Another day in Paradise

I received Burnout Paradise for my birthday, so I thought I’d write my thoughts on it! Personally I’ve always been a fan of the Burnout series. They pack all the speed and adrenaline associated with street racing into a system at the same time as doing away with the realism that often plagues other racing games.

The newest addition to the family marks a significant change in design methodology, when compared to the older releases. The old ‘select-your-race-and-car-and-everything-else-at-a-menu’ model has been replaced with a free roam open city reminiscent of GTA or later Need For Speed games. This design change has significant ramifications for how the game is played, and who it appeals to. The traditional model of a racing game is often boring to many players, who want to simply be able to play a game outside the constraints and rules of racing. This is now possible through Paradise.

An examination of a previous Burnout release such as Revenge might have seen it classified under the areas of Agôn and Ludus (that is, rule-based competitive play). This is still present in Paradise through the various styles of races and events that a player can compete in. However, there is a whole new element of game-play that was not present in previous releases. Outside of the formalised events, play would generally lean more toward a Paida classification – it is still rule based insofar as what the car physically can and can’t do, but in all other senses it is free-form play up the discretion of the player.

Essentially, Paradise has taken the best elements of previous games, combined them all into the latest release, and placed it in a free-roam city, adding a whole new element of play to the game and giving the player the freedom to explore as they please and race when they like.