Burnout Paradise Demo Thread
 

anyone tried the burnout demo?

am I the only one who totally hate the way EA took this franchise? for me burnout 3 was the last good burnout. the after effect and the crash where so great in that game...

now with the need for speed open city formula, it just turn me off... it just feel like a NFS but with no police, no story, and some crash that sometime look cool but doesn't seem of any interest like in the other burnout >.>

I really wish they will return more to the burnout 3 formula someday :\

I don't think the demo really resembles the final product based off of media previews of the retail version.

In the demo since there's only ever 1 or 2 things to do, if you fail a race you have to drive all the way back. In the final build this is resolved by having sooooo many events, if you fail you just start the next race that is pratically right where you just finished.

The racing I think is cool. NFS never allowed you to just take whatever route you wanted to get to the end. So to have that ability now REALLY makes it feel like they're building on top of the game.

The graphics themself are quite impressive. Made even more so by the constant 60FPS.

Only problem is that the trick based event is a bit intrusive. You have to know the jump locations in that said area. There's no map indications of even just some "main" jumps to help you get started. So that mode is a bit take it or leave it. Burnout is about speed, so having to study the city is a bit lame.

I don't think the demo is going to hurt the sales any. But I really don't think it needed a demo, or at least not before release. Burnout is already a large franchise, they don't need to flex their muscles just for show.

I was probably more excited about the game before playing the demo. But I'm still going to buy the game for the PS3 when it comes out. I just simply love arcaic racers.

P.S.
That open world driving thing isn't NFS's anymore. They ditched it so I say it's fair game. Besides, Burnout does it better anyway. ^^

I'm not a big racing game fan, but I thought the demo was alright. I definitely won't be buying this on the day of release, but if I can find it cheap one day I may consider it.

And yeah, it does suck about having to drive all the way back to each event if you fail. Like I said, I'm not that big a fan of racing games, so obviously I'm not that great at them, so having to do that after failing multiple times got annoying after a while. Even if there are more things to do in the final version, I like to keep at one thing until I beat it, so that would still be quite annoying.

Also, this is probably just a complaint of mine, but why do most racing games these days keep putting the acceleration and reverse controls on the trigger buttons? It works to some degree, but I just prefer to have them on the face buttons, and save the handbrake and boost controls for the triggers. I'm sure you'll be able to customize it that way in the final version, but it sucks that you can't change it for the demo.

Sometimes I'm persistant that way too. Which is comes to one other thing that probably bugged me the most. Why can't you select and start events from the map? WTF?

As for the controls, can you not map them to different buttons? I wouldn't be surprised either way seeing how like FPSs, Racing games controls have become quite standardised over the last generation or so.

The hell? It's about a billion times easier to control how much pressure you put on a trigger than it is to do so on a face button. Different braking and gas pressures are the entire point.

Yeah, selecting things from the map seemed liked a no brainer. I could understand having to physically go to the gas stations and the auto repair shops, but the events should have been selectable from the map, or at least put in the option to do so once you've tried it at least once. I appreciate the open world format they're going for, but some aspects of it are just plain annoying in the long run.

And about the controls, I couldn't find a way to change the button layout in the demo. There was no kind of options menu as far as I could tell, and pressing start only brings up the map. Like I said though, I assume you'll be able to do so in the full game, they just didn't have it implemented in the demo (the R&C demo had a similar annoyance where you couldn't change to inverted aiming, but you can in the full game).

It's just a control preference. You don't really need different pressures for gas (you're going to be trying to go as fast as possible most of the time), and since you use the handbrake more than reverse, it would make more sense to have that on a trigger instead.

Even so the PS3's controllers have pressure sensative X, /_\ , [ ], O as did the dualshock before it.

The options are in a weird place. But hit "right" on the D-pad as though you were to go online and then scroll down to options.

I didn't even try any of the online stuff, so I guess that's why I missed it. I'll definitely try it out the next time I play it.

I can understand the complaint about using the triggers for gas and brake on the PS3. Sorry but the triggers on the sixaxis are absolutely terrible. In a game like Burnout, where you are basically full throttle or no throttle, it doesn't matter, but if you were playing a racing sim, like Gran Turismo, where you will actually need to have more precise control of the level of throttle and braking, the terrible triggers will become a factor.

The trigger buttons are very awkward to press. They really should have gone with the typical concave (i.e. Xbox 360/GameCube) instead of convex style for them.

well i just tried the demo online, I still think it's a bad burnout game but now I really like this "arcade racing" game.

