Game: Burnout Paradise (X360)

[Animeniax]

I got this game because everyone said it was better than the NFS series. I'm disappointed. It's fun enough, but the list of ways it falls short of NFS: Most Wanted and NFS:Undercover are many. The driving mechanics are wonky, reverse and wide turning changes the camera angle, too many cut scenes that go on too long, and that's just from 1 hour of playing.

The biggest disappointment is that there is no point to playing the game. You just drive around and compete in events and hit special marks and score new cars. At least in the NFS games, there was an ultimate mission you set out to accomplish.

As stated earlier, the cut scenes are obnoxiously long and too frequent. And the DJ is the most annoying part of the game. At least the music is better than the same 25 songs they played in NFS: Most Wanted, but even then the soundtrack isn't anything special.

[darkshadow]

....What cutscenes? I've got the burnout drivers license ( tons of races), I haven't seen a single cutscene.

[Animeniax]

There are cutscenes each time you crash, each time you make a big jump, and at the start of each event. Plus I hate the stupid pause when you pass through a gas station or repair shop. It was the same as in NFS when they paused your race to show you a cop was after you. It throws off your rhythm when you're driving 180mph.

[darkshadow]

Burnout is about crashes or rather avoiding them at the highest possible speeds, they build a really great crash physics engine and it would just be stupid not to show it in slow mo.
Burnout paradise moves a LOT faster then any racing game out there, even wipeout and F-Zero GX. But where in those games if you crash it gets really hard to get back into the race, BP applies some really "clever" rubberbanded AI, so it never feels like you aren't racing, you can ALWAYS get back into a race.

Big jumps aren't around a lot at all, there are only a couple of them in the world. And come on cutscene at the start of a race? EVERY racing game out there has this, how does this detract at all from the racing experience? Even games that having "rolling start" don't allow any interaction before the race actually begins.
BP's are even faster then the NFS ones, it just says, go here and here, and the race starts, talk about nitpicking dude <_<.

And the race doesn't pause when you go through those stations, the camera just zooms in closer, the repair stations do make you go slower, but that is just for balance, the gas stations however send you out with a nice boost.

Really if you are complaining about irritatingly long and frequent cutscenes....well simply learn to drive better, the game gets much and much faster when you get around the A License.

[Animeniax]

Ehh, if it's a game built around crashes that's a pretty silly game design. Who cares about seeing your car crumple and roll a thousand times? They should at least have the option to skip the cutscene if you want. And there's no driver in the seat, which just makes it silly looking. How about a mangled corpse along with the crash, that would be a bigger deterrent to dangerous driving than speed limit signs.

The pre-race and big jump cutscenes wouldn't be so bad except added to all the other cutscenes and it's almost unbearable. They ruin the flow of the race. Once again there should be an option to skip any of it. Plus when you crash on a turn, you can't be sure which street they'll reset you on, which throws off your gameplan in a race.

I wanted a racing game, this is more of a bumper cars game with no ultimate point to it. It's a good game for wasting 10-15 minutes here or there, but without the big picture, it's pointless. It's like playing GTA after you complete the story. No real point to it.

[Animeniax]

Alright, played the game another couple of hours and it's a lot more fun than the first time. After reading your arguments ds, the cutscenes are a lot more bearable and some of the other annoyances seemed less annoying, or maybe I'm just in a better mood today.

I still don't like that there's no ultimate objective to the game, but it is a great way to waste time.

[darkshadow]

Try playing online, most of the cutscenes go away, like the jumps, takedowns and the gas/repair stops, you still see the crash though, cept it isn't in slow motion. plus online marked man/road rage is tons and tons of fun.

[Animeniax]

I can't play online these days but if I sign up for Live when I return to the US, I will try this game online (if I still have it, as I often trade games with a buddy).

It took me about 19 hours of play time to get my Burnout license. I'm working on the Elite license now. The stunt races are my favorite, racking up the multipliers by doing rolls and jumps and stunts.

[rockmanj]

I dont have the 360 version, but I think on both you can listen to the music you have on your HD at anytime. And I still don't have my burnout License...I know, I suck; but I really do like the whole Burnout series; I can't wait until the offline multiplayer is released, as IMO that was the best feature of the previous burnout games.