Burnout Paradise made racing into a massive playground.
We take a look back to mark the anniversary of this beloved classic.
Burnout Paradise celebrated its 15-year anniversary this week, on January 22, 2023.
Now Playing:Amazing Jumps, Crazy Crashes, Stunts and More In Burnout Paradise Remastered
Instead, you have only a single road to follow, with that distant scene serving as window dressing.
You need a javascript enabled web app to watch videos.
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
There was a reason for that.
Sandboxes are messy and don’t allow for tight design.
“Really, really hard.”
The spectacle, oftentimes, was more than enough.
His team had tracked how players had interacted with Burnout Revenge.
So we said, ‘Well why isn’t this lobby a game world?’
We thought it was a good idea, and it turned out to be a really good idea.
Criterion found that its idea for an open-world lobby was more popular than the races they designed.
90% of players chose to fly around the Los Angeles-like metropolis without a care in the world.
Few queued up to the races or other secluded game modes.
The sandbox design method is still popular today.
Developers are still trying to build new, creative ways to traverse wide landscapes.
Many developers used it as inspiration for later games, including DiRT and Need for Speed: Most Wanted.
“The scale of the city and outlying area felt right for what Paradise was setting out to do.
There was something to do at pretty much every junction.
The sandbox racetrack wasn’t the only design element ahead of its time.
A year of free downloadable content was included, which was unheard of for online games in 2008.
Many of the design elements shaped the work that Criterion did moving forward as well.
They’ve all got their analytics and so on so it was an early form of that.”
The only other time Burnout graced a modern screen was when a remastered version of Paradise launched in 2018.
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly?
