Hands-on with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

I like my racing games, and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit is no exception; I love it!    You certainly feel the sheer speed and power of the licensed motors you’re driving and if anything, it certainly feels a lot faster than Burnout Paradise if that’s at all possible.

Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit has been two years in development by Criterion Games, the developers of the Burnout series.  Whilst this latest title in the Need for Speed series is a homage of sorts to 3DO’s original Need for Speed series in the late 90s, the game also evokes memories of Burnout 2: Point of Impact for me.  It really does beg the question then: where does Need for Speed begin, and Burnout end?

Continue reading Hands-on with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit

Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

I have to admit that I’ve had a fairly intense love/hate relationship with the whole Burnout franchise.  When times were good, Burnout was a sumptuous slice of gaming heaven.  When times were bad, Burnout was just another game I couldn’t be bothered playing.  It all started with the original Burnout on the PS2.  If I recall, I thought at the time that it was a steaming pile of… well, rubbish.  Burnout 2: Point of Impact though, changed everything.  In my mind it was perfect: the graphics were the best I’d seen in a racing game since Gran Turismo and the gameplay was spot-on.

I dabbled with Burnout 3: Takedown on the original Xbox and found it to be great fun, but the gaming experience didn’t feel as pure as its predecessor.  After that, I totally skipped the next instalments in the series, Burnout: Revenge and Burnout: Dominator (which was not even developed by Criterion).  You see, Burnout had got rid of the gameplay feature that gave its name; the burnout.  In Burnout 2: Point of impact, you could drain your boost meter without stopping which would cause the meter to refill, meaning that as long as you didn’t crash, you could chain as many boosts together as you wanted.  It melted your eyes.

Continue reading Back on the streets with Burnout Paradise

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled

Burnout Bikes Gameplay Unveiled– On PlayStation.Blog.  Choice quote: “We want you to know that if you buy Burnout Paradise, you buy much more than the disk we shipped back in January.”  I hear ya’ loud and clear!  I’m seriously considering investing in Burnout Paradise now that I know there is so much cool content constantly being added.  Free!

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall

Burnout Paradise becomes a PSN download this Fall– Cool, the PlayStation Store could do with more full PS3 games (that go to retail stores as boxed versions) as digital distribution is the way forward.  Seriously, what’s the harm in doing both?  Warhawk and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue are great examples.

Criterion defend their new baby

I thought I’d give my own take on this story as I have played Burnout right from the beginning and have some good memories from past games in the series.  I’d just like to mention before I go any further, that I have 1) read Criterion’s response, and 2) played the demo in question.

The gist is that players have taken the Burnout Paradise demo for a spin (on both the PS3 and Xbox 360 I believe) and (more or less) universally condemned it.  Kokatu’s rather nicely-worded article ‘Criterion Responds To Burnout Paradise Criticism‘ reveals a rather more accurate summery:

‘The Burnout Team have written a rather grumbly Christmas card to fans who have found one too many things to complain about in the demo version of Burnout Paradise.’

I still think that’s putting it mildly.  The Burnout Team are probably hacked off that they’ve spent so much time and effort on Burnout Paradise, only to have a fair amount of criticism levelled at their beloved.  When reading Criterion’s response I get the overwhelming feeling of despise for the critical gamer out there.  People have good reason- as consumers (in the UK anyway), next gen games cost £40-50 which is no pocket change.  Gamers are more critical than ever these days with good reason.

Next you will see how Criterion gets this totally wrong, and so here’s a choice quote from the Burnout Team themselves:

As to those who can proclaim from a taste of the demo that Burnout 2 was the best game (always nice to see all those Gamecube owners on the internet who haven’t played the game since B2! ) or that B3 is the better game – again, I can only smile. Those of us who have made the games dearly love those games but we’re confident that if you love those games too then you will love Paradise.

And therein I think, lies the problem.  All the Burnout games that have preceded Paradise have gone along the path of evolution- creating a better game with minor changes for the best.  Burnout was the ultimate in arcade racing in my opinion.  However Paradise seems to have taken the revolution approach- starting from scratch, and offering a completely revamped experience.  Whilst this is no bad thing, gamers that have followed the series from the beginning do not like such a great change.

I also totally agree with what Matt Brett has to say on this matter in his post ‘Burnout Paridise, a great franchise ruined‘.  Whilst gamers brand-new to the franchise will love it, it is fundamentally different to what most of us have known and enjoyed playing.