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Criterion: Nobody's maxed out PS3/360

"It means you're out of ideas," say devs.

Burnout Paradise developer Criterion reckons that developers who talk about maxing out the potential of a games console are being a bit silly.

"That's proof that you're not the best," technical director Richard Parr told Eurogamer's Digital Foundry channel. "It means you're out of ideas."

"You always find new ways to do things, the constraints lift. Not just with a new console generation but with every game you do," senior engineer Alex Fry added. "Whether it's a sequel or whether it's a new game, you learn to do things differently... better. The constraints go away because you learn. While it's nice to say you've maxed something out, there's not really any point."

Fry and Parr were speaking to Digital Foundry for today's Burnout Paradise tech retrospective, which explores the origins and processes behind one of the current generation's most respectable game engines.

Fry and Parr explain how the team set about constructing a world that performs equally well on PS3, Xbox 360 and latterly PC despite the difficulties experienced by their colleagues at other studios.

Look out for more from Criterion, including the full interview transcript, on the Digital Foundry channel soon.