Link: Burnout Paradise – $26 on Amazon

In a word: Absolutely!

To put it bluntly, Burnout Paradise is the best arcadey-racer you have ever played. The creators made a pretty big gamble on this one, and it has paid off in spades.

If you’re an avid gamer, you probably already know about the controversy surrounding Burnout Paradise. To get everyone else caught up: Criterion opted for an open-world experience with Paradise. Instead of choosing your car, event and location from a menu, everything is done by driving to different places within Paradise City. To change your car, drive to a junkyard and choose a car you have unlocked. Want a new paint job? Simply drive through one of the many paint shops. If your car is a little banged up, drive through an auto-repair shop. It’s these fundamental changes that have garnered much criticism from fans and journalists alike, the main gripe being, “It takes me 5 minutes to do what used to take me 10 seconds in a menu.”

While it is true that you do have to spend time driving in order to accomplish the basic tasks, this does not become a problem, at least it hasn’t for me. If you’re having fun, who cares if you have to spend a few extra minutes getting from A to B? Driving there can be just as much fun as the event you want to start. Personally, I can’t think of any other gaming experience that lets you have constant, uninterrupted fun the entire time you’re playing. There are no loading screens once you’re past the main menu and into Paradise City. Every single traffic light is a different event, giving you plenty to do for days. Even multiplayer is jump in/jump out, keeping you where you should be: in the game and having fun. On top of the five event types (Race, Road Rage, Burning Route, Stunt Run and Marked Man) you have many other things to occupy your time in Paradise City. Smash through some of the 400 shortcut fences. Climb to the top of a parking garage and drive off one of the ramps at the top. Maybe try to get the fastest time on a street with Road Rules. Sometimes you may be told about a specific car that you must take down in order to add it to your collection. There is a lot to do in this game so trust me, you will not get bored in this virtual city.

Once you want to start an event, beginning is as easy as pulling up to a traffic light and spinning your wheels (Left Trigger + Right Trigger). There are 120 events in the game, consisting of the types listed above. All events that require a “finish line” (Race, Marked Man and Burning Route) will end at one of 8 destination locations, all corresponding to a direction on a compass. How you get to the finish line is completely up to you. Even the in-game narrator (DJ Atomica) will be quick to point out that following the car in front of you isn’t necessarily the best idea as your AI opponents don’t always know the best way to get to the finish line. The HUD will help you get where you need to go, but it doesn’t account for any shortcuts and those shortcuts become more important as the difficulty ramps up later in the game. But learning the ins and outs of Paradise City is just another part of the fun.

In the technical department, this game is no slouch. The graphics and sounds are exactly what you’d expect from the seasoned veterans at Criterion. All is delivered without a hitch, even though the game is constantly streaming the world around you. The online features will give this game legs long after the single player experience has been exhausted – and that alone will take quite some time. The game is packed full of features and it has all been polished to near perfection. If I have to complain about something, it would be the lack of split-screen multiplayer. Fortunately, if you’re a Burnout fan, you probably already have a copy of Burnout Revenge or Burnout Takedown lying around your house to satisfy your split-screen needs.

In summary, if you’re a fan of arcade-style racers, you will love Burnout Paradise. If you aren’t a fan or you haven’t played a Burnout game yet, you should definitely give it a chance. This game might just be different enough to get you hooked. The game is non-stop enjoyment from the time you start your car until the time your wife tells you you’ve been playing 360 all day. The visuals and sounds are a shining beacon of what these next-generation consoles can do and the overall experience is unmatched by any racing game I have ever played. I enjoy racing games, specifically the Burnout series, but I must say this about Burnout Paradise (with emphasis): This is the best racing game I have ever played.

Score: $50 / $50

How We Score

Link: Joyswag: Burnout Paradise & Prima Game Guide
Link: Enter for your chance to win a copy of Burnout Paradise

Crashing is awesome! That’s the concept behind Burnout™ Paradise, the latest installment in the classic car-crashing Burnout series. A completely open world allows players to take their dangerous driving experience to a whole new level. Travel through and explore Paradise City to find special events and destructive opportunities. Get ready to break the rules, because you’re in Burnout Paradise!

If you’re not sure about this one, check out the demo on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.

Link: Burnout Paradise

First off, I had a decent amount of fun in the 20 minutes I spent playing single player. It was a little difficult finding events to participate in, since the demo only gives a few to whet your appetite. I did share the concern of many others out on the intarwebs. That is: Why would I want to spend five minutes driving to an event when I used to be able to get to it with a couple button presses? This seems like a pretty big waste of time.

After playing with someone else, it all became clear. As long as you’re having fun getting from A to B, who cares if you’re in an event or not? We spent the first 15 minutes or so driving around trying to figure out what we could do in multiplayer. None of the intersections showed any events once we were in a game together, which confused us for a while. Even though we didn’t have anything specific to do, we still had fun taking each other down and checking out new paint jobs. We eventually figured out what we were supposed to do. The demo has three events that can be played with two players. These events are triggered by pausing the game and choosing the event from a menu. Once started, you still may need to drive to the starting point of the event.

One of the events required each of us to smash through six Burnout billboards. This event took us the longest amount of time, by far, but it was great because it forced us to explore the city. One of the highlights of this exploration was finding a parking garage that we could drive to the top of. We caught some sweet air off that bad boy.

Anyway, the main point I wanted to make was this: After finishing all three events, we spent about 15 minutes just driving around chasing each other and trying to get takedowns. I can’t tell you how stupid we probably would have looked if someone was watching us, but we had a blast. It was then that I realized the vision that Criterion had for this game. They’ve been facing a lot of criticism for making some pretty big changes to this franchise, but after last night’s multiplayer shenanigans, I’m convinced they know exactly what they’re doing. It’s all about having fun, no matter what you’re doing. Staring at a loading screen is not fun. Doing a barrel roll over your buddy’s car is extremely fun.

If you’re on Live and you see myself or Tha R1gga playing some Burnout, feel free to hit us up for an invite. We’d love try it out with more people.

Link: Demo Supporting Up To 8 Players Online [Via Joystiq]