I downloaded Burnout Paradise last week. Wow, that was a lot of fun. My first and only other experience with the series was on my original xbox. I rented the game for a weekend and had a lot of fun.
There are two things in this version that really sets it apart from others.
First, the online world is a lot of fun. You can complete your objectives and races either online with other players or by yourself without anyone else on the map. I’ve been addicted to online playing since the days of Quake. Now, it does help to connect to a server where people know what they are doing. I’ve had a mixed bag of results when it comes to that. Second, I don’t know how to mute people. Lots of annoying people out there and it would really be nice if I could mute them.
Second, it’s an open world. Each stoplight is a race that you can start. Hit the write buttons and you start the race. This way there are no menus to navigate and you can do each type of race at your own leisure.
Props do go out to a shareware type system. I was able to play the game for about three hours for free. After that it brings up annoying screens telling you to buy it.
Lastly, one comment on the menu system. To use the menu system(had to do a google search myself!) you hit escape. Okay, that’s very acceptable to me. However, then you use either F1 or F2 to navigate to your menu options. This part is just weird. I assume its because it is a console port. There are not too many console ports that get the menu system right. I think one of the biggest downfalls to UT3 was the menu system was atrocious. I still refuse to pick the game up cause of that. Console menus on PC games is a big no no. I wish companies would understand these and take it to heart.