Disappointing
I love Burnout game. Drive at crazy speeds with awesome handling, and get involved in epic collisions. That's more or less the Burnout formula. Dominator was by far my most favourite of the series. So you'd think that with a winning formula, Criterion wouldn't really be able to mess it up, right?

Wrong.

The concept seems solid - you get a giant virtual city to drive around in, and you can start races whenever you want. Unfortunately though, once the game actually loads (which takes eons - you'll be disappointed if you just want to sit down for some instant action), problems arise...

The game handles exactly like previous ones, however the problem is that for each race you're given a start and end point, and how you get there is up to you. Hooray, total freedom you say... but think about this realistically. Say you want to go racing through the criss-cross patterns of a major built up city, through backstreets, alleys, main roads and highways, you fly around at a zillion kilometres an hour (btw, you think they'd bother to add in support for the metric system, but no...) you're going to frequently run into this problem: wrong turns. This is what totally kills the game. Racing is no fun whatsoever if you're flying along, having to pause every few seconds to examine the map (no on-screen one here) to make sure you haven't gotten on a highway with no offramps around, or taken the wrong street at an intersection... and if you have, then that's most likely the race lost for you and you can try it again... if you want to drive all the way back across the city to the starting point.

The game could've been made playable if they'd just added indicators on major intersections of where to go, but unfortunately no. The only way you're going to get enjoyment out of Paradise City is if you can commit the entire layout of the city (and it's a big one) to your memory - and then recall it in a split second.

Oh, and there's no crash mode, and you can't detonate cars during races. Boo.

Ultimately, it was a nice idea, but a fails in practice. I have a feeling the next iteration of the series will probably use the same format, but fix the game-ruining problems mentioned above.

Best Burnout Game
Burnout is an amazingly fun game. It goes beyond racing with stunt modes, showtime where you damage as much as you can, and hidden areas to find. Burnout is a full size city that you can spend MANY HOURS driving around discovering things without even participating in events. Over 80 cars and bikes can be won and driven. After you complete the game you can spend an infinate amount of time online working with friends to complete tasks or compete against each other in races.

Great Game
Burnout Paradise includes all the fast-driving, hard-wrecking action you'd expect from a Burnout game, but with a fantastic new open-world design that gives it its own stand-alone flavor.
Open-world design creates a great sense of destructive freedom.

Crash and Burn!
They best Burnout by far in the series, with a huge sandbox and great multitude of challenges with lots of Stunts and Cars to Trash! Co-op Online play is smooth, hardly any lag! A Definite recommendation!

Superb Speed
if you like speed, crash, and trophy ofcourse.
this is a must buy game.
the price is good too. Thanks PA