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[dammitmattt]

Any of you played both retail versions. I am in a twist about what version I want to get.
X360 has easy mic support and all my friends have X360.
PS3 mic support is crappy (it was in the demo) but it has the most stable framerate, no friends of mine have a PS3.

What I am asking is, how bad is the framerate in the X360 version..

I played the PS3 demo and have put a number of hours into the 360 retail version. The differences are really overstated by a contingency of people who (I think) just want a PS3 version of a game to be oh so much better. When you're flying down the road, both versions look the same, so it's all about playing with your friends, because the multiplayer modes are pretty damn fun.

So get the version you can play with your friends.

 

[Shig]

I played about 5 hours of this last night, so needless to say, I like it.

But they really should have worked out a way to make directions more blatant. It's usually an instant crash if you shift your field of vision to the map or compass when you're up to high speeds, and the street sign blinking/sound often doesn't give you enough heads-up time (sometimes I swear it's made one blink, AFTER I passed a street). Compounding the problem is that it's sometimes hard to ascertain where exactly an intersection starts or stops.

It would have been nice to see overlays akin to the ones in previous Burnouts to make things clearer, those transparent >>>>>>s that cordoned off play areas; But for this game you could pass through them if you choose. Barring that, a big, obvious destination arrow like the one in Crazy Taxi (just constantly pointing straight towards the destination, not changing according to what streets it "suggests" you take) would have been infinitely better than what we got.

 

[dammitmattt]

I played about 5 hours of this last night, so needless to say, I like it.

But they really should have worked out a way to make directions more blatant. It's usually an instant crash if you shift your field of vision to the map or compass when you're up to high speeds, and the street sign blinking/sound often doesn't give you enough heads-up time (sometimes I swear it's made one blink, AFTER I passed a street). Compounding the problem is that it's sometimes hard to ascertain where exactly an intersection starts or stops.

It would have been nice to see overlays akin to the ones in previous Burnouts to make things clearer, those transparent >>>>>>s that cordoned off play areas; But for this game you could pass through them if you choose. Barring that, a big, obvious destination arrow like the one in Crazy Taxi (just constantly pointing straight towards the destination, not changing according to what streets it "suggests" you take) would have been infinitely better than what we got.

It's odd that Burnout, a franchise which is historically appealing to a much more casual crowd than most racing games, has turned into such a hardcore game where memorization of not just the tracks, but of an entire fucking city, is absolutely required for success.

Taking your eyes off the road to look at the terrible map (seriously, you couldn't make it work like every map in every single other game) in the bottom right corner is instant death, so you're forced to constantly pause the game (although you don't get that luxury online) to plan your route, which takes you out of the game much more than any loading screen ever could, so there goes your "seamless" world, Criterion.

With that said, I can't wait to play some more today

 

[SpeedingUptoStop]

What have been more useful and not distracting woud be if they highlighted the roads you're supposed to be one or the ones leading back to the right road. Shortcuts needn't be highlighted, but atleast give us the right roads, you know?

 

[Shinraven]

I agree with most of the pro / cons about the game.

ps3 vs 360. seriously the game is more or less the same. at least on the demo I tried.

I still ended up with the .360 version, its blazing fast / smooth. this framerate issue is blown out of proportion. Either version you pick , you will have a blast.

Yea the game has a 30-40% of the time you are just driving around, exploring, finding jumps and hidden race tracks ie the oval thingy in the mountains where there are some wicked long jumps.

My fav is the jump on the semi brooklyn like bridge leading to the stadium. I crap my pants the fist time, lost the event and ended up selecting the even at the stadium which led me back in the mountains so I can try to race and end at the stadium again, this time around, i nailed the long bridge jump and pants xplode !! very fun.

it can be a bit...mmmm disorientating at first but at times while racing pay attention to map slightly but more so the the blinking left / right signs that tells you next turn is coming.

It will take a while to explore this game, i HATED the demo but im def feeling this. Again, NO....its NOT revenge, if you come in expecting that, you will be disappointed, however its more like take it for spin, drive around, find something to do at your leisure.

