First Burnout Paradise island will now cost

By Robert Purchese Published 1 December, 2008

Criterion says Big Surf is "worth it".

Criterion has unveiled Big Surf Island for Burnout Paradise, and revealed that the new downloadable area will be a premium download rather than a free add-on as originally announced.

"Here's why," explains Criterion on its website. "We never expected to create anything this ambitious for the island, but as it progressed we got more and more excited about what it could become.

"Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience - the highlight of a year of incredible premium content.

"We want Burnout Paradise players to experience the greatest support ever seen in a console game," the developer added. "We're transforming not just Burnout Paradise, but the whole Burnout franchise through DLC, and we appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content. We think it's worth it."

Big Surf Island will also add a new Dust Storm vehicle. It's a buggy, looks like a buggy, and behaves like a buggy.

There's footage of the area in the latest episode of Crash TV, or a handful of screenshots in our Burnout Paradise - Big Surf Island gallery.

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 (38) Latest comment 3 years ago

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

  • DFawkes #1 3 years ago

    Well it might be going back on their word a bit, but considering the free stuff I'll let them off. This will be awesome.

    /Aims sniper rifle ready for first person who whines about no restarts

  • Retroid #2 3 years ago

    One of the few bits of DLC which doesn't whiff of being a rip-off, given how much they've given us for free!

  • Steroyd #3 3 years ago

    Damn looks like i'll have to go and re-buy a PAL copy or something. :|

  • Kyle #4 3 years ago

    Sounds good to me.

    Inb4 "WHYS IT NOT FREE FUCKIN RIP OFF WAA WAA WAA!!!!!!!!!"

  • BBIAJ #5 3 years ago

    Fair play, they've given/are giving away so much for free, I'm more than happy to pay for a new island to use it all on.

    Other devs/publishers, please take note!

  • Ryze #6 3 years ago

    I'm interested, but I would REALLY like some restricted route races in this game.

    Some measures to make navigation during races less painful would be nice. Or maybe it's just that I lost my 'hardcore' a long time ago... :-(

  • DFawkes #7 3 years ago

    See, they've went the right way about this. Make a game that fantastic on all consoles, give us free stuff, suggest the next bit will be free then change your mind.

    With Bioshock, make a game that is a tad inferior (but still brilliant) on PS3, give as nothing free but make sure it's a good year late, imply (but never say) that it'll be free to make up for the port and huge time gap, then shaft us.

    Criterion are awesome.

  • HolyJebus #8 3 years ago

    These guys seem to be top of the league on DLC alright. Gold medal for them.

  • mkreku #9 3 years ago

    Easily the best support of a game I've ever seen. I'm much impressed!

  • Darren #10 3 years ago

    Yeah, Criterion are awesome and have been very generous with the free DLC for Burnout Paradise so far.

    Shame that the game itself isn't awesome and, for me, it's been totally eclipsed by the superior and far more enjoyable Midnight Club: L.A. which even manages to create a convincing living, breathing city with lots of traffic and people plus throw in a restart option, car customisation, a photo mode and replays at no extra cost. When it takes all of 5 seconds for the game to go from one end of the map to the other when restarting, it makes Criterion's excuse for leaving it out of Paradise look decidely weak IMO, particularly as I reckon Rockstar's game has better visuals. The damage modelling on the cars in Paradise looks cool for all of 15 minutes before I just want to skip it and get on with the racing and the crash mode just isn't as much fun in this game as the earlier ones I think. The game also got seriously overfamiliar after just a few hours playing it and the open world format works against it because the lifeless Paradise City itself simply just isn't very interesting to drive around IMO.

    The free stuff was nice but because I've never considered Paradise all that great, I doubt I'll be buying any of the new DLC for it. Nice that the game is still so well supported though for those of you that still enjoy playing it.

  • knightmt #11 3 years ago

    One of the few companies that has proved it can do DLC.

  • mfnick #12 3 years ago

    Fair enough, as many said theres been plenty of free stuff & if its significant, why not charge?

    Shame the game is a bit rubbish though. Not a patch on the previous Burnouts & Midnight Club LA has totaly destroyed it. Im not convinced Criterion can create a decent city that is fun & interesting to race around or a decent navigation system.

  • jonsaan #13 3 years ago

    I don't have an issue with them charging considering the previous support.

  • BOFH_UK #14 3 years ago

    Umm, I'm going to be very careful in how I phrase this... I have no problem with making a new island available as paid-for DLC. It's a huge bit of content and, as others have said, they've been VERY generous with their DLC.

    I do, however, have a problem with announcing something as free some time ago and then changing it to paid-for content later on. It does smack a little bit of trying to maintain interest in the title by saying 'look, here's some cool free content and look what's coming....", waiting to see if people pick up the title based, at least in part, on getting a free expansion then not delivering.

    Basically - paid for content on this scale, no problem. Doing what does feel a little like a bait-and-switch with this particular item, problem. If you're at all unsure don't come out and say it'll be free only to have to change your mind later on.

  • Jay-ITFC #15 3 years ago

    Fair enough, we've had loads of shit for free!!!

  • nbnz #16 3 years ago

    I was surprised when they said it would cost as I guess it will somewhat split the online community - unless they manage it well and allow all players to still join the game but block the bridge for those without the DLC.

    Still, it's a gauranteed buy from me after the amazing support Criterion has given us. But more so because the game is just amazingly fun.

  • Zander #17 3 years ago

    Here it comes....

    I do applaud Criterion for offering addition content free of charge after purchase but I still feel DLC is a dangerous thing for us to accept.
    Who knows how much of this "free" stuff got to 90% complete to be shipped with the game and then someone went "why don't we wait x no. of months and then charge people for it / make out we are giving them something free". Very cynical i know but I just feel the more that publishers make us feel comfortable with DLC, the more it may (I am not saying it will happen) get abused.

