Burnout Paradise Message Board

Hollywood legend Harold Ramis passed away this week and the few folks left at Criterion Games are going full stream by honoring him with a free car pack in Burnout Paradise.

The "Legendary Cars" pack features homages of iconic whips from Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard, Back to the Future and, of course, Ghostbusters. These aren't exact replicas of the cars in question, but rather eerily-close copies. The car pack is available as a free download on both Xbox 360 and PS3 today.

Burnout Paradise, the last entry in Criterion's lauded arcade-inspired racing series, takes place in Paradise City and gives racers free rein of an open-world metropolis. Initially, the game only featured cars, but Criterion's post-launch diligence introduced motorcycles and a completely new island to explore. [Image: EA]

Fiona Sperry and Alex Ward have left the company they founded, Criterion Games. The EA subsidiary has gone through some major changes recently, starting in September 2013 when the majority of its employees were moved over to a new studio called Ghost Games. That team is focused on the continued development of the Need for Speed series, while Criterion’s remaining 17 employees set about creating something new codenamed ‘Project Zero’.

Why should you care, I defensively imagine you asking.(more…)

When talk of racing games comes up, I’m one of those people. “I DON’T REALLY LIKE RACING GAMES BUT BURNOUT’S GREAT,” I blurt. And then some people sigh dejectedly and resume their debates about cylinders and dinosaur liquids while a precious few join me in discussing rad crashes that mangle metal into fiery explosion pretzels. And that’s how I make friends. So now we arrive at Need For Speed: Most Wanted. Normally, I wouldn’t even give this series the time of day, but apparently, someone forgot to tell Criterion it was making a Need For Speed game. So it made Burnout Paradise 2 instead. And I wept. But just a little. In a cool way. You can do the same with this video of NFSMW’s open world in action. Otherwise, we might not be able to be friends.

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HEY HEY YOU YOU LET'S PLAY BURNOUT PARADISE HEY HEY YOU YOU LET'S PLAY BURNOUT PARADISE HEY HEY YOU YOU

It makes sense for EA to call its new racing game Need for Speed: Most Wanted. It's spent multiple titles and a lot of money shoring up the Need for Speed brand on all kinds of platforms, and while the Most Wanted series (known for racing from an underground perspective) isn't the strongest, it's about time EA released another game bearing that title. And after the success with Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit in 2010, it's not surprising that Criterion's been given the task of making it.

But just a few seconds with this game reveals a deeper truth: This is really a secret message from Criterion to its fans, funneled through EA's branding channels. Need for Speed: Most Wanted is an open-world racer in a beautiful city. It's full of various events, environmental features to find, and a social backend that's full of information and ways to connect and compete with fellow players.

In other words, it's Burnout Paradise 2.

Edit: too late. They’ve shut it down. Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. Sorry.

Me: Fancy a free download copy of the pretty good Burnout Paradise? You: Ooh, yes please. You’re so good to me, Alec. I think I might love you.Me: OK. first you’ll need to install EA’s Origin… You: WHAT NO, NO I’M NOT GOING TO DO THAT NO NOT FOR ANYTHING I’D RATHER EAT MY OWN NOSTRIL HAIR. And I defiitely don’t love you anymore.Me: Well, whatever. My cat loves me, so I’ll be alright. Anyway, then add Burnout Paradise to your basket from the Origin store, and enter PARADISE at checkout to remove all cost from it. You: OK, I might do that, but if you tell anyone I installed Origin to get my hands on a freebie even though I’ve spent the last month loudly saying I would not, I’m going to kill your cat.Me: Deal. Oh yeah, and this probably won’t last long, so get a move on, right? And stay the hell away from my cat, you bastard.

Via HotUKDeals via PCG.

You probably got that idea already, considering nothing but the sound of crickets and tumbleweeds have emerged from Criterion HQ since the release of the last bit of Burnout Paradise DLC, Big Surf Island. A tweet from the company account confirms our fears, stating there will be "no more" DLC and that the company "did WAY more than everyone else." That's all well and good, but it doesn't slake our need for more amazing DLC! So there you have it. The world is a colder and darker place today. If you need us, we'll be Freeburning our troubles away online, pining for what could have been.

You gotta give it up to Criterion Games. Throughout the lifespan of Burnout Paradise, the developers at Criterion worked their buns off to give us all kinds of juicy DLC, from a new island to explore, a new game mode, right down to motorcycles and many, many car packs. Now, the company has prepared a lengthy diatribe documenting some of the updates that never got off the ground. For one, did you know that Criterion initially planned to have motorcycles vs cars? Yep, sure was planned -- and did you know that Criterion wanted to create a whole series of islands, not just the one? The devs even wanted to give players the ability to go to the moon, complete with lunar challenges for Freeburn addicts. Also: the planes thing wasn't an April Fool's joke -- the dev actually wanted to add them (and other vehicles) into the game. Overall, it's a pretty great read, if only to show you just how committed the studio was to the game and raising the bar for DLC in general.

We hit up Big Surf Island for a gameplay event you won't soon forget.

Hit Paradise Keyes Bridge and other exotic locales in this gear-grinding gameplay.