The making of "Burnout Paradise" review...Part 2

So the big Cagney update finished installing and I booted up Burnout Paradise. My impressions after my first race event left me sceptical. I was finding the same problems I had with GTA4s open races. I spend so much time staring at the mini map that I really can’t take in the city. It feels more like I’m playing Pacman watching my little dot move around its map. I finish last and the game continues where I finished my race, miles away from the start! It will be a long way driving back to the beginning! It’s going to take a while to get out of the “Pause, Restart” mentality I usually abide by with racing games…Its just not available here.

So after my abysmal first race I thought I would carry on exploring and the next thing I knew 3 hours had gone by and I had not even attempted another event. There are so many things to find and smash around the environment that I got sidetracked looking for them. Shortcut fences greeting me with SMASH! 33/400 found messages were too hard to just drive past. Then there are the giant Burnout billboards, SMASH! 3/120!

So I thought I would brave it and attempt another event. All events are located at each traffic light intersection in the game just rev your wheels with R2 and L2 and you are off! “Road Rage, take down 3 enemy cars.” This is more like it! Now instead of staring at the map trying to be a human sat-nav I can just focus on smashing the shit out of my fellow drivers. 23 “Takedowns” (the result of a successful enemy smash) later and I am up one event win!

I’m starting to understand the decision not to let me restart races now. It encourages you to explore. If you fail an event, don’t drive back to start it again, just jump into the nearest one! With every hour I play I am beginning to enjoy this more and more…I'm beginning to believe the hype!