Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box

Head-on Conclusion

Unfortunately though, despite the over-funked but very fun Party mode and the damned-decent graphics there are still some things wrong with Burnout Paradise on the PC.

Well, perhaps not wrong per se – but definitely things that will irk regular gamers and anyone who wants to utterly complete Burnout Paradise.

For starters, there's the online system which requires you to enter in your name and create an account with EA's Burnout Paradise servers as soon as you start the game, with no way around it. You'll need a valid email address and all that.

Now, on the one hand, that's to be expected. The previous incarnation of Burnout Paradise was very online-focused too, with the big fault there being that there was no offline multiplayer. Thankfully though, the PC version does have offline multiplayer, which is great.

What the PC doesn't have though is Xbox Live for the game to seamlessly integrate with, meaning you have to hand over your details and attempt to connect every time you play. It's hardly a big thing, but we're going to bet that most PC gamers will have a whinge and a whine about it anyway. That's what we always do.


The actual structure of the game is still as annoying as ever after a while too – traveling across the entire city just looking for a Road Rage event can be an exercise in frustration if you haven't discovered any, for example. All too often you'll find a Road Rage event that'll demand you have a certain car or race at a certain time of day, forcing you to drive all the way to the junkyard and return with a new car.

On the one hand this system does add some depth and realism to the game, forcing you to learn the city streets and take advantage of all those shortcuts. It's also worth remembering that we didn't loathe this system quite so much in the console version – but that's mainly because we hadn't been so over-exposed to it by then. Now we know all those streets, so traipsing around like taxi service looking for adventure is starting to get old.

Control is definitely something worth thinking about too as, no matter how much you fiddle with the controls, there's the definite feeling that the game was designed for a gamepad. Ideally, an Xbox 360 one. It's kind of essential, especially considering how the menus are structured and how you have to cycle through the maps, stores, options and so on using the F1 and F2 keys; a poor replacement for gamepad bumpers.


Still, it isn't all downhill plummets and uphill struggles and a lot of what's on offer in Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box is exactly the type of level-on-the-level crashing and racing you want. When you do get stuck into the actual racing then the game is as fun as ever, with fantastic crumple physics and graphics and a selection of different race types. There are jumps to find, billboards to smash and secret routes to uncover – all of it done at breakneck speeds and the type of reckless abandon that usually ends in a shotgun wedding or a full-body cast.

The soundtrack deserves special mention too and while you'll almost certainly get bored of the Paradise City anthem, EA has done its usual stalwart job of compiling a great soundtrack. It's one area where EA never lets us down, so just turn off the wall-punchingly annoying DJ Atomica and appreciate the tunes.
The action in Burnout Paradise: Ultimate Box is as good as it's ever been and the addition of the new offline mode, plus all the downloadable content, really makes the game a tempting offer – but if you're looking for a game that gives the straight-away excitement of the previous Burnout games then this might not be the Burnout for you; the city-crawling just slows everything down, leaving you stranded at the finish-line with no easy retry option.

That said, if you're more into exploring the city and taking on occasional missions when and where you want them in a kind of GTA-style of play then this is definitely a title that'll appeal to you thanks to the open and interesting city. The offline multiplayer, promises of regular new content (for a price, obviously and regrettably) and integrated online aspect of the game only serve to enhance this.

We may not love Burnout Paradise as much as we once did, but it's still a great game if you can bear the flaws.

Score Guide