Burnout DLC will work like Crackdown

By Robert Purchese Published 7 February, 2008

Still see it even if you don't have it.

EA has said that downloadable additions to Burnout Paradise will be a mixture of free and paid-for content. However, those who do not buy the updates will still be able to see the new stuff in-game.

The publisher was responding to probing over whether those with different content packages would be able play together online, as buying new updates is obviously an optional choice.

"Our intention is to offer both free and paid-for DLC in a way that enables everyone to 'see' the content, even if they have not paid for it," EA told MTV Multiplayer.

"We don't want to split the online community between those that have content and those that don't."

It suggests Criterion will not offer any drastically game-altering content that you have to pay for.

Crackdown employed a similar method at the beginning of last year, allowing you to see where the new sub-mission types were but not access them unless you had forked-out.

Realtime Worlds even took the idea one step further by letting you enjoy the new distractions if you were joining a friend who had paid.

Burnout Paradise only offers the full online experience to those with a hard-drive, which excludes Xbox 360 Core owners. Criterion recently said that it had decided to do this after talking with Microsoft and deciding it was in your "best interests" so that you could experience all of its vision.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (20) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • MBar #1 4 years ago

    Suggesting that new areas are coming?

  • miiiguel #2 4 years ago

    Crackdown DLC/Achievements were awesome. I don't have this one, though, and never will.

  • Apostle #3 4 years ago

    One thing I wished for in Skate. (not sure if it used the same engine as Paradise?), was for players to be online skating around the city, a bit like Burnouts online mode.

    I am partial to a bit of racing games, but not sold on this one.

  • Eighthours #4 4 years ago

    I wonder if the really obvious barriers will be taken down in the DLC? There are several areas that look accessible - with roads, paths, grass and the likes - which are blocked by little pillars.

  • dsmx #5 4 years ago

    Now we will see how far EA influence has penetrated critereon, will the DLC be a total ripoff.

  • Steroyd #6 4 years ago

    Burnout should be arriving in the post any day now. :D

  • IAmBatman #7 4 years ago

    Cool.

  • peteb #8 4 years ago

    please bring aftertouch back, or at least crash junctions! hoping against hope here...

  • seasidebaz #9 4 years ago

    i want to see them do something with the stock car racing circuit in the hillbilly area, near the quarry. i don't know how i got in there but down a little dirt path is a race oval, it can't be used in a race event currently as it doesn't have a junction or one of the endpoints near it.

    also, why does this dlc announcement seem to imply it will only come to 360? i want it for my ps3 goddammit!

  • Saladin #10 4 years ago

    I don't think new areas will be added - more likely online game modes and cars.

    Crash junctions will not be making a return in this iteration, you can be sure of that.

  • bdgr #11 4 years ago

    I'm not usually one for online multiplayer - but I did enjoy the online co-op in Crackdown and I also enjoyed halo 3's online games too.

    I'll be getting all the DLC, as I'm loving the new burnout. Yes, even showtime! I would've liked aftertouch to stay in - only because I find myself trying to do it after each crash! aftertouch takedowns were a nice evil moment of Revenge, that is missing from this outing.

    Hopefully the DLC will include more events - the police chase event from burnout 2 perhaps?

    Also I agree about possibly it may open up new areas - there's a couple of areas that look like you should be able to drive up (can't remember precisely but i think near the country club there's a bus parked next to some bollards with a driveway is one example), and perhaps in the next outing they could add a bit of FlatOut - I'm thinking of being able to drive through buildings - that mall in Paradise City is just crying out to be smashed into and driven through!

    All in all, I'm enjoying Paradise immensely - could Burnout's online mode be the future of online play? Instead of sole multiplayer maps, playing the single player campaign of, say COD4 with a full human online team would be astonishingly awesome!

  • jellyhead #12 4 years ago

    Let's hope it's a bit more robust compared to the originally buggy Crackdown implementation eh?

  • BBIAJ #13 4 years ago

    Never had any problems with Crackdowns DLC personally, what were you experiencing exactly?

  • kangarootoo #14 4 years ago

    Very wise move.

    "Now we will see how far EA influence has penetrated critereon"

    When it comes to pricing of DLC, I doubt the Criterion studio has any say in the matter at all, its not really a dev decision and nor should it be.

    I would expect the call on that kind of thing to come from some marketing department in EA towers.

  • dsmx #15 4 years ago

    The pricing I'm not concerned about it's what each downloadable pack contains that does.

  • Der_tolle_Emil #16 4 years ago

    I hated the Crackdown DLC. "If you really want to play this mission, please purchase the DLC". Had this all the time until I finally bought it to get rid of this shit until I found out that most of the DLC (if not all) is just multiplayer stuff that I didn't use once.

  • miiiguel #17 4 years ago

    Der_tolle_Emil, what do you mean? Aren't you thinking of any other game? Crackdown DLC/Achievements were SP only, but one - "Pack Rat Complete any Stockpile mini-game in Co-op mode in fewer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds", which needed to have coop mission already running to be triggered.
    Edited by 1 at 07/02/08 @ 15:39

  • f01re #18 4 years ago

    They're adding another island over the half finished bridge to the east. This has been hinted at in the criterion podcast on a number of occasions. You can see where it's been removed from the map.

  • dryden555 #19 4 years ago

    content should have been in there in the first place if it comes out right after release -- this just makes me want to wait for the game to go down to half price in 3 months time.

  • Adman #20 4 years ago

    They're adding another island over the half finished bridge to the east. This has been hinted at in the criterion podcast on a number of occasions. You can see where it's been removed from the map.

    Surely you couldn't have this sort of content and still let everyone play together regardless of if they bought the content or not? I can't see EA letting people without the content driving around a whole new chunk of map for free, just because they join a game hosted by someone with the DLC.

    Not that I wouldn't like to be able to do that but it would seem awfully generous for EA. My assumption would be new cars; they could be seen by everyone and used by some with no problems.