Burnout Paradise "islands" to be free

By Robert Purchese Published 14 March, 2008

But Criterion charging for some DLC.

Criterion boss Alex Ward has promised that all the downloadable "islands" for Burnout Paradise will be free.

These are the content expansions that will be added to Paradise City and form a series, with each location set to offer a different style of gameplay.

Update: Just to clarify, Alex Ward has since said that while the islands will be free, other DLC will cost you.

"We will charge (price TBC) for some stuff," Ward told Videogaming247. "What's important to know is that we see DLC in a totally different way.

"We see DLC as significant additional content which expands the game experience. We see it as continuing to develop the game which we worked on. Taking it further almost to the point of making a new game.

"New game modes are very important to us, but it's about more than that. Expect more details soon," he added.

Ward unveiled the islands earlier this month, after revealing some fresh car liveries for the game.

You may not have to shell out any money for these paint jobs, but Ward is promising to "make you work" for some of them.

We had a look around the Criterion offices yesterday, disguised as scenery, and were happy to see a full-scale model of a car crashed into a wall.

We also rather liked Burnout Paradise, and it seems many of you do too. But is it the best in the series as Alex Ward claims, Eurogamer reader?

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.

You may also like...

Comments (34) Latest comment 4 years ago

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

  • Xerx3s #1 4 years ago

    EA & Free DLC? I believe it when I see it.

  • Aretak #2 4 years ago

    I hope he's checked EA and Microsoft are okay with that.

  • Steroyd #3 4 years ago

    :o

    EA and... free... I've been sucked into the abyss haven't I!?

  • Madafunkola #4 4 years ago

    PLEEEEAASSSEEE have a "Party Crash" Island so my girlfriend will play Burnout with me again! :D

  • JonFE #5 4 years ago

    That would be really good, if it turns out to be true :)

  • aidey6 #6 4 years ago

    I have barely done 10% and there's the possiblity of even more to play, blimey!!

  • brainbird #7 4 years ago

    Potential news of the year!
    Free DLC for Burnout? I can't believe it. That would be a very nice surprise.

  • agparrot #8 4 years ago

    He said the *Islands* are to be free, he didn't specify about liveries, new events, challenges or cars... for that, we will have to wait and see.

  • asphaltcowboy #9 4 years ago

    Sweet! Started playing this again last night... 95 events to go before elite!
    Everyone on my LIVE friends list seems to have stopped playing it - come back! :(

  • Eighthours #10 4 years ago

    Good news! I wonder whether the artificial "barriers" in the game are also going to be removed.

  • Carlo #11 4 years ago

    \o/ if true

  • Darren #12 4 years ago

    Wow, way to go Criterion. The game might only be good instead of terrific but the free content will be most welcome as it will hopefully address one of my criticisms that the current environment is too samey and lacks variety compared with the previous instalment.

    I love you! XXX

  • Darren #13 4 years ago

    EG - "But is it the best in the series as Alex Ward claims, Eurogamer reader?"

    I don't think so. It's good but the series has been slipping since Burnout 2/3 IMO which were the best games in the series for me. Paradise has far too many annoying niggles like the lack of a retry option and I'm not too keen on the open world structure either as it makes the game less immediate and accessible, forcing me to tediously drive around the more apparently lifeless environment looking for races instead of being able to dive straight in and play. Kudos to Criterion for at least attempting to take the series in a new direction but NFS-style shortcuts allowing me to jump to events offline would have made the game more enjoyable for me personally. I'd give Paradise 7/10, no more.

  • brainbird #14 4 years ago

    Oh, I see. You're free to see the islands but can't access the challenges, just like in Crackdown?
    Yes, that makes sense. Bummer.

  • Beano #15 4 years ago

    Great news - Love this game but needs more stuff to find/do... got all gates, billboards, jumps,tsc. Hopefully the new area(s) will have more to do than just races :)

  • IAmBatman #16 4 years ago

    Didn't Alex Ward get "let go" earlier this week? Something about being a naughty boy at work. That would be an interesting news item, EG.

  • asphaltcowboy #17 4 years ago

    @IAmBatman:

    Given that he posted the news about the islands being free yesterday, I think that's unlikely...

  • muscleblade #18 4 years ago

    BurnOut paradise is great. The best in the series? Not even close.

  • Les #19 4 years ago

    "But is it the best in the series as Alex Ward claims, Eurogamer reader?"

    The demo was a huge let-down to me. But baring the atrocious open city environment, it just wasn't nearly as fun as Burnout 3.

  • Agent_Llama #20 4 years ago

    The best Burnout was Takedown imho. The Paradise demo put me off buying this almost completely - the lack of an instant retry destroys the flow of the gameplay. If I fail a race, I want to be able to try again right away and correct where I went wrong, try something new - not drive back across the city. Will look to pick Paradise up when I see it cheap or I can be persuaded otherwise, but until then I'm still happy playing Takedown.
    Edited by 1 at 14/03/08 @ 11:03

  • BillyBrush #21 4 years ago

    [link url=htt p://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=6
    ]http://ww w.criteriongames.com/article.ph...[/link]

    too much office space by the looks...

    Burning route + open world + no restart

    yea the best burnout for sure winkety wink

  • seasidebaz #22 4 years ago

    yay new game modes!

    let's have a crash junction island please criterion!

    and a police pursuit island!

