I make it no secret that the Burnout series is one of my favorite video game franchises. I played Burnout Revenge to death on the original Xbox, and when I got my 360 I went out the next day to purchase the newer version for my new console. So it should come to no surprise that as soon as news spread of the demo to Burnout Paradise was available on marketplace I dropped everything in order to trade some paint and check some traffic once again.
So what could Burnout possibly do to make its fifth installment better than those that have come before it. Well the biggest difference right off the jump is that there is no long a menu system to select what events you would like to take part in. Instead you are thrown right into Paradise City, home to an estimated 250 miles of track for you to tool around in. Of course in the demo you get a sweet little piece of this pie along the water. Another change that Revenge players will notice almost right away is the difference in traffic checking. Checking has been adjusted so that no longer do you cause cars driving in the same direction as you to go flying into every which way, you now can crash into them from time to time depending on speed, angle, and so on. This gives Burnout a little more realistic feel, instead of being just so god damn unbelievable with cars flying twenty to thirty feet in the air.
While wandering around Paradise City you'll find certain points of interest and challenges, but what I love is the one button press instant online feature that can be accessed anywhere in the city. With the press of the right button on the direction pad your online menu comes up as you continue to drive around town. You can invite friends to join you or enter another game and instantly be in the same city with up to seven other people waiting to take you down. The host can then choose challenges for the group or everyone can roam free and create new online enemies.
I'm sure to play the demo for the next month until the release of the full game in late January so there will be much more about Paradise on the podcast and here on the blog in the coming weeks. I might as well mention that we've been playing with the new maps for Halo 3. While fanboys will yelp for remakes of their old favorites like hang'em high and sidewinder (prisoner gets no love), all three of the new maps are a breath of fresh air. Standoff is a great medium size CTF or Assault map with plenty of outside and indoor combat points. This was the first one I played around with in forge and made my own map with a lot more vehicles and weapons that aren't seen too often. Rat's Nest will be home to many races involving rockets with its oval track around the outside of the two bases. This leaves us with Foundry, a square room filled with items that can all be changed using forge. I have yet to make my own Foundry map but its sure to be a favorite with the avid map makers. The default layout of Foundry is a grenade lovers dream with plenty of walls for cover and exploding barrels.
One last note, some of us finally got to play around with Mario Galaxy and I for one fell in love at first sight. A Wii would make my Christmas and the wait is killing me, I may just have to freeze myself for ten days.
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