Burnout: Paradise City on PS3

Greetings once again, fellow members!

I recently celebrated my 31st birthday. As a result, a certain number of gifts were supplied to me, as is the custom. My son, who is a thoroughly badass eleven year old, heard me opine that the Burnout series of games was, in my estimation, one of the greatest driving game franchises in the worlds history, owing largely to the fact that although you have to have an eye to what you are doing, the games in that series allowed one to drive angry, really, really angry.

Lo and behold, when my son handed me a gift bag on the day in question, nestled within its confines was none other than Burnout Paradise! I have played it before, of course, but have never owned it. Now, it must be said that it is now quite an old game, on what is fast becoming an entirely aged platform, but having loaded it up, and placed the pedal against the metal for just over nine hours of game play since starting it, I have to say that I am absolutely loving this game all over again. I had only ever played bits of it, certain routes, in certain cars, for only small amounts of time. Being able to sit there and just slam around a city in an increasingly gnarly collection of vehicles, is a manner of passing the time which I find utterly sublime, and totally ridiculous, all at once.

Being the anal retentive sort that I can be where such things are concerned, I have, thus far, painted all my collected vehicles in colour schemes which link them thematically. That is to say, that they are all either black all over, or detailed in some way, over a black background. It amazes me how engrossing such a relatively simple game can be, and I had forgotten since I last played Burnout Paradise, just how good the game looks for its age.

No matter if I am taking part in a crashtastic Road Rage event, or completing a red hot Burning Route to gain a more powerful vehicle, or fleeing from the authorities in a Marked Man event, I find myself utterly absorbed by the process, which stands as testament to the badassery of the franchise. I have to admit, I always preferred the Burnout: Revenge format, where the route is the only available road, with some small detours and cut throughs, as opposed to the open city scape of Paradise. That being said, the added concentration required to navigate through a city at two hundred plus miles per hour, adds an entirely new level to the immersive sensation that playing the game represents, and I have been enjoying myself immensely. The sounds, the music, the feeling that comes when one has just smashed an opponent fender first into a bridge abutment... it just does not get old.

I had it on the 360 years ago and have since bought the ultimate box version on steam, its a great little game and I still occasionally load it up and have an hour on it. Revenge was definitely still my favorite of the franchise though, I'm hoping that one day we get a new version or I'd even settle for a pack containing all the originals on steam

a reply to: longy9999

Heh... When I want to play Revenge, I just fire up the PS2 and have at it!

I still have my N64 as well. Nothing wrong with a bit of sub retro gaming every now and again.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
a reply to: longy9999

Heh... When I want to play Revenge, I just fire up the PS2 and have at it!

I still have my N64 as well. Nothing wrong with a bit of sub retro gaming every now and again.

Now you've mentioned it I might go find me an emulator and have a play, as good as paradise is I really miss crash mode, me and my mates used to love trying to out do each others scores, it was brilliant

a reply to: longy9999

Oh yes... Crash junctions were a fantastic notion!

It was one of those game modes that made you want to buy the developers responsible a pint!

a reply to: TrueBrit

Sounds like an awesome franchise. I'm picky about my driving games. Unfortunately I'm still in sold-my-PS3, haven't yet bought a PS-4 limbo.

As for older games, I love em, mostly because the price is right, and they're still "new" to me.

Oh, and Happy Birthday!

a reply to: dogstar23


Thank you dogstar23!

Well, Burnout is nothing like a driving simulator, as I am sure you know. Where many driving games tend to attempt an over emphasis on recreating reality, Burnout merely gives you a playground, wheels, and a general order to cause as much mayhem as possible. It is much more forgiving than any of the simulators out there.

In my opinion, it is superior to Need for Speed as a franchise, by an awful long way. I hope that helps clarify things!

I completely agree with you about older games though. It makes no sense, when one is a "casual" gamer, to constantly have THE latest machine, and pay through the nose for entertainment, when you could wait a couple of years or so, and get rock bottom deals on some of the best laughs you can have with your clothes on and a low blood alcohol level.

This game is amazing, it's one of my favorite racing games of all time and one of the few games where I went out of my way to collect everything and do everything there is to do.

If you like this game then you will LOVE the new Need for Speed: Most Wanted, it's a few years old but it's made by the same people and has the same format as Burnout: Paradise, it's the spiritual successor to Paradise. It would have to be my favorite racing game ever with Paradise being right behind it. If I'm not mistaken it's on PS3 as well so if you get a chance you should check it out.

That game is so awesome that i still play the free demo of it because i am cheap lol. I downloaded the demo when it first came out forever ago..

a reply to: TrueBrit

I fully agree. Neither of us (the spouse and I) have ever been into racing games but the Burnout series has always had a place on our shelves. Burnout: Revenge on the PS2 is still on standby and Paradise was totally a blast with the organic ways that multiplayer was joined and exited. I think Rockstar learned a bit from them with the way they did Red Dead's multiplayer.

Glad to see another Burnout.