
- BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT DRIVER
- BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT SERIES
- BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT PS2
While Test Drive Unlimited toyed with the concept only a year before Paradise‘s release, Ward cites games like Pandemic’s Mercenaries and Realtime Worlds’ original Crackdown as the inspiration for Burnout’s jump from linear racing to full-scale sandbox. Another element Hot Pursuit lifted from Burnout was its open world, an idea first introduced in Burnout Paradise.
BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT SERIES
The first Criterion game not directed by Burnout creator Alex Ward, Hot Pursuit saw the Need for Speed series edge further than ever into arcade racing territory. “Layering on the handling that you expect from a Criterion game took a ton of hard work and talent.” “When we created our Hot Pursuit, it was the first time we really had an authentic simulation running under the cars,” Glancey tells me.

To this end, Criterion’s Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit could be easily picked up and played, just like Burnout, while its cars still handled with depth. In our heads, we all have incredible driving capability, and that’s why our games should fulfil those fantasies.”
BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT DRIVER
“The unfortunate truth is that most of us are average drivers,” Glancey says, “but the average driver doesn’t think they’re average. Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, released in 2010, saw the developer merge elements of both franchises, with a notable emphasis on what Criterion producer and senior designer Paul Glancey calls “heroic driving.” Both arcade racers shared fierce competition right up until the former was retired in 2008 with Burnout Paradise – at which point Criterion Games moved over to work on the Need for Speed series. While the Burnout brand might not be high on EA’s list of priorities right now, Need for Speed most definitely is. Just pick up the pad, step on the gas, and away you go.” Three Fields Entertainment has proved this numerous times now, first building Danger Zone and its 2018 sequel entirely around Burnout’s legendary Crash mode, before eventually capitalising on this further with Dangerous Driving. “No storylines, no cutscenes, no complicated controls, and not much to explain to anyone playing with you. “Smashing cars up is just great fun,” he says.

These crash and takedown elements are what put the original Burnout games on the map, and Dangerous Driving offers some new but similarly anarchic modes.īoosts and crashes aside, Ward believes that cutting out unnecessary noise is equally important to making a Burnout-style game. The boost bar, for example, gives players an extra thrust when edging past rivals, while slamming into other cars delivers the same satisfying crunch and slow-motion view of the resulting destruction. “I loved the irreverent humour and anarchic, non-stop, seat-of-your-pants action in Burnout 3: Takedown – it changed my view on what a driving game could be.” Crash and Learnĭangerous Driving borrows many familiar mechanics fans of Burnout will recognise, and offers them up with a modern spin. “In my work, it’s all about helping to evolve and advance that spirit,” he says. Simon Phillips, designer and artist at Three Fields Entertainment, says this rebellious attitude to driving was something the team pay direct homage to in Dangerous Driving. The original Burnout may have featured only a small collection of cars, but it didn’t matter when driving them felt so exciting.
BURNOUT PARADISE GAME CHANGING CONTENT PS2
That arcade focus was a key part of the Burnout franchise from its PS2 debut, which introduced such trademark features as the boost meter, driving through oncoming traffic, and rewards for narrowly avoiding other vehicles. It requires concentration and focus every step of the way.” You have to entertain the player as quickly as possible and then build on it. “Driving at high speed, weaving in and out of traffic, and having accidents… Arcade driving games are 100 per cent pure gameplay. “Driving games have been a lifelong passion and interest for me going back to the mid-eighties,” explains Ward, Three Fields Entertainment’s co-founder. The studio was formed by the original mind behind the series, Alex Ward, who, alongside his fellow Criterion alumni, are enthusiastic about continuing the Burnout legacy. It hopes to put the aggression back into the racing genre and – as developer Three Fields Entertainment itself puts it – “recapture the spirit of the past and take it to a new place.”

Released in April 2019, Dangerous Driving was an arcade racer that aimed to revive the thrill of early Burnout titles.
