Burnout Paradise (xbox 360)

This isn't exactly a playthrough. This is just my own review of the game as I've been seeing a lot of split opinions on the issue. Most people seem to fall into the category of loving the game (like me) or loathing the game.

Adverts? In my burnout?

First complaint people are being very vocal about is the volume of advertising in the game.
Yes, there are billboards hanging around, and yes some of them are actually real companies. Some of the traffic cars are also rolling advertisements. Plus there are 4 sponser cars that you can get (Best Buy, Circuit City, Gamestop, Wal-Mart). My personal opinion is that if you're really bothered by the adverts then you're driving too slow, or you're not paying enough attention to the road.

Most of the billboards are at least two to three stroies above street level (save for the Burnout ones which you're supposed to break), and the civilian cars that are branded are usually driving parallel to you so you can't see the adverts anyway. The way most people talk about it though, you'd think that there was no game, just adverts. I also hope that these people who complain about paying EA so they can be advertised to don't own any branded clothing.

Got real friends?

Another gripe is the lack of split screen play. Apparently they haven't noticed that this game also features no barriers to keep you in a small predefined area. I honestly can't see how splitscreen would work if you're both allowed to drive anywhere in the city. It seems to me that you'd effectively get a single player mode, with less screen space. I'm sure it works online, but that's usually with 6-8 people, and you're generally trying to get something done. So I can see that working.

That's another thing too. The ability to drive anywhere and do anything (which the game calls "Freeburn") also annoys some people. Personally, I like it. Sometimes, I just want to drive around and dick about without having any real restrictions. It's also a good time to test out new cars before comitting to a race. I would like if there was an option to warp to an event, or at least set a marker so you don't have to keep watching the map when trying to go somewhere specific, but I make do anyway. Listing the road names as they go by is helpful though. Especially when trying to finish Roadrules challenges.

Where do you think you're going?

The lack of barriers also extends into the individual events too. This means that in a race you're left to find your own route to get to where you're going. Sounds like a daunting task, but they do give you assists by telling you when a good place to turn is coming up. If you miss a turn it'll just recalculate on the fly and give you a new turn. Sometimes it won't give you much warning, but that just means you have to think on your toes.

The lack of barriers is more fun for Road Rage and Stunt Run events because instead of just following a circuit, you take the battle/show where ever you want. I like battling on the elevated freeway because I get to send rivials careening over the sides. Having no predefined route means though that they did away with closed circuit races (everything is now point to point, or time/damage based), and there are only 8 destinations for events.

We're gonna crash!

People liked crash mode. I did too. But, they've taken it out. Not entirely though. What they did is replace it with "Showtime". It's not an event on its own, but rather sometime you can activate at any time to cause a giant concaphony (I'm told this isn't a real word, but I don't care) of crashes and smashes. Since it's not an event on its own one has to wonder how you're ranked. That's simple.

Every street in the game has two road rules. One for time, and one for damage done in Showtime. It's kind of fun really. Especially since you can trigger it any time and use it to blow off steam after you missed your fourth turn in a race.

EA Trax for Tracks

One topic that seems to crop up for every recent game featuring the infamous EA Trax is the music. I honestly have no issue with the selection they have. I've only muted one track and That's Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne. It just seems out of place, and a completely different tone compared to the others. Other than that I'm cool with the selection. I guess I'm just not as much of a tight ass when it comes to music.

Yin, but no yang?

You'd think with the way I've been going on about the game that I find no fault in it. Not entirely true. The beginning of the game is rather annoying with DJ Atomica buttin in every 30 seconds to tell you about a new aspect of the game. To solve that though just freeburn around for a while until he gets it all out of his system. After that he'll just stick to his passive quips about life, and the things he sees.

One thing that does bother me a lot is how there's no way to quickly get through the post Showtime tallies. I just want to get back to racing! Showtime itself has this thing where when you do a groundbreak to try and hit more cars, it doesn't always seem to work, and other times it works better than you expected. There's no real predictability to it.

I also don't like how not every crash is a wreck. There are times when you'll hit something, the game will go to the cinimatic type view to show you the crash (I might add that the crashes look fantastic) but then instead of saying that you're wrecked and resetting you, it'll say Driveaway and let you continue. Two problems though. You're almost never pointing the right way, and the camera takes a painfully long time to get back into a usable position.

It's like playing paintball. Sometimes you'll get shot and the pellet will bounce off, but when that happens it usually hurts a heck of a lot more than if it just splattered.

Overall though I like the game, and can easily smooth over the problems while acknowledging them.