Those annoyances aside, the racing in the game is enjoyable. Paradise sticks to the Burnout model: racing through streets filled with traffic while earning turbo boosts from dangerous driving such as driving down the wrong side of the road. The races are no holds barred and trying to force your competition into spectacular wrecks so that you can pull away and win is a big part of the game. Of course your competition will be trying to do the same to you, but whether it is you or your competitor that is being transformed from a shiny piece of racing machinery to tangled mess of metal you'll be treated to some of the most impressive crash effects that you've ever seen in a game. Nothing about the slow-motion wrecks looks the least bit like you're watching a canned animation sequence. Metal crumples and glass breaks as the shock of the collision reverberates down the length of the car's body. The disappointment of crashing is surprisingly tempered by the fascination of watching the laws of physics work their magic on your car. It's a good thing that all of the cars in the city appear to be driverless, because thinking about what's happening to the bodies inside of the cars would quickly take all of the fun out of things. The sense of force in Paradise is impressive, but it seems that this iteration of the series has lost a little something in the speed department. Don't get me wrong, the game still conveys a good sense of speed, but the warp speed, white knuckle ride of Burnout Revenge just isn't there any more.

I lamented the loss of Crash Mode earlier, but I didn't mention that it has a replacement in the form of Showtime. This is sort of an on-demand Crash Mode which you can activate by pressing the two bumper triggers. The idea is that you can try to create a chain reaction crash anywhere in the city. This sounds like a great idea, but in practice there isn't enough traffic on the streets to put together the truly epic wrecks that were such as great part of the departed Crash Mode. And where are the busses and fuel trucks to send careening through an intersection? The crashes have less of a puzzle aspect to them this time out since you have to make do with whatever traffic happens to be on hand at the time. Showtime can certainly be fun in its own right; it's just no substitute for Crash Mode.

Before I move on to the multiplayer side of things in the game, I should take a moment to mention that Paradise features the most extensive in-game advertising that I've ever seen in a game. Billboards abound through the city and things are taken another step further by the vans you'll see driving the streets completely emblazoned with product logos and advertising. I suppose that you could make the argument that all of the billboards make the city appear more realistic, but I feel that if you're going to subject the gamer to a blitz of in-game advertising you should knock a few dollars off of the price of the game.

And now on to the game's multiplayer modes, which I have to say have been expertly integrated seamlessly into the gameplay. In Paradise there's no need to exit to the main menu to switch to the multiplayer modes. At any time during the game you can use the d-pad to pop-up a list of online options such as looking for your friends, creating an online challenge, or joining in on an online game. Press up on the pad and you can make a timed run on the road that you're currently on and compare your time to that of other players who've run the same road. Press right and you can join from one to seven other players in an online race or challenge. When you join a game there's no need to sit staring at a status screen while waiting for the next event to start. You're free to drive around the city while waiting for the host to set-up the next event. The host can create a race and define the starting and finishing points, or select from one of the game's 400 challenges. The challenges include various jumps, drift competitions, and crash challenges, so there's plenty of variety to go along with the vast quantity of competitions. It's great to see the multiplayer competition so well integrated into the regular game and you'll appreciate the fact that you're saved from making your way through several lobbies just to get a little online racing in.

Overall, Paradise City is a great arcade racer in spite of some annoying navigational issues. The open world play fits the Burnout series perfectly, and Paradise City takes the series in a new and exciting direction.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 89%. Take me down to Paradise City where the cars are fast and crash really pretty...

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