The intro with the girl should have been in the demo, it gives you a better sense of scale and that the game does have structure ( 8 finish lines )

def pick it up :lol

 

[jeremy_ricci]

I know I'm alone, but I actually like the open ended races, it certainly allows for some interesting situations, and in some instances, makes races easier. When you don't have to compete with 7 other cars, you can breeze through the race taking one or two alternate roads, a few jumps, and lots of boost. It's really interesting to see if your route is 'faster' than the one the AI is taking.

 

[Shig]

it can be a bit...mmmm disorientating at first but at times while racing pay attention to map slightly but more so the the blinking left / right signs that tells you next turn is coming.

Get a faster car up to full boost speed, those street signs are useless. You're going so fast that the blink/sound won't start until it's way too late to start the turn.

 

[DeadGzuz]

PS3 mic support is crappy (it was in the demo).

Well no one seems to be repeating this, Steve above says the chat works great.

 

[Felix Lighter]

Anyone else playing this game with the Microsoft Racing Wheel? I know this isn't the type of racing game that really benefits from a wheel but I personally think it makes the game much more fun. I have one huge issue though. I desperately want to map the e-brake and boost to the paddles but there doesn't seem to be anyway to do that. It's uncomfortable holding the A button while driving and hitting X to e-brake around a corner or to do flat spins is even worse. I've actually gotten used to it now but my wrist actually hurts after playing for a while since my hand is in such an awkward position.

 

[Shinraven]

Get a faster car up to full boost speed, those street signs are useless. You're going so fast that the blink/sound won't start until it's way too late to start the turn.

you know u are right, i got some souped up Japanese ride and i was going really fast, granted it's lite as fuck, but it was so fast, I did not matter if i took the long way, I still won. :lol

as long as you are heading the right way. in my case i was blazing south east hard~

My main gripe still stands, i like the game but i want a restart option

 

[Dr_Cogent]

you know u are right, i got some souped up Japanese ride and i was going really fast, granted it's lite as fuck, but it was so fast, I did not matter if i took the long way, I still won. :lol

as long as you are heading the right way. in my case i was blazing south east hard~

My main gripe still stands, i like the game but i want a restart option

Is there a way to cancel out of an event?

 

[Rowsdower]

Is there a way to cancel out of an event?

There is, you just stop, don't move for about 5 seconds and the event is canceled.
This is a convenient way to avoid frustration if you fuck up a race early.

 

[Shinraven]

Is there a way to cancel out of an event?

I did not check that but it got annoying once, I was racing and i was dead last, cuz i took a wrong turn. and the race kept staying you are 8/8 only way to end was find the finish line and end it.

I did not check the menus since i was near the finish line, but i will check if theres a way to nick a race.

 

[plagiarize]

There is, you just stop, don't move for about 5 seconds and the event is canceled.
This is a convenient way to avoid frustration if you fuck up a race early.

there's another way. crash and enter showtime. that cancels a race too.

 

[Rowsdower]

Some information regarding the unlockable cars: (Click to enlarge)

Best Buy Car


Circuit City Car


Game Stop Car


Wal-Mart Car


Steel Wheels Car

Codes:
BESTBUY (Requires A license to use)
GAMESTOP (Requires A license to use)
WALMART (Requires Burnout Paradise license to use)
CIRCUITCITY (Requires A license to use)
Steel Wheels: U84D 3Y8K FY8Y 58N6 (Requires Burnout Paradise license to use)

Licenses:
D, C, B, A, Burnout Paradise, Burnout Elite

D - requires 2 Wins
C - requires 7 Wins
B - requires 16 Wins
A - requires 26 Wins
Paradise - 45 Wins
Elite - 110 Wins

Wal-Mart looks hot.

 

[burgerdog]

I feel bad for all the people that skipped the game based on the demo, this game is incredible

 

[elseanio]

Getting this on Friday, when its released here. Looking forward to it so much!

(GMT) PSN AKIRA-UK

 

[sinnergy]

Got the PS3 version.

 

[Rowsdower]

Already caught Criterion Fever .

 

[dskillzhtown]

I didn't get to play nearly enough last night and won't get to play again until tomorrow. But with the limited time that I had with the game, I must say it is a keeper. The last of a "restart" option isn't that much of a problem currently as I have so much to do, but when it gets down to only a few challenges, it might be a problem. I am really enjoying driving around and coming across so many challenges.

