User Reviews (11 - 21 of 68)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

The logical next step

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: March 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is by far one of the most interesting and fun games I have ever played online. Where the first few games in the series really just focused on the severity of destruction you could cause, this game adds a huge open ended map that allows and encourages exploration of the deepest sort. The element of auto related carnage is still very much a part of the game, it's just not what I would call the main focus of it. There are an obscene amount of things to see and do in this game and with the ability to play with up to seven other players over Xbox Live, the game becomes something that is quite literally insane in its overall design.

The sheer amount of things you can do in this game is just mind boggling. There are literally hundreds of events you can partake in and dozens of cars to unlock and turn into heaps of broken metal and glass. The city itself is pretty large and has more hidden passageways and shortcuts than most other racing games I've ever played. This is the kind of game I like because when a game has this much to do and this much to explore, it gives the game replay value in spades. In an offhand way, it reminds me of the snowboarding game SSX3 (one of the ABSOLUTE best games I have ever played and I say that with no exaggeration) in how much there was to simply DO in the game. This is a game that I think will keep someone who's not playing it 24/7 busy for months.

Playing this on Live however is where this game takes it to the next level. There's a seamless functionality where you can literally jump online at any point in the game by pressing the D-pad and pulling up the online options. There's something really enjoyable in working together with other players in trying to beat the 300+ challenges spread out all over the island. Couple that with the ridiculous speed and total mayhem that occurs when cars go flying into other cars and guaranteed that you along with your online buddies will be cracking up. You can race each other, create rivalries, steal people's victories... there's just no end to it. Also, now's a good time to mention the Xbox Vision camera's functionality. The game allows you to take pictures for your driver's license and also sends you a picture of any particular gamer who you've just taken down. It's great to see a game use this peripheral in such an imaginative way, something we don't see often enough except in games like the Rainbow Six: Vegas series.

The graphics in this game are absolutely beautiful. Everything from roadside details to general scenery and something small like the glare of the sun in your eyes is replicated perfectly and believably. Just on graphics alone, this game gets high marks. The sound as well is off the wall and if you're playing this late at night, your neighbors are liable to think that they might open your door to find you buried under a 24 vehicle pileup. This game sounds great and the music selection is pretty nice, even if you've heard some of the songs in other games.

I'd like to end by saying that whether you're playing this game alone or on Xbox Live, you are bound to get a healthy dose of satisfaction with this title. There is just way too much to do in this game and to me, that's better than not having enough to do.

Mucho Good, some strange

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 12
Date: January 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Though I did not buy it from Amazon (Sorry :( ) I ran out and bought this gaming loving the demo. The gameplay is awesome, it looks fantastic. But there are a few things that were taken out that were in the other Burnout games... Like custom soundtrack and split screen multiplayer. I have Xbox Live so it's all good, but I can't play with my friends who come over and just wanna sit on the couch and race each other. Now it probably said somewhere that there would be no split screen, which I only found out after buying it and it does indeed bother me. And the whole no custom soundtracks is also kind of annoying. The music in the game is cool, but driving around the John Powell's Bourne Soundtracks is pretty sweet. The menus in this game are also a little weird and too crazy looking.

In sum, I like it, it's fun and worth picking up. Because really, it's all about driving incredible fast and smashing into something and watching it in slow-mo with these beautifully crisp sound effects of the car crunching up.

Oh, and no drivers? I know it's rated E and having a rag-doll driving getting smashed up within your car or flying out the front windshield may be a little graphic, but it does bother me when your doors get smashed off and you're left with a possessed car.

My life is so much better now that this game is gone

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: February 06, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I traded it away this morning and there is this great sense of calm in my soul. You see, Revenge was maybe my favorite 360 game. Maybe my favorite racer ever. It was near perfect. Not realistic, but who wants that? Each race was beautiful chaos. That's the problem here. Risk no longer equals reward. Burnout Paradise is the Alien 3 of this series.

The most frustrating aspect of this game is you're better off playing it safe to really pushing the envelope. Because, unless you memorize every inch of the CITY (not track like the previous game, here there is no track), you're doomed to catch some pointless extention to a guard rail here, a side mirror on a parked car there, etc. trying to avoid a non-combative car in your way that you no longer can rear end and use as a pinball physics weapon on the other drivers. Nope, here everything is death. Now I'm pro death and like hard games, but the best offense in this game isn't mayhem, it's Sunday driving. Casually drive around without turbo unless you're trying to force a car off the road. It terrible.

