Why Crash wasn't in Burnout Paradise

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 July, 2011

Criterion saved it for Burnout Crash!

Wondered why 2008 racing game Burnout Paradise didn't have the series' popular Crash mode?

Developer Criterion was saving Crash mode for downloadable spin-off Burnout Crash!

"This is a small project led by Richard Franke, who is the game director, and James Warren, who is our Kinect programmer," Alex Ward, creative director of Criterion, said during a behind closed doors presentation of the game in the US last week attended by Eurogamer.

"This has been a small team of guys working for about a year at Criterion on a small downloadable game.

"If you played Burnout Paradise, everybody asked me at the time why we didn't put Crash mode in. This was why.

"It was always our intention."

In previous Burnout games Crash mode was a mode in which players were given dedicated scenarios in which to cause the biggest crash.

Crash mode was nowhere to be seen, however, in the open world driving game Burnout Paradise.

Instead, a mode called Showtime allowed players to bounce their vehicles around for as long as possible to gain points.

Burnout Crash!, announced on Friday, is a download only top-down game based on Crash mode.

EA said the UK studio has gone back to its roots by bringing the popular Crash mode to the forefront.

You're rewarded for crashing into cars, EA said, and triggering explosions. Autolog lets you compare high scores. New Autolog Challenges let you go head to head with your friends.

Crash! is inspired by pinball, retro music and game shows.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (56) Latest comment 11 months ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • AdamAsunder #1 11 months ago

    Erm...

  • J0rdan_KZ #2 11 months ago

    Why does this just sound like PR talk?

    ... Oh wait, that's because it probably is.

  • Eraysor #3 11 months ago

    /slowclap for more hilarious EA spin

  • StolenGlory #4 11 months ago

    So you saved it for a top-down racer that bears little or no resemblance to the original game that we wanted said mode for.

    Thanks for that Criterion - You know just what we want!

    EDIT: I fucking hate it when developers do shit like this. They know that there is an IP or a component of an IP that gamers really love which they could also make a tidy sum of wonga out of and rather than go the whole hog and just release an update of it or a new legit entry in the series, we get quirky little spin-off turdlings like this and Suda 51's Sdatcher and then we're somehow meant to be thankful that these cunts 'listened to their fanbase'. Bellends. /rant over
    Edited by StolenGlory at 11/07/11 @ 10:05

  • repeater #5 11 months ago

    "If you played Burnout Paradise, everybody asked me at the time why we didn't put Crash mode in. This was why.

    "It was always our intention."

    Someone didn't go to EA's "Corporate PR 101" course. :D

  • LHH #6 11 months ago

    lol this must be a troll reply from them or something

  • Subdominator #7 11 months ago

    Well, thanks for ruining Burnout for me, then. Crash mode was the reason why I loved Burnout 2 and 3. I never got into the open world racing of Paradise. And now I get this POS, this abomination of the real crash mode. You'd think they would put all they can into a game to make it better. Instead they keep content from one game to make a shitty Facebook game with it. I can't puke as much as I want to.

  • weejok #8 11 months ago

    So you left out one of the best modes in previous Burnout games so you could made a small download in a completely different style out of it?? Shut up! Just get on with making a proper new Burnout game because this looks pretty rubbish :(

  • DDevil #9 11 months ago

    Don't be so hard on Burnout Crash - didn't you hear it has lobster monsters in it?

  • TomDent93 #10 11 months ago

    Yeah, because this looks worth it

  • TONYgr #11 11 months ago

    This is the worst game criterion have ever produced.And it is under the banner of EA.Coincidence?I don't think so.

  • IronGiant #12 11 months ago

    Looks pap.. Used to love the crash mode in previous burnout games, it was really exciting and spectacular to play with huge explosions and car body parts flying everywhere. Who thinks what we want is a top down version with everything in miniature??

  • Triggerhappytel #13 11 months ago

    What a load of bullshit. Why's it taken them more than 3 years since Paradise's release to even announce this game then?! And didn't they say one of the modes in Paradise (forget its name) basically was the same as Crash mode anyway?

  • Buztafen #14 11 months ago

    A year and thats what they came up with? FFS.

