Burnout Paradise to be patched

Criterion has plans to tidy up the areas of Burnout Paradise you have had problems with.

An exact date for the changes is still being worked on, but the good news is that this is just the start for future updates and downloadable content, apparently.

Most of the alterations address crashes or online synchronisation issues, but there are also fixes for cheeky exploits like disconnecting your controller before a race so you can win even if you do not cross the line first.

Voice chat in eight-player games should now work properly too, and Online Takedown is being fiddled with to make it feel more fair. Whatever that means.

Our favourite of the bunch is the game accidentally facing some of you the wrong way at the start of a race. Those sound like our kind of odds.

The full list on patch 1.2 changes from the Criterion website can be found below.

Top 10 reported bugs:

• PS3 game could crash after a player who had performed a Takedown left the game
• The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems pinging the rebroadcast server
• Disconnecting the controller before a race began meant race timings could be manipulated and players who didn't cross the line first could be awarded the win
• Repeatedly joining and leaving a game with eight players could cause the game to hang
• Hammering the A (360) or X (PS3) after unlocking a car could cause the game to hang
• East Crawford and Watt St achievements could not be achieved if the player went online and set the game to road rules before attempting them
• Audio was distorting when using 5.1 / DTS and looking rearwards
• Enhanced Xbox 360 streaming performance to stop instances where the game seemed to pause for a second or so
• Total time driven in player statistics would stick at 145 hour
• Voice chat connection problems with eight player games.

Game experience enhancements:

• We're going to be running road rule timers in all events and online challenges
• Tuning Online Takedown logic and physical behaviour to iron out instances where it doesn't feel fair
• Increase online timer limit so players have a greater chance of finishing the race
• Fix drifting and boosting bug where there wasn't any real control on the brake, so players would grind around the walls of the corners
• Fixing the boost to stop the jerky car handling when stabbing the boost
• Fixing surround sound to stop the centre speaker being too loud. And the speech has been positioned correctly
• Tweak Marked Man gameplay AI so it can no longer be exploited by driving in reverse
• Increase the number of search results returned for online games
• Increase Picture Paradise timer so it doesn't kick in so quickly

Other high priority issues being fixed:

• Some online race start points face players in the wrong direction
• Instances where Barrel rolls were not registering correctly in Stunt Run
• Instances in Stunt Run where players would crash but not wreck, then score multipliers by driving away
• Fixed instances where the counting of Boost Chains would drop out
• Some instances where Revenge Rivalries desynchronise and don't get fixed until players are updated online
• Some instance where the Host couldn't change the game access if the game was created through an invite
• Achievements, Awards and Challenges numbers sometimes not updated if the player didn't leave the game cleanly
• Online challenge issues where the challenge couldn't be completed if it was started at the exact time that a player left the game
• Incorrect rivalry updates when European players played against English or Japanese players.
• Online connection issues
• Force time out if the 360 gets stuck on "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" NAT error
• Rich presence on 360 didn't change correctly when there is a change in the game parameters
• Instances where Friends were not being displayed on the mini map.