  • TuftyMcTavish #23 4 years ago

    Sounds like the map extensions will be free so that everybody will have them, thus no separation of players based upon who pays for it and those that don't. Maybe.

  • Beano #24 4 years ago

    "The best Burnout was Takedown imho. The Paradise demo put me off buying this almost completely - the lack of an instant retry destroys the flow of the gameplay"

    Actually a retry option would have ruined the "flow" in Paradise (due to the loading time which it would caused) so I understand the reason for it... BUT it should have been possible to mark the last failed event on the map and HUD so it could have been easier to find back.

    Have you tried the full game?... the full game plays alot better than the demo because of it being littered with events - the demo felt "empty" because it only had 2-3 events.

    I agree that Takedown was the best in the series - but Paradise is a close second IMO... it just plays alot different :)
    I'm glad they tried something different instead of making another Takedown/Revenge with better graphics.That would have bored the sh** out of me in a few hours.
    Edited by 2 at 14/03/08 @ 12:36

  • Darren #25 4 years ago

    Well said, farticusmaximus!

    It wouldn't have hurt for Criterion to give people the choice of a free-flowing game with no loading or an option to restart with short-loading times; after all offline you're playing solo anyway so it's not like you'd be spoiling it for anyone else. IMO, the lack of a Restart option in Burnout Paradise is one the most bizarre game design decisions I've come across in all my years of gaming. NFS: Carbon wasn't that different in terms of offline structure and didn't suffer from having shortcuts and a retry option so why would Burnout Paradise?
    Edited by 1 at 14/03/08 @ 14:58

  • Beano #26 4 years ago

    "Sorry, but that's horseshit. If you had to retrace your steps back to your last checkpoint every time you died in CoD do you think that would be fun? Think of corpserunning in WoW."

    You should read everything that I write :)

    A retry would mean a long "now loading" screen which would ruin the flow - that's a fact.

    Remember the game stream-loads while you play and drive around - "jumping" from one part of the map to another would mean a lot of loading and just not bits of the map.

    If they had included the option for a retry, it would have been bashed by reviewers and gamers for "loading to long".

    I would also have preferred a retry... but not if it meant waiting 1+ minute for the map to load. I'm sure they have not left the retry option out "for fun" or to annoy people ;)

  • DFawkes #27 4 years ago

    I'm with Beano, I'd have hated a restart option. I like having to drive back to the start, getting all manor of billboards and barriers on the way I might have missed, and getting the chance to build up a little boost as well as get better at using my current car.

    However, it'd be nice to make it an option to restart - that way everyone would win. Want to restart, just press a button. Don't? Then press a different button. everyone would have won that way.

  • Madafunkola #28 4 years ago

    Also - an online Road Rage option so you have a reason to takedown all your friends, like a deathmatch! :D

  • Halgwet #29 4 years ago

    I'm actually quite happy with the fact that it doesn't have a retry option. When playing the previous Burnout games I would usually just restart races the instant something went wrong, doing it over and over again until I got a perfect run. Paradise forces me to play in a much more relaxed way. If I mess up I just keep going. If I lose a race, no big deal. I just cruise around until I find something else to do. I know I don't HAVE to use the retry option in the previous games, but I just don't have that self control. It's the same way with games with quicksaves. I just can't stop myself from abusing them, making the gaming experience less exciting for myself. I know this is a very personal view of the matter, and I can certainly see how people might be frustrated with the lack of retry, but it has definately made Burnout Paradise a better game for me. Though, ask me again when I'm down to the last few burning routes and I might have a different opinion.

  • ronuds #30 4 years ago

    Free islands, but you have to buy the bridge to get there! :x

  • ozallez #31 4 years ago

    great news. As for retry, don't see what the fuss is about. Plenty of events around to do, and once u know the map its easy to get back to wherever...

  • AOFanboi #32 4 years ago

    Race restart option? Why not ask for an "unlock everything cheat code" while your lazy bums are at it? Driving back to the start - or, perish the thought, pick an event near where you FAILED - is your punishment for failing.

    Paradise is a natural progression of the series, what the "the last one with HD graphics" wishers are thinking is beyond me. The menu systems used in the previous games now seem like immersion-wrecking old-fashioned anachronisms, better left in the previous century.

    (It's not like the previous games stopped working either, so just go back to them instead if you are so inclined.)

    In case it's not obvious: I am mostly of the Explorer archetype in Richard Bartle's MMO player test, the "wanna restart until we get a prize" people are probably Achiever types. I guess that could explain whether someone likes the more immersive nature of Paradise or not.

  • AOFanboi #33 4 years ago

    The "fixed" game you want is probably the previous Burnout games, then. It's not like the game forces you to sit there and redo a race anyway, you could just turn off and do the more important things in your life. (In fact, why spend time on games at all?)

    While you are at it, avoid other games along the same line like Test Drive Unlimited and Midnight Club.

  • Ryze #34 4 years ago

    TDU lets you jump to places you've been to before.

    My Burnout Paradise arrives in the post in the next couple of days. I enjoyed the demo, but disliked having to count junctions and make sure I don't miss a corner as though I'm playing GTA.

    I hated not having a rotating map, and the lack of a retry I know could get annoying.

    For these reasons I refused to buy the game for £40, but for £25 in the Play.com sale... SOLD.