  • Bilstar #15 11 months ago

    Ummm, I really liked Crash Mode in other Burnouts. And I really liked Micro Machines too. But top-down crash-junction Burnout? It's not gonna be anywhere near as good as the full fat version.

  • TheRealBadabing #16 11 months ago

    Is Burnout 2 backwards compatible?

  • BEXANT #17 11 months ago

    Still looks like a very disappointing pile!

  • Coughthulu #18 11 months ago

    I don't get it. Wy didn't they just take the BO:Revenge engine, get a small team to add a load of crash junctions to the three Crash! modes in it, and release as an XBLA/PSN game?

    Seriously, I'd have bought that in a heartbeat. But this...? Forget it, Dash Of Destruction with crashes does not a Crash mode make. :(

  • mcreddie #19 11 months ago

    Might as well fuck it and put the roster of Wacky Races cars in there

  • Whitster #20 11 months ago

    I would have happily paid them a tenner for 50 junctions from Paradise reworked as crash junctions, why they've spent a year on this I dont know?

  • BBIAJ #21 11 months ago

    @TheRealBadabing:

    Yes.

  • Paulie_P #22 11 months ago

    Is this what we're getting angry about this week then?

  • RodHull #23 11 months ago

    "This is a small project led by Richard Franke, who is the game director, and James Warren, who is our Kinect programmer,"

    Does that mean it's got Kinect functionality then? If so completely missed that on previous news gumpfs.

  • Lunatic4ever #24 11 months ago

    saved it for crash?

    screw them. I loved crash mode and really missed it in Paradise.
    Just so that now it will be released in a tiny ass xbla game?

    Btw ,is this going to be released for the pc as well? Because if not...its just fucked up for pc gamers.

  • kestral #25 11 months ago

    Not sure what to make of the gamplay:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQvv8mHCgjg

  • anthonypappa #26 11 months ago

    stupid i know, but i couldn't get fully into it because panning around your car was inveted and couldn't be changed.

    this crash game looks pants.

  • metalangel #27 11 months ago

    We could detonate entire galaxies to spell 'BULLSHIT' across the heavens themselves, and it still wouldn't be big or loud enough.

  • Iain815 #28 11 months ago

    @kestral

    Oh. Dear. God. It looks awful.

  • DAN.E.B #29 11 months ago

    saved it for cash?

  • minimong #30 11 months ago

    Would it not have killed them to bring out crash with the Burnout Paradise engine.That would have been a day one purchase for me, unlike this aborted travesty.

  • Rubbish_Russ #31 11 months ago

    Well, it took a moment to get over the disappointment of not having Crash Mode in Paradise - but then I really got into what was a fantastically fun game (just different to the previous ones).

    The spin in the article above is pretty blatant - I don't believe for a second that this was held back - they just realise now that leaving it out of B:p was bit of a mistake.

    However, I like the idea of Crash as an Arcade game - and the screenshots do make it look kind of intriguing. I think I'll hold back totally writing it off until after someone from EG actually plays it. Maybe some of you should to?

    I mean, they can't keep making the same thing over and over, can they?

  • wayne997 #32 11 months ago

    what a load of wankers .because we where saving it for this .THIS is shit GTA started like this top down now look what they do soap pose to go forward not back wards .SACK THE MAN .saving it for this fucking bullshiter noob jockey

  • wayne997 #33 11 months ago

    what a load of wankers .because we where saving it for this .THIS is shit GTA started like this top down now look what they do soap pose to go forward not back wards .SACK THE MAN .saving it for this fucking bullshiter noob jockey its burnout burnt OUT
    Edited by wayne997 at 11/07/11 @ 11:01

  • jumpdeveraux #34 11 months ago

    Judging by the steering wheel hands at the beginning of the youtube video and the flashing icon to jump up and down in your seat to detonate the car again this looks like it's been Kinectified.