BTW, I did get a Xbox Vision camera for this game. I took the most ridiculous pic for the license too. I am looking forward to playing online with fellow Gaffers, hopefully Thursday night!

gamertag - dskillzhtown

Lastly, the demo situation reminds me NFS: Underground. NFS:U had possibly the most drastic improvement from demo to final game I have ever seen. I remember playing that demo and thinking there was no way in hell I was buying the final game, but it ended up being one of my favorites. Paradise City's demo lacked the major component in the game, challenges at every corner. It would be akin to the Madden demo not including the ability to pass.

 

[Slaylock]

D - requires 2 Wins
C - requires 7 Wins
B - requires 16 Wins
A - requires 26 Wins
Paradise - 45 Wins
Elite - 110 Wins

Wow, I was pretty proud of myself getting my B license.

That makes 206 total wins to get to Elite. It looks like it will take quite a while to work through the whole game.

 

[alr1ght]

Just picked it up (360), it's a blast. Is there any way to make the custom soundtracks behave like EA TRAX (i.e. pause when the onscreen guy is talking and in menu's)?

 

[Elbrain]

Well it's official I am screwed till the 4th of February to get this game, just go the email form the customer rep they can't change the shipping #$%@#$%#@ *Sad 50 Cent*

 

[C4Lukins]

I just picked up the 360 version, and it seems to be selling decently. I had to go to four stores to find it. Both Best Buys I went to were sold out, as was the first Gamespot I checked out. They had to call two other Gamespots before they could find a copy. I only saw a half dozen copies of the PS3 version on my travels as well. This is in Austin TX by the way.

 

[DeadGzuz]

My local radio station (Live 105) was having a Burnout morning. I think they all got free copies and we talking about how much fun it was for 10 minutes. They were all giving out there gamer tags and PSN names on air. It sounded like they were playing a mix of the versions.

It was interesting to here the MSM talk about games, though they said some things wrong. One guy was talking about how much fun crash mode was and was asking if Paradise had it, doh.

 

[steve]

Well no one seems to be repeating this, Steve above says the chat works great.

Best chat I've heard in any PS3 game thus far. It's SOCOM II quality, so, very good.

And I don't get the argument about instant restart for a race. There's a bazillion race start points in the game, screw up one, and there's another waiting for you at the next light.

It's not like you have drive back halfway across the city to start a race again.

 

[Elbrain]

Best chat I've heard in any PS3 game thus far. It's SOCOM II quality, so, very good.

And I don't get the argument about instant restart for a race. There's a bazillion race start points in the game, screw up one, and there's another waiting for you at the next light.

It's not like you have drive back halfway across the city to start a race again.

Well that is good to hear on the sound quality that entire gurgling sound pisses me off.

 

[krypt0nian]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

 

[darkressurection]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

Yes, yes we can.

 

[steve]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

They've definitely got my vote. The netcoding in this game is as impressive as Uncharted's streaming technology.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

For those of us that played together last night, what time do you want to meet up again tonight? Perhaps I should start a thread on the online board...

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9446202#post9446202

VOILA!

 

[darkressurection]

For those of us that played together last night, what time do you want to meet up again tonight? Perhaps I should start a thread on the online board...

I can be on in the evening (Probably from 6 PM mountain to 9 PM mountain).

 

[steve]

My plan is to try and get hooked up with some guys from my site, but I highly doubt we'll have enough for a full game, so some integration with GAF folk is definitely a possibility.

 

[UnholySpectacle]

I'll be on around 9:30 EST. I'm still giving the game a chance even though I still feel a bit let down after 4 hours of play. I'm hoping I'll get a better hang of the city the more I play but I REALLY hate having to look at the map and dealing with the bad timing of the blinking signs for turns.

 

[Elbrain]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

Damn that is killing me more so the wait till the 4th is going to be a very slow painful thing.

 

[plagiarize]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

burnout 3 amazed me... haven't taken this online yet... but one question.

why aren't we just declaring Criterion all around code gods?

 

[Gary Whitta]

As I posted earlier, for the first hour I didn't like it very much at all. All the problems we've heard before: lack of retry option, no dedicated crash mode, confusing open city layout etc etc...