    Anyway Burnout is a brilliant game and in this case the DLC is worth considering a purchase.

    On a side note LBP DLC - what a rip!

  • bivith #18 3 years ago

    Crash mode?

  • DFawkes #19 3 years ago

    I think that's a fair comment BOFH_UK. I'm still okay with the charge, since I genuinely believe Criterion care about really supporting this game. If they say they weren't happy with the island and added stuff to the extent it's now worth money, I believe them. They do seem like that kind dev team - taking it a bit furthur, then furthur until they're happy.

    They really shouldn't have said anything about the price before, but I think that was just typical dev talk. They would've had no idea back then. I'll have this DLC on release, regardless of things said in the past - assuming it's a reasonable cost and amount of content. I have faith though.

  • Kremlik Verified Co-Founder, Crash To Desktop #20 3 years ago

    On the grand scale of things I have now problems with this, if the content justifies a price..

    Most 'fluff' DLC these days charge too much for somthing thats completly unrequired (Dead Space being the latest culprit of this), with BOP, we've had the 'fluff' for free, if we continue to get that for free and pay for true content changes, I have no issues with it.

    so far BOP has been the most value for money game i've seen on the 360, as it's managed to keep itself going and be worth keeping to play far longer then most games, as most turn to just trade in fodder once the core content has been done either due to the DLC not being worth the price to get or it takes far too long getting here that the game has an inch of dust on it (GTA4)

  • Doctor_What #21 3 years ago

    "Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City".

    I'm trying so hard to not make cynical comments about the lessons I learned about working for Criterion and EA...

    More on-topic, I've been very underwhelmed by the quality of the DLC so far. Yep, it's been free, but it's mostly been pointless too. Free cars? I don't bother driving most of the ones I've already got. A day/night cycle? That should have been in from the start, and all they did was put a dark blue filter on the screen and boost the self-illuminating textures. Bug fixes, such as improving the output for SD TVs? I know that was raised during development but ignored. The bikes are pretty good, but limited in what you can do with them.

    The island will probably be worth buying, but the free stuff hasn't actually been very good. Yes, it's free so on a cost ratio it's naturally great value, but it's like a free toy in a cracker - we've already paid for it and it turns out to not really be that much fun.

  • kangarootoo #22 3 years ago

    All depends on how much it costs. If its sensibly priced, then hurrah.

  • oreillymj #23 3 years ago

    Looks like the Burnout Paradise gravy train has been derailed by the credit crunch.
    Still, sounds like it'll be worth a tenner.

  • mjhoward #24 3 years ago

    What have they given for free exactly, was it just the bikes and some online races? I haven't been paying that much attention, but was thinking of picking this up again once all the free stuff was delivered (if they delivered enough to hold my interest for more than a couple of weeks - unlike the version at retail).

    With this announcement, I guess all the free stuff has been delivered now then? Once the premium content was announced, I was kind of expecting this news, since it went very quiet on the island update. I'm not sure the premium stuff delivers what I want - variety.

  • bad09 #25 3 years ago

    I don't mind paying considering the free stuff they've put in, MANY pub/devs could learn about the correct way to do DLC from Criterion (EA themselves being most in need of some lessons!)

  • JammyPez #26 3 years ago

    Well in that case I'm sure it's going to be cheap ;)

  • homerramone #27 3 years ago

    Considering the sheer amount of free stuff the Criterion guys have given away, you really cant complain about this at all.
    Yes you can... Piss !! Moan !! Piss !! Moan !!

    Dons sniper resistant hat
    Shame theres still no restart option

    :-)

  • Freek #28 3 years ago

    Considering this is actually new, and probably high quality, content, paying for it doesn't seem like a bad deal at all.

  • septimus #29 3 years ago

    Fair enough, they have given a lot for free. Burnout Paradise > the atrocity that is Midnight Club.
    Edited by 1 at 01/12/08 @ 18:16

  • Les #30 3 years ago

    If it includes an old fashioned but practical and time saving (optinal) menu rather than the incredibly stupid system where you have to drive through a dull city to actually get to a race I might be tempted. But of course it won't.

  • smelly #31 3 years ago

    I dont have problem paying for this at all (not after all the other free stuff)

  • smelly #32 3 years ago

    "Who knows how much of this "free" stuff got to 90% complete to be shipped with the game and then someone went "why don't we wait x no. of months and then charge people for it / make out we are giving them something free""


    But there's a BIG difference between what criterion have done and (say for example) lionhead with fable 2...

  • gospvg #33 3 years ago

    How much?

  • ozallez #34 3 years ago

    i'm happy to pay for it but will enough others do so to make it work for online play? Have my doubts on that front... i'd rather the area be free but charge for new vehicles or other add-ons.
    What happened to the ad-based strategy for revenue? Marketing budgets are drying up all over the place, so i guess it was bad timing on that front.

  • asphaltcowboy #35 3 years ago

    Can't wait!

  • Machetazo #36 3 years ago

    "/Aims sniper rifle ready for first person who whines about no restarts "

    Restarts are being added, as part of BP: The Ultimate box/party pack, in February.So, now no-one will complain of this again.

  • metalangel #37 3 years ago

    my hat is off to Criterion, first for recapturing the lost spirit of Burnout (which lost its way after 2) and also for the sheer amount of free DLC they have given us. Will I get this island? dunno, played it rather to death by now...

  • kangarootoo #38 3 years ago

    Really. After all their previous "we got it right, gamers who ask for restarts are wrong" nonsense.

    Well thank christ for that. Was playing this again only last night, and the lack of restarts is still bloody annoying.

    /dons tin hat and flips the cird at snipers