  • KreyAtiv #35 11 months ago

    They could have done it similar to Burnout 2 and 3 where you are behind the car and try to cause as much damage as possible, this time extending the time allowing the flow of traffic to gradually slow down, rather than a time limit on it.
    I'm sure I'm not the only one who experienced a bus to be coming into the carnage you caused just for the time to run out.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #36 11 months ago

    I enjoyed Burnout Paradise quite a bit even without the crash mode. Personally I did not miss it for even a second.

    It still sounds like an excuse even if they did indeed save it for Burnout Crash.

  • agparrot #37 11 months ago

    I am currently disappointed in the change of direction that this represents, and I've been following Burnout since it was Little Red Racer, or whatever they called in the the official PS2 mag before it had a proper name.

    I think this represents a move by EA to brand the Burnout franchise as something colourful, fun, family center and Kinect adapted, while they use the NFS franchise to cover all the other sorts of racing games and genres.

    Which is a shame for those of us who want a return to what Crash Junctions and the like used to be.

  • paulf #38 11 months ago

    wow the gameplay footage looks really bad, they would have been better just putting the crash junctions from the other games into a pack and using the paradise engine for it

  • PixelPirate #39 11 months ago

    This is not Burnout. Its another game wearing Burnouts skin.

    Just do another actual Burnout game or GTFO

  • wellzy4eva #40 11 months ago

    This looks like a 59p iPod game that I have [link url=http://screenshots.en.softonic.com/en/scrn/90000/90389/traffic-rush-6.jpg
    ]http://screenshots.en.softonic.com/en/sc...[/link]

    Thankfully Burnout Legends (on the PSP) provides all my crashing needs :D

  • metalangel #41 11 months ago

    @Pixel Pirate: It's not even that... it's a pile of old crap wearing a fake moustache and a forged driver's licence.

  • geeza2020 #42 11 months ago

    This looks terrible.

  • Rack #43 11 months ago

    Why say this? Do they think it makes them sound better? "Oh yeah we totally took out the Crash mode so we could charge for it later as a separate game"

  • cherryuk #44 11 months ago

    no because I never gave the game a chance due to the accelerator controls were designated to the shoulder buttons with no option to remap controls!

  • ToAks #45 11 months ago

    HUH???????????????????

    LIES!

    in the interviews before and after BP release alex ward stated that crash junction mode was replaced by showtime in burnout paradise and they where very proud of it too, as in... you won't need crash junction mode anymore etc.

    they didn't save it for this downloadable thing , i hope it will play as good as all criterion games have done so far but it is not crash mode!

    Criterion,PLEASE do a HD Remake of Burnout 3:Takedown!, i'd buy it in a instant.


    BTW: I love the series and i loved Burnout Paradise too although it took me weeks to get adjusted to the shoulder acceleration button and camera panning buttons being impossible to change.
    Edited by ToAks at 11/07/11 @ 14:02

  • Quixz #46 11 months ago

    I wont even bother downloading the FREE trail. This SUCKS Criterion!

  • Doctor_What #47 11 months ago

    Yep, this smells very fishy. I'd bet that Mr Ward didn't want to interrupt his vision for an open/real world Burnout, which is why junctions would have been too game-y for his tastes... But trying to cover an unpopular decision with blatant lies? Slick. No-one will notice a thing.

  • mukki #48 11 months ago

    Errr what...

    why?

    come on...

  • ChristopherGore89 #49 11 months ago

    Well I work in a game shop and we have had the Resident Evil HD collection down for a retail release on PS3 only and the 360 says download only (I imagine this is down to way Sony have been supporting HD remakes which I do prefer)

  • apoc_reg #50 11 months ago

    They cant be serious!

  • Tiberius_Gracchus #51 11 months ago

    So ridiculous it's laughable. Doesnt make any sense whatsoever.

  • 8bitMofo #52 11 months ago

    55x PISSED OFF EG'ERS COMBO
    2,500,050

  • alcides #53 11 months ago

    lazy shameless morons.

  • alcides #54 11 months ago

    lazy shameless morons.

  • Alf-Life #55 11 months ago

    Erm, so they've been working on the spin-off for *only a year* and yet claiming it wasn't included in *2008*s Burnout Paradise because...? :s

  • MaxiSleep #56 11 months ago

    How about some actual journalism eg ?