Marked Man makes no sense because you can't actually LOSE the cars chasing you, they just pop up. So why go fast? Just drive carefully, it's not like time is a factor. Rampage? Again, the enemy cars don't get you 90% of the time, some random bystander does. So why go fast?

Maybe that this game's greatest flaw. It's ironically repetitious. The events all feel the same. The cars all feel the same. You just change cars as another time killer (drive to the junkyard) so that you have one that doesn't die on two hits or will spin around in a Stunt event. This formally was accomplished by selecting the car before the race as a menu. MUCH FUNNER! Thanks guys. Given, chasing down cars and crashing them to "earn" them between event is fun... but that's all you do. So again, boring fast and better when it was called Rampage with eight other cars.

I like the Technical merits of this game and understand why they felt this was the "next step", which keeps me from giving it a 1. But this game should be a warning like Tony Hawk Underground and Shemue that walking/driving/skating from event to event is not in itself a good game. GTA was good because the mini-games were varied and the stealing/killing/rooming "menu" had it's own charms. Burnout does not for the most part.

A Little Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: February 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After playing games like Burnout 3, this game seems a little shallow, the open world isn't as fun as it sounds, there aren't too many tipes of game, the showtime is great at first but after a few times it's just boring..

the game has great graphics, great controls, but Burnout used to be a good crashing game. Now the crashing seems to be a secondary objective in a game that doesn't have a primary one.

Sweet

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: January 26, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I personally think this game has great playability. Though it does remind me a little of the of Need for Speed back in the day. That isn't a bad thing. It allows for more open routes and other various parts of the game. and the loss of the traffic takedown kind of sucks, but it doesn't take away from the game. though I have not beat the game, I've been enjoying exploring the games internal areas. All in all I say this game is great if you love racing games, but is not that great as a compliment to the series.

Don't Waste Your Money on This Game

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 6 / 12
Date: January 28, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been a burnout fan and owner since the first burnout game. Every game in the series has been a improvement. This game is like a bastarized verision of a once proud series. I have been looking forward to this game since it was anouced over two years ago. Here is why, I don't like.

1. It's very hard to find your way around. The open world Sucks!
2. One minute your in the middle of the event and the next your not.
3. Where are the arrows to guide you where your going?
If I wanted to play game in the style of Midnight Club, I would have bought it instead.
4. No Crash Mode.
5. You can't crash into anything any more. With out destroying your car.
That was a majority of the fun for me.

I played this game for 10 minutes before deciding, that this was awful.

I feel like this game cheated me out sixty plus dollars.

Now if you want to spend 60 dollars to look at product placement and great graphics this game is for you.

I'm going to be renting the next one first.

I would think twice about this game. Maybe there was something to the constant delays after all.

There is NO co-op AT ALL

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: January 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I have been a fan of Burnout since the original Burnout but this edition is very disappointing. There is no co-op at all, whatsoever. There is NO way you and a friend can grab a controller and play together w/o having two 360's. While the idea of having complete freedom to drive wherever you like may sound appealing, you drive around without a sense of purpose or searching for the kind of race you want. Also you can't hit cars from the rear anymore without getting in an accident which takes out a lot of the fun as well.
I believe the Burnout franchise has gone downhill since Burnout 2: Takedown which has won a huge number of awards. Takedown was innovative, fun, and made for a great party game. EA has stripped away way too much of the game in an attempt to create freedom. Go back to Takedown and stick to what has worked.

This is a great 1/2 of something...

