbox 360 and PS3 games. But that probably won't prevent it for selling a gazillion copies if the gameplay lives up to Vice City and San Andreas. Look for it in stores in the second quarter of 2008.

Sony PS3 TV Spots: Europe vs America

American PlayStation 3 TV Spot

Holy shit! I already own a PS3 but I want another one after watching this awesome commercial. It's one of the best video game ads I've ever seen. It also reminds you that with the PS3 you're getting a built-in Blu-ray player so you can watch exclusive HD movies from Columbia Pictures, Disney and 20th Century Fox. Congratulations Sony, your efforts are paying off.

European PlayStation 3 TV Spot

Smiling poodles, circus folk, plastic hair, soulless women... What the hell is this? Who in their right mind would see this ad and get the irresistible urge to buy a PS3? Seriously, what were they thinking? European gamers are getting no love from Sony, unless bizarre, gay, and creepy describe their idea of love.

Game Preview: Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

First of, let me apologize to the PlayStation fanboys who got agitated because I left out this game from my November must-have games post. Frankly, I completely forgot about it. Now that the demo is available on the PlayStation Network Store, I will devote a whole preview post for it. Everyone can be happy now.

Nothing I had previously seen about Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune had impressed me, and I mean nothing. It looks like Tomb Raider with a random dude in jeans who doesn’t know how to aim a gun. Well, that’s still my impression of the game, but having played it changes everything.

The graphics are very nice to look at, with fluid animations and lush rainforest environments. The water effects are fantastic, and Nathan Drake’s clothes get wet in a very realistic way. I don’t remember ever seeing something like that. Even the guy’s hair is amazing to look at. Another nice feature is the facial expressions in the cut-scenes. As good as the graphics are, I have to mention that Metal Gear Solid 3’s jungle environments are still the best I’ve ever seen.

The demo begins with Nathan and a woman on a plane flying over a forest. Their plane is shot down by invisible enemies and they are forced to jump in parachutes and land in separate areas. You start running around, getting used to the controls, and you’ll immediately get the impression that someone at Naughty Dog is a fan of Gears of War. You can hide behind walls and obstacles by pressing the circle button, peek from the side by holding L1, and fire your weapon with R1. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I thought I’d mention it. You can also punch and, of course, jump, as well as climb stuff and hang from ledges. The controls are good and responsive, but it sucks that you can’t auto-jump over anything that’s over one inch in height, like in Ninja Gaiden or even Zelda, but you do get used to it.

Shortly after jumping over a few obstacles the enemies start to attack you. Generic guys in dirty tank-tops start crawling all over the place like cockroaches, armed with guns, rifles, shotguns and grenades. Punching foes is easy and looks cool, but gunplay is awkward and a bit challenging. There’s no health meter either, so you have to be extra careful. Standing still for a few seconds seems to refill your health, though. So you shoot the bad guys while hiding behind walls and rocks, and then steal their ammo and weapons. Most of the time I got shot and didn’t even know where the enemy was. They hide behind walls and shoot you from high, hard to reach places. And yes, there are exploding barrels all over the jungle, like in real life. The demo ends after fighting some more guys, in a very anticlimactive way.

Since the game will be released on November 15 there won’t be any changes made to the gameplay, so playing the demo and the full game will feel the same. I can’t really say it’s a must-have, but it does seem fun enough. PS3-exclusives are few and far apart so that alone makes Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune a game to look out for.

PlayStation 3 Turns 2.0

The PlayStation 3’s system software was updated yesterday to version 2.0. That’s great, I love updates, but they keep getting bigger and bigger, as in 118MBs. It took me almost an hour to download the damn thing. Anyway, let’s take a look at what this update does:

- You can finally customize the XMB’s (dashboard) icons and background. I’m still wondering why it took so long for this to happen.
- PlayStation-related news and information can be displayed at the XMB.
- You can create playlists for photos and music.
- The PSP can now turn the console on. Will anyone ever use this feature? And, can the PSP turn it off?
- Video downloads, like trailers, can be watched as they download.
- The vibration feature for the upcoming vibrating PS3 Dual Shocks has been added. A bunch of non-vibrating games will eventually get updates to benefit from this feature.
- And other minor things not worth mentioning.

God of War III is Officially Coming to the PlayStation 3

Finally, a PS3 exclusive title besides Metal Gear Solid 4 that I might actually purchase. But wait, the series creative director, David Jaffe, left SCEA to start his own company, and now Cory Barlog, the series director, has also left SCEA. Uh oh, what impact will that have on God of War III's production? Only time will tell. May the Gods be with us.