Doing events however isn't the end of the fun in Paradise City. When you're not pulling the biggest multiplier in Stuntrun or being overly aggressive in Takedown, the exploration of the map is most important. Around the map you will find gates and billboards which need to be smashed into, with 400 gates and 120 billboards; it's no easy feat, but successfully finding them all will net you a new car for each, on top of that there are super jumps around the map which you need to land successfully, these require a lot of speed to get across but landing them without crashing is the hardest part, since these aren't events, if you don't get it first time, expect to drive all the way back to perform it again. It all adds a nice distraction to the usual events after you have had enough of them, since there are 110 events in total throughout the game, every time you complete a set amount, your license gets upgraded and the events reset until you acquire the Burnout Elite license.
With all of that, you would think that's enough, but the game goes a step further introducing Road Rules and Showtime. Road Rules mean setting the fastest time on a particular road, they aren't the most interesting of things to do and can get repetitive after a while since you have most likely driven the map several times, but since they aren't an event, they can be done by simply exploring the map and going as fast as possible. Showtime however is what ye olde Burnout lovers will be looking forward to, while racing down a street, hitting the shoulder buttons puts your car into Showtime mode, your car explodes into the air (not into a molten wreck which is a shame) and allows you to control the direction of it, using your boost to explode again and again to move the car in your chosen path of destruction. The aim of the game is to smash into as many cars, signs and coaches as possible, coaches will increase your multiplier by doubling your score, so trying to keep the carnage going while maintaining enough boost to continue is paramount. The more damage you do, the more cash value accumulates, the way to win is to get more than the set amount upon starting. A few features are missing from the game which were included in the previous Burnout titles however such as the awesome crash time, unfortunately for those that haven't played the previous games, crash time was one of the most fun games modes included, being similar to Showtime in most respects. Aftertouch is also absent, which allowed you to steer your molten wreckage during a race to make it even more destructive, traffic checking has also been removed, but what Burnout Paradise adds to the series more than makes up for it's few omitted features.
Multiplayer in Burnout Paradise really shines, offline multiplayer provides you with a Party Mode which - just using one controller, pits you and your friends, up to eight, against each other in various different modes which were previously discussed, it's fun for a short time but the online multiplayer is far more rewarding. Online multiplayer allows you to play against seven other players online, the game plays in a similar way to the single player, the whole map is accessible and you can explore to find the rest of the super jumps, billboards and smashes, so trying to find them with a friend can take some of the loneliness out of driving around looking for a small gate to crash into, road rules and showtime are also accessible in the multiplayer, letting you set scores to post online. The host selects the different events you can all play on, from setting up races between set points on the map, some can be quite complex including laps, or doing challenges and timed challenges, which total in excess of 500, some are easy, some are frustratingly difficult – having you barrel roll through a piece of aircraft fuselage in the airfield for instance, it all adds up to a nice online multiplayer package which won't have you going bored anytime soon. One of the cooler features online is the use of your camera which when your taken down or you take someone else down, if you have a usb camera plugged in, the camera takes a Smugshot and sends it to the opponent or you receive one in return, not many people use there cameras online unfortunately, but they can provide an interesting site at times and for the more precarious smugshots you recieve, you can export them to a memory card for uploading onto your PC, or saving to your hard drive if your playing on the PC version. Online also allows you to use your headset with very clear communications on all platforms, great for playing with a group of friends, some great times can be had and its nice to hear your opponent cursing down the microphone when you successfully take them down. One point worth mentioning is that as touched on earlier, the bikes and cars cannot be played together, thus making you choose one or the other. Bikes are fun for a while with it's own set of events, but the lack of different events and things you can do with them simply makes them seem redundant after the novelty has worn off, not being able to set up races in multiplayer either, unlike with the cars, makes it a huge drawback after playing online with the cars during many of the different events and activities.
The three platforms Burnout is available on, PC, PS3 and 360 offer little differences, with the PC being the leading platform graphics wise, the PS3 is slightly sharper than the 360 version, but you would be hard pressed to even notice since you will be to busy trying to avoid an oncoming car while racing. The world goes through the day with great visuals from an early morning light to the pitch black of night, thankfully if you don't like racing during the night you can easily fix the time to morning, mid-day, evening or night. Having the game playing on a HD set will make a huge difference to the games look, the minimap for instance is fuzzy and difficult to make out unless you're sat directly in front of the TV on standard definition, upon playing in HD the whole thing is crisp, sharp and clear. The PS3 and 360 versions allow custom soundtracks within the game as well so if you get bored of the music which after about 120 hours of playtime that I seem to have accumulated, having your own music preference is a real benefit and saves you turning the music off all together. The Paradise City resident guru, DJ Atomica from some of the SSX games, provides help and insight into the game at certain points, giving you hints on what's happening throughout the world and helping you on certain aspects of the gameplay and events, it can get a bit annoying after a while but he doesn't pop in too often so you need not worry about having to listen to someone talk through the soundtrack all the time.
For players of the older Burnout games, the open world setting is quite different from the track based originals, but after playing Paradise, you'll grow accustomed to it and wonder why Criterion never did it for the earlier titles. Whether you like it or not is purely your choice, but Paradise caters for the majority and should prove to be a great hit. It does come with a few draw backs with some missing features, but the whole package is a fun single player experience and even greater online with lots of replay value. For anyone questioning whether to purchase Burnout Paradise, there is a demo which you can try but it does lack depth which the full game provides, so don't hesitate buying it. The game is a fun and exciting racer which will see you through many many hours of gameplay.