But then at some point something clicks and the game starts to really work. Showtime is a worthy replacement for the regular Crash mode and you can pull off some spectactular and insanely long crashes. The lack of a retry option isn't that big of a deal because after a failure on a particular event I'd be perfectly happy to just do something else instead.

The only real problem that has persisted is frequently getting lost while racing toward a destination. This game is too insanely fast to expect you to keep one eye on the map at all times to navigate - many of my wrecks were caused while glancing at the map trying to figure out which route to take. They try to compensate for this by flashing upcoming road signs and playing an audio alert but I'd like them to make the visual turn signal a little more promiment. It's really annoying to be leading the pack in the race and then lose in the final stretch because you took a wrong turn.

Online mode is a ton of fun. Played a Quick Match last night when the host kept serving up a never-ending stream of challenges. My favorite was the one where everyone has to pull off a barrel roll at the beach. Once I completed mine I had lots of fun taking down the other players as they tried to do theirs. LOL.

So yeah I'm really warming up to this one after a rocky start.

 

[Dante]

Got mine Today ( PS3 )

See you guys online tonight!

 

[jeremy_ricci]

So, I have the PS Eye, and I'm trying to see if my friend wants one. He's not entirely sold on it, but I've heard that any ol' webcam on BOP will work just fine? (PS3 version).

360 version requires the Vision cam right?

Just want to make sure I have my fact straight.

 

[AVclub]

Anyone looking for extra points in Stunt Mode, try driving backwards, you get a multiplier for any backwards stunts as well.

I think Paradise is definitely a worthy sequel to the Burnout franchise.

 

[BPK]

It would be cool if Criterion patched the ps3 game sometime in the near future to allow for custom soundtracks. Aside from a couple gems, the music is pretty bad.

 

[Nightz]

So, I have the PS Eye, and I'm trying to see if my friend wants one. He's not entirely sold on it, but I've heard that any ol' webcam on BOP will work just fine? (PS3 version).

360 version requires the Vision cam right?

Just want to make sure I have my fact straight.

Yup any other webcam should work. You can even use the 360's vision cam on the PS3 and it'll work fine.

 

[steve]

So, I have the PS Eye, and I'm trying to see if my friend wants one. He's not entirely sold on it, but I've heard that any ol' webcam on BOP will work just fine? (PS3 version).

360 version requires the Vision cam right?

Just want to make sure I have my fact straight.

Most any USB cam will work fine, although I know of a few people that tried using really old cameras that the PS3 didn't recognize. You can even plug the Xbox cam into the PS3 and it'll work just fine.

Edit - beaten like a rented mule.

 

[Joe211]

my game was shipped today will be online for tomorrow

 

[tekumseh]

I was hesitant after the demo, but this game kicks all kinds of ass. I'm sad for those who will dismiss this game based on that pitiful demo. It's FANTASTIC!!!

 

[distrbnce]

Rah, I'm at work and can't wait to get back home.

Add me, PSN: Madriiax

Waiting anxiously for the next fanmail podcast, too.

If you guys have been listening to the Criterion podcast, they've mentioned the issue of PS3 custom soundtracks a few times, saying the ball was in Sony's court.

Well I found that old interview with the guys that make the PS3 firmware, where they said the capability was there, it was just up to the devs. I sent them the link, so hopefully they can get that sorted out. It wouldn't surprise me that the confusion is simply because Sony is doing a terrible job informing the devs.

I'm also pretty sure I remember Phil saying it was there for the devs too, maybe at last years GDC, but I couldn't find that one.

 

[cjdunn]

Can we please declare Criterion net code gods?

Absolutely, up until Insomniac ships Resistance 2 with 60 person multiplayer.

 

[plagiarize]

Absolutely, up until Insomniac ships Resistance 2 with 60 person multiplayer.

meh. 60 players < seamless online world with hundreds of pedestrian cars.

 

[fistfulofmetal]

The Gamestop car is crazy awesome.

 

[Gary Whitta]

The rumble in this game is awesome. I love the hit you get when a car drops in the junk yard. Would hate to be playing this with the Sixaxis.