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| Burnout Paradise: BIKES by Fussbett 09/22/2008, 12:40am PDT | ||||
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| Three major free updates later, Burnout Paradise was finally able to hook me in a little more.
[gametrailers id=39982] I set the day/night cycle to "match local time" which is a feature I always love in games (for reasons only a therapist might one day reveal) and began driving around in the late afternoon, enjoying the new long-shadow look of sunset in Paradise City on my motorcycle. I started to lose interest in the game again until I realized that I accidentally set a road record on one of the streets. So then I went to work! As of a couple hours ago, FSBT owned the daytime and nighttime records for all of the small streets in the upper right of the map, the area called "Palm Bay Heights" I believe. 
All of those north-south streets. Hawley Ave, Hudson Ave, Moore Ave, Nakamura Ave, Sullivan Ave... Plus many more. Turns out I love shaving milliseconds off a 5 second race. Why did I bother? I'm not really sure, but that time frame is short enough to hold my attention, plus I enjoy seeing my name all over the city and in the text crawl at the bottom, announcing my accomplishments to all the people playing. The Bikes patch is really something. I wish a Monty Cantsin or a Dave Sirlin were following this series because I like them to explain things to me (Dave Sirlin is too busy SLOWING TIME TO WIN STREET FIGHTER MATCHES to concern himself with silly car games no doubt.) The Bikes patch appears to throw away much of the philosophy of Burnout Paradise. It's always sunny in Paradise City. These perfect driving conditions are a racing paradise. --> Weather, day/night cycle. A zillion cars to unlock. Each car is slightly different to drive. --> Two bikes. A really fast one and a really slow one. Unlock and earn all your cars as you progress. --> Here are you two bikes. Amazing damage modeling and spectacular crashes. The Burnout killer app! --> No damage, bikes are never harmed. Bike just lays down, rider disappears. No humans anywhere. --> Your choice of a male or female rider. Boost gauge. --> No boost gauge, no burnouts. No burnouts! Dangerous driving is rewarded. Driving in oncoming traffic and near misses give you boost. --> No burnouts! Do whatever you want on the bike, who cares. Takedown other drivers (and civilian cars) by slamming into them. --> No takedowns. I'm not complaining. I love the free new stuff, and I love how different it is. It's just interesting how it feels like the Burnout team is trying new experiments. Finally the Criterion guy who's sick of boost got his way with the Bikes patch. |
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