I really did love online play where you tried to be other people high score or to just run and take them down, it's was just really more enjoyable than just race around city without having a goal or something...

still I want the after effect back and more awesome slow-motion crash ; ;

Yeah the mechanism on the Sixaxis is pretty shitty, but I just got my Dualshock 3 import and the trigger mechanism is much improved. They slide inward now similar to the Gamecube triggers but it doesn't have that click point and the triggers on the Dualshock 3 offer more resistance the further in you push the trigger so its easier to feel how far you've pushed the trigger. It's FAR better than the lever type triggers on the Sixaxis.

I'm sorry, but, uh. No. Not at all. The regular brake is how you enter controlled drifts, and how hard you hit it changes a lot of things, including how much you slow down by. And there have been plenty of times in the demo already where I've ran into situations where I haven't used full gas.

I'm not saying this is a sim, but you're playing it wrong, that's about all there is to it.

So because I don't play it the same way as you I'm playing it wrong?

It just doesn't play right to me using the triggers, plain and simple. Who cares if it plays better (which itself is a matter of opinion) using that method if it's not even comfortable to play?

There is a difference between "different" and "wrong".

It is like only using fierce attacks in Street Fighter. You are not doing yourself any favours by limiting your range of actions.

Weither or not you are more comfortable using the face buttons or the triggers is a matter of personal opinion, but having the level of accuracy with a pressure sensitive face button rather than a trigger would take a lot of personal work. And when parts of the gameplay are dependent on said pressure, a more accurate implement is usually preferred. Would you use a ball-peen hammer or a sledge when working with a chisel?

This isn't an opinion piece, Charlie. I'm just stating the obvious.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and just offer my two cents.

I never played this game before until tonight, and I'll tell you. Applying brake + gas makes you sit there. You need to accelerate constantly, brake constantly, and ram constantly. There's no but's about it. You have to do it that way. If you don't, you'll get killed (Skills can vouch for this ._.)

Thanks.

As I said earlier, I'm not a big racing game fan, so I admittedly don't know all the mechanics of how racing games work. That being said, I think I did pretty well playing through the single player stuff in the demo, and for the most part I just hit the gas as much as possible and used the handbrake when a corner came up.

As for playing real people, yeah, I probably would lose. But I think it has more to do with the fact that I've never been great at racing games to begin with than with the way I play them. Sure, I could learn how to play it the way everyone else does, but it would be so unwieldly for me that I would probably end up playing worse than how I would my way.

So whatever. Maybe I am playing it wrong, but I'd rather play it wrong and actually be able to play it rather than play it "right" and not even be able to play it that well.

While it is true that there is no logical reason to want to get rid of the accuracy of pressure-sensitive triggers in favor of flavorless binary face buttons, I don't see why they don't just give you the option in the demo to customize controls so people who don't know how to play racers won't have to complain about it in online forums (or is there a way afterall, I haven't personally checked).

Anyway, demo's sweet. Can't wait for the full thing next month.

man, the wreck effects are amazing. :D

I'm going to download this when I get home tonight but I have to say I'm not optimistic about the whole city thing. Need for speed underground 2 was ruined by having to drive around looking for events rather than just picking from a list and I hope this won't happen to Burnout. I really enjoy racing games, I'm not a big fan of driving around looking for obscure stuff games. Also, it seems to me like having an "Any route you want" thing will mean you'll never get to see any other racers.

I hope I'm wrong but I fear they've ruined the fun of just racing really fast round a circuit into oncoming traffic.

The online mode is pretty cool, I've played with Aardark already.

It froze two times within an hour, though.

But I am definitely going to buy this. I must get the US version, though, because in the German version, DJ Atomica is a woman that sounds like she's 55 years old :/

For the little I played last night, I thought it's a decent racing game, though I prefer selecting events from a menu rather than tracking them down on an open map. Still, this looks like a definite buy for me.

Loling at the CompUSA in-game advertising, since they're going out of business.

DJ Atomica is an extremely annoying "fun and enthusiastic" douche on the US version. He's like that high energy mid-20s guy that companies use to try to appeal to 13 year olds. Easily the worst part of the demo. If this clown is in the full game and there isn't an option to turn him off, I will be very disappointed.

The rest of it is fun. I am hoping that the size of the map will not be a problem when the full game hits and we are playing multiplayer though. It was easy enough to find yourself a couple of miles away from the other players on the cordoned off demo map, so increasing the map size significantly could cause some lonely drives. What is the point of playing it if you can't t-bone each other, at high speeds, in an intersection, because you can never find anyone else?

Yeah, that's probably true. The full game map will be like twenty times larger than the demo game map. But then again, I think they said up to 8 players in the full game and from what I've experiencd so far, people are just looking for confrontation, so they will just meet somewhere

True, last night when Skills, Iwata, mini-face, and myself were playing, for the longest time we all four just drove around on the east side of the map, where the repair shop and gas station were, just taking each other down, just going up and down that street. It just happens that it took a while for us to all sort of start congregating in the same place and staying there.

