It's just another day in Paradise (City)

My ordered copy of Burnout Paradise : Ultimate Box turned up today while I was bimbling through Tomb Raider Underworlds poorly hit detectioned levels. I finished the level and quickly fired it up to check out the new content which Criterion have been relentlessly adding ever since I gave the game up ages ago.

Firstly I noticed the new front end which is alot more user friendly than it used to be. Firstly you're taken to the news page, where you're never going to miss on the latest DLC and other goings on within Paradise City.

Next up is a very simple menu for either your Car Licence or your new Bike Licence! I didn't realise Criterion had created a whole new licence for bikes. What a great idea.

I promptly checked out the bikes and was surprised how easy it was to use, usually bikes are a nightmare to control in games but I quickly and confidently performed a 7 minute burning lap event round the city!

The only things which have dissapointed me with the bikes is that the crashes are no way near as cool as being in a car. This is most likely to keep the age rating down, but it'd still be nice to see your dude fly through a car window or something other than dissapearing into thin air.

I had a quick peek at Party mode which is an offline multiplayer, pass the pad mode only. You choose how many players, events and which ones you'd prefer to do.

I did a stunt challenge and it asked P1 to land a certain type of jump. Success would reward you with 250 points and failure would give you zilch.

The whole front end is a total change of style for the game, colours everywhere, party noises in the background and just a more user friendly look to the game will surely be more inviting to any player who is intimidated by its serious look.

After checking it out, it suddently dawned on me how satisfying the takedowns are in the game. I did a Road Rage event and was swamped with satisfaction after taking down 5 cars in a row (frenzy!)

Looking to the future for Burnout Paradise would get any player excited, a whole new island called "Big Surf Island" and a new mode called "Cops and Robbers" is being added via DLC.

The future of Paradise City!

So, Griptor, bring it on!!!