GTP Video Game Cool Wall: Burnout Paradise

[Cowboy]

Burnout Paradise, nominated by @JR98

Release Date: January 2008 (PS3 & X360), February 2009 (PC)
Developer: Criterion Games & Electronic Arts
Genre: Arcade Racing

Spoiler: Additional information

Burnout Paradise is the 5th, and final, mainstream entry in the Burnout series. It is the only Burnout to feature an open world, set in the fictional "Paradise City", with over 150 drivable cars including DLC. Cars range from muscle cars to sports compacts and supercars, with a number of race cars being available late into the game. Burnout Paradise was built completely from the ground up with an entirely new physics engine allowing for incredibly realistic damage and car deformation, allowing for cars to be completely destroyed in a huge crash, however if a player is in a tougher car they can get a "driveaway" from a collision, which simply allows the player to keep driving their car.

Every car also has it's own manufacturer and model name, with each make specialising in different cars, with Hunter mainly making American cars and trucks, Kreiger building Euro sports cars and Nakamura making Japanese imports. Every car has it's own stats, handling and damage model, with a Kreiger WTR (F1 car) being much faster but also much more fragile than a Kreiger Pioneer (German SUV).

Paradise has an extensive soundtrack of real songs that can be edited depending on a player's musical tastes. Most of the soundtrack being rock music with some classical songs mixed in. The soundtrack also includes the OST from the first 3 burnout's as well as the theme for Burnout Paradise, and the game's licenced theme, Paradise City by Guns 'N' Roses.

Spoiler: Additional images

 

[MisterWaffles]

Hell yeah. All I have to say about this one.

 

[JR98]

Easily one of the best arcade racing games of the previous generation.

Amazing physics, graphics, vehicle destruction and soundtrack with gameplay design that is still amazing today.

I’m currently playing through the remastered version on PS4 and it’s just as amazing now as it was when it first came out.

A perfect racing game with none of the awful “monetisation” techniques that would become commonplace in the gaming industry just a few years later.

Crazy to think this game is 11 Year’s old now and still feels amazing to play, better than any of today’s racing games IMO

 

[Wolfe]

Solid racing game that deserves respect for being an early example of generous post-release support and making good use of its open map in creative ways.

 

[Casey]

Gave it an A for the memories it gave me.

 

[rallymorten]

(oh god I'm posting on a Cool Wall again)

I'm trying to think of anything I can use to justify giving it anything other than a straight A, and I'm honestly struggling. Maybe I'd mention the amount of multiplayer challenges and how on Earth you were expected to complete them in any other way than grinding them out with 7 friends given how most online players (unsurprisingly given the game) weren't much different to those found in a later game set in a knockoff-LA.

Having said that, those concerns are more than dwarfed when one considers how every single other aspect of the game - map design, vehicle design, gameplay in general, online integration, the whole shabang - to this day remains a benchmark for what makes not just a good, but a fantastic open-world driving game. It's been ten-and-a-bit years, and while there's been plenty of copycats and attempts to topple it - most of all from EA themselves - this Inferno Van is still going strong, and is arguably better than ever with the remaster.

And then there's all the little details that tell you with no uncertainty that, published by EA or not, Criterion actually had fun making this. I particularly recall an interview of sorts (might've been one of their live streams) where they talk about how, during development one day, someone asked if they could possibly make the sliders for the audio options go to 11, and the people responsible gave the best possible answer: "we've already done that!"

And then there's all the wacky DLC ideas - not only did they actually introduce bikes down the road, but they had concepts for everything: boats, planes (which they actually got somewhat working), even time travelling.. funny actually, that last one, given that the remaster really does feel like going ten years back in time - in a good way.

TL;DR take a traditional Burnout, add gameplay straight out of TrackMania, spice it up with glorious slow-mo soft-body tearing-cars-apart-molecule-by-molecule from BeamNG and then plonk all of that down in the world of Grand Theft Auto. If that doesn't sound like the ultimate vehicular sandbox, there's something wrong with you.

also the Rossolini Tempesta has the highest level of me-want of anything ever. Fight me.

 

[AudiMan2011]

Hands down one of the best PS3 racers.

 

[UltimateYosh]

My favourite game ever. I poured hours upon hours back in the day into this, and it still holds up exceptionally today.

The great DLC is just the icing on a very delicious cake.