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I'm late to the party when it comes to the Burnout franchise; admittedly, until Burnout Revenge (which I picked up for it's low price point after picking up my then "hard-to-come-by" Xbox 360 and wanting something to play,) I knew nothing of the titles. But after a good ten minutes with Revenge's unparalleled sense of speed, completely unforgiving collisions at 200mph and explosions worthy of any high-budget "shoot-em-up" flick, I was hooked. When this sequel was announced, I was thrilled.
Now that I've played it, I can't say I'm disappointed, but some of the choices they made this time out make for a great game, but also make me glad that I've still got Revenge on the shelf to fall back on.
The high points: the free-roam format was simply made for this type of action based racing. Even at the insane speeds of the previous Burnout, one felt safe in that all you had to do was learn the tracks and the handful of shortcuts. When you literally have an entire city as your "track," and no invisible barriers or arcade-style directional arrow walls to guide you, every turn is a frenetic, heart-stopping accident waiting to happen! The crash mechanics are amazing. High-speed impacts send cars careening realistically in every direction leaving trails of debris in their wake. The mixture of events and lack of traditional "courses" make each and every time you rev up at the start line a unique experience which is something no other racing title could ever hope to boast.
The low points: where the hell are my explosions?? The ability to use your "boost" not only as a "nitrous" but also as fuel for explosions made Burnout Revenge a terribly sadistic and satisfying experience! Just because you wrecked didn't mean you were out of the race and everyone feared your wreckage until you were well away in the rearview mirror; every burning pile essentially became a proximity mine waiting on anyone to pass too closely. Revenge and Aftertouch takedowns were oh-so-sweet, but they're no where to be found in Paradise. Why? Another staple they all but removed are the Crash Junctions. It's been replaced with something called "Showtime" which lets you (unrealistically) hurl your car into the air at almost any given moment (no need of a ramp or anything,) and toss yourself down the street into traffic bouncing off the cars in complete defiance of gravity, inertial law and, hell, physics in general. No, Burnout is not touted for its realism, but some things are so far gone, they have no place even in fantasy, especially when they're replacing something as key and signature as the Burnout Crash Junctions. Not to say "Showtime" isn't fun, it's just far more "novelty" than "essential game element." Add to this the fact that there's no puzzle element as presented in the Crash Junctions, and it quickly loses its flair and simply feels stupid and pointless after the fourth or fifth time out.
All in all, Burnout Paradise is a great game with a couple of blatantly missed opportunities remedy by a mere $20 investment in its older brother Burnout Revenge; Paradise for the racing and Revenge for the carnage!

Fun... and Frustrating

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 22, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I like about 80% of this game. The racing is as fun as I remember from Takedown. The city looks amazing. The free-roaming aspect works pretty well. I've been busy tracking down super-jump spots. The races and road rage events (my favorite) are perfect, once you find them.

The Marked Man event feels like a race you can't lose, I've yet to be wrecked more than once by the cars supposedly out to get me. Maybe it gets trickier with a higher level license.

I do miss crash mode. It was too fun and too much a signature of the Burnout franchise to go away. Showtime is NOT a suitable replacement. Showtime is this awkward crash mode/aftertouch replacement that lets you tumble down the road smashing everything in your path until your boost meter is empty. Since you can build up boost as you crush cars, some of these Showtime rolls can go on for ridiculous lengths of time. It seems pointless; I'm not a fan.

Something I am a fan of is having to take down a car to add to your collection. After winning some events, the annoucer will tell you a certain make and model of car is loose on the streets, if you take it down (crash it) it's yours. I've had some fun chases going after these cars.

Now for my major gripe. I like roaming around and exploring. I'm fine with the open world. Just not all the time. Once in awhile, I want to hop on, run a few road rage events and be done. I don't want to drive across town to the previous (or next) event. That's a bit too much like reality. Why on earth did they remove the ability to jump to the start of an event from the map screen? Change nothing about the game, simply add the option to quick start events from the map when you're not up for the task of driving from point A to point B.

Seems limitless

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 27, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is probably the most fun racing game I've played in a long, long time. I'm pretty impressed with the wealth of scenery and all the different areas you can go through. The racing modes seem really varied and give you a lot of choices in terms of how you want to play. It's really very open and gives you a ton of options. It can be nice to just scoot around and look at what's in the game, or go on some high speed tight curve races over and through seeming obstacles, or just crash into stuff.
250 miles of road! Over 100 events? The freedom to break out of defined tracks and have at it!
I've got a lot to figure out, and I'm not sure I'll ever figure it all out, but I think this game has a lot of potential for long term interest as it has so much variety and so many options.

If you're looking for an auto racing game that breaks out of predictable tracks and courses, this one gives you a lot to work with.

It's also got online interactive abilities that some folks might like to make use of, I'm not there yet. They say more than 300 possible online challenges, so look out!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next 

Actions