When it comes down to high profile racing games outside of anything produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Xbox Games Studios or Turn 10 Studios; Electronic Arts rarely failed to deliver racing masterpieces to the masses. In fact, one of the greatest racing games that Electronic Arts had produced came out back in the late 00’s known as Burnout: Paradise. For those who do not know Burnout Paradise was developed by Criterion Games and appeared on the PS3, Xbox 360 along with Microsoft Windows back in 2008. Burnout: Paradise was such an addictive racing game that it still holds up pretty over a decade later. There were a variety of things about Burnout Paradise that was memorable including the fast-paced gameplay, graphics, game modes along with the challenging AI. Burnout Paradise also had a decent car count with roughly under 100 vehicles and a series of rock themed soundtracks which added to overall gameplay experience that players experienced. The open world design and the car physics looked and felt realistic and the game was more unforgiving than Race: Driver Grid which also came out in 2008. Unlike, Race: Driver Grid there was no flashback feature before one totaled their car in Burnout Paradise despite Grid arguably having more aggressive AI.
The crash scenes in Burnout Paradise looked magnificent and players were forced to improve their performance after each failure. While the absence of a story mode Burnout Paradise was seen as a negative the game was still very fun to play locally with alone or with friends. Burnout Paradise a some exciting gameplay options including Road Rage, Classic Race, Burning Route, Marked Man along with Stunt Run. The exclusion of Crash Mode which was present in Burnout 3: Takedown was definitely considered a let down some people. However, Burnout Paradise included online multiplayer gameplay which allowed up to eight players. The online multiplayer game mode was so popular that the original servers remained active for eleven years before it ultimately shut down back in 2019. The replay value of Burnout Paradise was so high that the game was remastered in ‘18 for the PS4 & Xbox One. Burnout Paradise was also ported to the Nintendo Switch back in 2020. Along with Need For Speed: Underground 2, NFS: Most Wanted and Burnout 3: Takedown from ‘04-‘05; Burnout Paradise was probably the best racing game that EA came out with during the 2000’s decade.
Gaming Hearts Collection 