It was cool last night before Iwata and mini-face joined us, Skills and I had a couple of randoms in the game with us, so we spent the whole time trying to hunt them down and crash them. It was fun.

If anyone is still looking for a way to shut the awful DJ up, just play a custom soundtrack. I did that last night, and he didn't say a word.

Oh, shit.

Thanks for the heads up chief. You're a lifesaver.

Anyone have any opinions on the PS3/360 quality differences?

I've looked but I really don't see it...

because there's no difference and really we don't care >.>

see, now that's not nice. I'm just asking for people's opinion on if they notice a difference, and I've noted yours right here. so please..... don't be a dick. :\

Some assholes claim there's a slight performance decrease in the 360 version with some dropped frames.

Could be the case. I haven't side-by-sided them myself, personally. If anything, it's so minor that it's not worth getting in a shit about, that's for sure.

Maybe the PS3 performs better, but that doesn't really matter. All your friends and everybody you know has a 360 and not a PS3, so to play it online with your buddies, you'll just have to get the 360 version. (Unless I missed something and you can play this game cross-platform?)

I think this is one of the most fun demos I played in recent years. I wasn't a Burnout fan since after Burnout 3, and this has totally rekindled my love for the game. The sound design is awesome, the crashes are so physical, and it's really fun to drive around. It's almost like they took GTA and Burnout and merged all the good parts of both. I can't wait for the full game. I do hope there are some areas in the city that are a bit more crowded with traffic, that's the only thing I kinda missed.

And yeah "DJ ATOMIKA" needs to die, as does the entire Burnout Paradise soundtrack:

Good thing the 360 allows you to play your own music... Time to make some Burnout playlists in anticipation.

I've played both demos ( own a 360 and PS3 ). The PS3 version's only advantage over the 360 version is that when you first get dropped into paradise city. The 360 version takes a few more seconds to load up everything.

What the 360 version does have on the PS3 version though is a stable online mode. I tried hosting my own online room on the PS3 version about 3 times and only one out of those three times did the connections stay stable for more then 5 minutes and it took about 5 minutes to even have a full lobby. Whereas in the 360 version, I can create a online lobby and it will be full within 5 seconds and only way connection will ever drop among the players is if i decide to boot someone or they quit.

Plus the lack of rumble control in the SIXAXIS hurts the PS3 version immensely. It just felt bland compared to the 360 version because of no controller feedback. You ram a dude or get sideswipped, I expect to feel it through my controller and the SIXAXIS not having rumble. It really made it hard for one to immerse themselves into the game.

I know that when it comes down to it, i'm going for the 360 version easily as it has far more features avaliable for it then the PS3 version which only has a slight preformance advantage, but has no rumble, achievements, decent online play,etc.

Burnout is the first game to come out with the rumble support and even the demo has rumble support (it's even in the option menu of the demo). You just need to buy a dualshock 3 >.>

and I for me I never had problem starting online games or troubles keeping it online and it was always full in the first few seconds, so I don't know...

Ratchet is actually the first game to have rumble support, but still it is pointless to mention this given that no one in their right mind would waste 60-70 bucks importing a controller that has something that shouldn't have ever been taken out in the first place

no it's not pointless because your main argument about the ps3 version being inferior is the lack of rumble when in fact there's is rumble in the game, that's why I mentioned it...

Yes it is. Even if the game includes rumble; There is no legitmate way to experience this until Q2 2008 unless you want to pay double the price for a feature that should have never left the controller design in the first place and when Burnout: paradise drops next month, it will get docked for the lack of such things as have other MP games like in CoD4.

Except for the fact that I was wrong. It's not the custom soundtracks that you need to turn on, it's the "tips" you need to turn off. I believe you can do that in the menu.

Either way, a way to turn it off equals fuck yes. I haven't played the demo again since the earlier post, I'll just have to play around to double check when I'm in it next.

Oh, heads up bitches.

Sauce

Burnout Paradise session this weekend must happen.

Tonight, actually.

I've got me, Iwata, and Term in for certain. Omagnus if we start early enough, and I can't imagine it'd be hard to round up Mo0, Tails, Garr, or bits and pieces of the rest of the crew to fucking rock and roll.

One of the new challenges is "jump the other 7 cars", and another is "do a combined total of 35 barrel rolls" or something to that effect.

I'll probably log on after 22h (est) so if you see me online, send a invite ^^

We're on the 360, not the PS3. Sorry Charlie.

ah damn XD well if anyone is on the ps3 we could try to do the same XD