Burnout Paradise demo hits XBLA

Typically I am not a fan of the racing genre. I'm one of those people who say I'll only play a racer if it has red shells in it.

Burnout 3 Takedown is the exception to this rule. Not only is the third entry in this series the best racing game ever made...no...that's pretty much it. Nothing else matters. Games like Forza Motorsport and Gran Turismo are boring, focusing more on simulation and large library of real cars rather than straight-up fun, the sole objective of the Burnout series which makes it so unique and amazing. There is never a dull moment in these games. Burnout 3 is the only game I have seen that has taken the racing genre into overdrive.

Burnout has always been a series based more on arcade style of fun focusing on the intense action of driving rather than the actual art of driving. Crashes are what particularly make the series stand out amongst the crowd. Between the thrills of ramming some unsuspecting soul into a wall or steering your own crashes to ruin some other racer's day, there is enough to make the Project Gotham Racing series seems like Driving Miss Daisy. There is no other racing game I can really play anymore besides Burnout 3. It's that good.

After skipping the above averagely reviewed Burnout Revenge, I am finally getting hyped for a new Burnout! Due out in January, this title looked pretty promising. Its new graphic engine makes the crashes and racing look that much more intense, yet I have been left with such a foul taste in my mouth after about 20 minutes with the demo.

First and foremost, my biggest concern has proven to be the game's downfall...the sand-boxing. I don't give a good God damn about strolling through a boring city looking for the action. If I want a driving sand-boxing game, I would wait for Grand Theft Auto 4 simply because I can get out of my car and do other stuff rather than just drive. Racing games are way to one dimensional for a sandbox environment. I don't want to look for hidden tokens or spend hours looking for those billboards to jump through in the most intense game ever made. I want RACES! I want to mess my opponents up and down the track. I want buses to burst into flames. Leave the treasure hunts for the platformers. In a game like Burnout, I would much rather have the action constantly thrown at me through menus rather than take the time to look for it or drive all the way back to the starting point if I mess up. The races themselves are short point A to point B rather than the traditional laps, which can be a good idea, but not if the tracks are as amazing as Burnout 3's. They seem so short and pointless rather than epic and fun. Here...drive to the country club!...ok? Yay...Maybe the final version will correct these short comings, but I'm not hopeful if its coming out in January. The races and short bursts of action also falls way short of the standard Takedown set.

But Burnout Paradise's main problem is simply just that. It's not Burnout 3. It's a slow boring sandbox game with short bursts of excitement rather than a straight up racer. In the end, it seems like many of the problems that plagued Assassin's Creed might show up in this title also. The game itself is slow, tedious, and repetitive, but when it hits all the right spots, it hits hard! Typically, I approve of change between entires in a series, but when a formula is done as perfectly as Burnout 3, then no change is really needed. I would approve more of just a graphical upgrade to Burnout 3 with graphic engine and modern online capabilities. Other than that, I might have to stick with Takedown until the next entry in the series simply because I can already tell it will be infinitely more fun than what I have been given. I'm not sold, and I am on the verge of canceling my preorder after this demo. It's a shame too because this was one of my most anticipated titles of next year.