With "Paradise," the first "Burnout" made from the ground up for next-gen platforms, developer Criterion wanted to make a fresh start. They wanted a "Burnout" that would do away with all the loading screens and menus. To accomplish this goal they've introduced an open world environment called Paradise City. Races and other favorite "Burnout" events are still present, but all you will have to do to access them is drive to the starting line.

In addition, there will be various shops scattered across the city. Drive through a body shop and it will repair any damage to your car. Drive through a gas station and your boost meter fills up. Tired of your car's color? Take a drive through a paint shop. We took the new city for a spin and were having a blast for about 15 minutes when we realized that we hadn't yet entered a single event. Screwing around and exploring the game's open world is pretty fun on its own.

With all these changes, it's clear that this is "Burnout" evolved. All the different cars actually feel and handle differently, and their various weights and balance will alter how they react with the environment, resulting in vastly different crashes for each car every time. We can't wait to try and see how many different wrecks we can make; we just wish we didn't have to wait until next year to do it.

Considering the open world aspect of the game, Criterion found it a challenge to create congested crash junction areas all over the city. But since Crash Mode is many players' favorite mode, what was a developer to do?

How about turning Crash Mode into a crash anytime mode and calling it Showtime? In "Paradise," players will be able to initiate crashes on their own anywhere in the city, even during race events, and as long as their car retains momentum, they can continue to rack up the points. It might even be possible to keep one wreck going from one side of the city all the way to the other. Sounds like destruction even Godzilla could be proud of.