Now don't get me wrong - I absolutely, absolutely love what they've done with Burnout in Paradise. To say the least the sandbox style is genius and I love just cruising around both online (and off) doing challenges and finding jumps and smahes etc.

However, as a n00b I'm overwhelmed by the amount of terminology (Freeburn challenges?) and the difficulty of the races. Now the races are fun in the way that Burnout races always have been fun but goodness me, navigating the map to reach the finish time is nigh-on impossible for n00bs. Mainly because you're given only the flashing sign posts as a mean of which way to go meaning you have to divert your eye to the top of the screen to see the way, or look at the compass/map -- resulting in "smash".

A game as fast as Burnout needs your full attention and while I appreciate the way the races are set up (allowing experienced players to find the quickest route to the finish) I can't help but feel that a way of making the "standard" route more clear to players would be paramount.

I'm not sure how it could be done but perhaps a dotted line on the correct route - or even when the signposts flash a bigger arrow on the corresponding side of the screen. I'm just finding racing tough (both online and off) because I'm looking at the way I'm supposed to be going first and concentrating on speed second.

Any tips or thoughts?

Yeah, the races were always really irritating. I generally just followed the other dudes, or paused the game and plotted my course: "Ok, so in 2 blocks turn right, and keep going for a while" *drive* *pause* "Ok, next block turn left" etc.

The most challenging aspect of the game is learning the city and once you have a grasp of where you're going without needing the map, Burnout Paradise becomes rather easy. Criterion has on many occasions suggested, encouraged and outright said exploration is a huge part of BP. In my opinion, grab a map from the Internet with all the billboards, smash gates and super jumps marked on it , then work on completing each. You'll get a trio of awesome carbon cars and gain solid bearings for the city. I honestly do not think Criterion would do anything to waters down or cut at the exploration element to any degree. That's just me though.

Oh hell no. Like I say I love the explorational part of it but it could have done with MORE of a visual aid in races.

Those online challenges are pretty annoying too to be fair.

I agree with you, this is often a problem I've had in Paradise. I suppose one solution that could be implemented without the hastle of further distracting visuals would be an auditory message telling you to "turn right" or "turn left" acompanying the current flashing street signs.

Choose a stunt car so its quick but can boost whenever you want, make your way into 3rd place by following the pack. From here you can either have learned routes for that oh so important final run to the finish or you could go into first place. Once in first place you can actually cool it a bit on the boost and spend more time on making sure you get the route right and not crashing. It's actually better to save your boost as most races end in a final straight in which you can ensure your victory.

I think the open world aspect doesn't work with Burnout at all.  In every other Burnout game prior to this one it's simply been about quick reactions & takedowns, and now it's about constantly pausing & checking the map or spending hours upon hours learning the entire city.  Absolutely not fun at all for a racing game.

If they'd kept the open world city for stuff like stunt runs or road rage, but for the race modes & burning routes blocked off streets not on the route, I think it would've worked much better.

Also, add a fucking retry option!

I've barely played this online due to these options. I remember playing on the first day or so, when the sound was actually working, no one could figure out how to race or what to do. Then, once someone did figure out how to race, it would usually be terminated once the host took a wrong turn or something of that nature. It's a shame because I loved Burnout 3 online so I really wanted to love this too.

"I've barely played this online due to these options. I remember playing on the first day or so, when the sound was actually working, no one could figure out how to race or what to do. Then, once someone did figure out how to race, it would usually be terminated once the host took a wrong turn or something of that nature. It's a shame because I loved Burnout 3 online so I really wanted to love this too."

I agree TC. Getting used to that map was hard, real hard.