Picked up Burnout Paradise Remastered for the absolute bargain price of £2.69 in the current UK PSN Sale - 85% off (Sale ends in 2 days on 26th Feb)
I've been craving some Burnout action recently and saw Burnout Paradise Remastered on sale for this stupidly low price, so couldn't resist picking it up. Paradise wasn't my favourite Burnout game (Burnout 3 and Burnout Revenge are perfection) but Paradise was still great, despite some annoying flaws which made me bounce off the game faster than expected when it first launched on PS3 and 360 all those years ago. But with Paradise being the only Burnout game available on current gen (seriously, Burnout 3 and Revenge need remasters asap) I decided to give it another go.
Graphics - For a 17 year old game (how is Burnout Paradise 17 years old ? Christ I feel old) it holds up surprisingly well. The remaster keeps things pretty much as the game was back then, with a few touch up's here and there but it still looks really good overall, especially the cars when they crash and crumple, with sparks and metal flying all over the place. It runs at Native 4k on PS4 Pro / PS5 (in back compat mode) and it looks great.
Performance - It run's at a solid 60fps, as you would hope for a remaster of a 17 year old game. Shame there is no native current gen version, it would look sick running at 120fps.
Audio - The cars sound loud aggressive as they fly through the streets and the soundtrack is epic, with nearly 100 songs from bands like Alice in Chains, Jane's Addiction, Soundgarden, Twisted Sister, Jimmy Eat World, N.E.R.D to name a few plus songs from the original Burnout games, and not forgetting the games title song Paradise City from Guns N Roses. The soundtrack is hosted by DJ Atomika chiming in from time to time on the events you take part in (the same DJ from SSX3) Simply awesome.
Gameplay - Paradise takes the fasted paced racing and destruction of Burnout and drops it into the open world sandbox of Paradise City, full of shortcuts, crazy jumps and over 100 events to complete, as you work towards upgrading your driving licence from Learner to Elite licence. Events are no longer selected on a menu, now the game is open world, to keep it seamless each event is started from a set of traffic lights, each offering a different event across the city. It works really well and you are never far from the next event after finishing one.
Standard races are a little different in the open world, not longer on set routes, instead giving you the finish location and leaving it up to you to get there however you like, which can make for some crazy racers. Crash Mode is also different in Paradise, becoming Showtime Mode, which can be activated with L1 + R1 when you crash anywhere in the open world, with that stretch of road then becoming the crash mode. It's a lot of fun, although it doesn't quite beat the dedicated crash levels in the older games.
The game has a good sense of speed and the car handling feels good, drift around corners at top speed is very satisfying, even more so when you take down an opponent and send them smashing into a wall or other cars, it's so damn good and never gets old. The carnage is incredible to watch, as cars race around the city and get wiped out at top speed.
The biggest issue I had with the game (which the remaster sadly hasn't fixed) is there is no fast travel, so if you want to do a certain event or swap your car, you have to drive to the event or closest junk yard. It would have been a great QoL fix to have fast travel added in. It's a little annoying but not a deal breaker. You can at least restart an event through the d-pad options during gameplay, so you don't have to drive back to restart an event if the current run goes wrong.
Online Modes - Online multiplayer is included. Now I'm not really a big online multiplayer guy, so not played any online racers yet but it is available and is probably great fun with friends.
DLC - The Big Surf Island expansion and all the extra vehicles are included in the Remaster.
Overall - Returning to Burnout Paradise after all these years, looking to scratch that Burnout itch, definitely did the job, the game holds up incredibly well and is still an absolute blast to play and one of the most fun arcade racers available to this day. They just don't make them like Burnout anymore.
It's a damn shame the Burnout franchise ended with Paradise and never got a chance to expand of the foundation that Paradise built. It's an IP that badly missed in the industry right now, with very few amazing arcade racers around right now, it would be fantastic to see this legendary IP return again with a sequel or even remasters of the older games.
