Hey guys, thanks for clicking in. A bit about why I’m blogging: I rant on a lot of things. And weirdly, I usually don't understand why people would like games i find bad, and why they hate games i find amazing. Opinions. But rather than just trying to “win” every argument with "EVERYONE HAS THEIR OPINIONS RESPECT MINE AND FUCK YOU", I would like to look into the WHY of things. I want to understand why people think so, and I want people to also try to understand my perspective. So here I am, sitting in my room, blogging about video games.
 

Read me Rant on: Burnout Paradise

 Burnout Paradise has some of the best car handling I’ve played in a game. I’ll give you that. But the racing part, is what I thought was abysmal. I played up to 20 or so A-ranked matches until I came to the conclusion that I’ve had enough. You know what? Even GTA4 is a better racing game than this.

  Pretty ballsy statement but you know what’s another ballsy move? Not having a map GPS. And that is the sole reason why Burnout Paradise just isn’t that great. I’ll admit. I do suck at this game. I sigh at my own suckage. Most of the races I’ve won were probably out of luck. But not having a map GPS led to a foundational problem about it being a racing game.

Criterion made a decision not to have a map GPS. Those things when you drive around the mini-map kinda highlights for you the “shortest” route? Ya that one in GTA. And for those who don’t really know how the racing works in the game, you are given the same start and finish locations and you have to basically trek through the open-world city faster than the other racers.

I haven’t read/watched any design documents on the making, so I wouldn’t know for sure but I’ll just go head in and assume WHY Criterion made that decision: They want the players to learn the city, the streets, and be familiar with all the shortcuts you would f… fuck it. It’s a damn bad decision. No one, absolutely no one, can remember all the routes and streets. I can RECOGNIZE some landmarks but honestly we're not on some sight-seeing tour; it's a gawddamn race. It’s only natural I want to get to the finishline as fast as possible. And no, I’m not going to remember your video game streets, especially when they don’t look all that different. Often I go through shortcuts only to find I went off-track. So much for a “shortcut”. Throughout the 10 or so hours I’ve put in the game I find myself constantly having to pop up my map to see where my destination is, and what route I should take. You can see how this immediately breaks the speedy flow of a racing game.

Criterion made another weird decision by not including a GPS that works, and giving you a shitty GPS. It’s on the top of the screen, it shows the direction of the finishline, and the street names. Okay I can see Criterion is trying really hard to encourage players to drive their own way as long as they get there. Point is, I can’t without having to pause at every intersection. When you are at the intersection, street names pop out left and right of the street you are on, and flash to indicate you should turn left or right. So there is some form of a GPS in the game. (Aha suck on that hater.)

It’s not really a problem until you get faster cars at higher tier races – the “GPS” is useless. You see, when you’re at high speed and nitroing with all this motion blur on, your brain tends to focus on the road ahead of you. Not only cuz the ring of motion blur tricks your mind into doing that, but also because you know you the consequence if you crash into something. And you often do. I don’t think I’ve ever hated slow-motion in a game this much.

Now comes the problem of the interface/HUD. It is not effective. Look:

There are FOUR areas of focus.

1. You look at the road ahead and the oncoming cars, if you crash, you’re screwed. Or you may find a shortcut if you are lucky to make it through.

2. You look at the “GPS” to see when you really need to turn

3. You look at your nitro bar and see if you are actually recharging it when going on an opposite lane. You can use your peripheral vision, but still.

4. You look at the mini-map because you know the “GPS” in 2 doesn’t really work.

Oh don’t forget you’re going 200miles per hour all the while doing that.

In most track racing games, you look to one. You look to the front. That’s it. The route is fixed and it’s the matter of how to make a good fruitful turn, not where to go.

In real-life driving, normally under safe situations you look to two. What is in front, what is in the back. We have voiced GPS’s to minimize having to look to even more places.

In other open-world racing games, you look to two. What is ahead, and what the route your GPS tells you to follow on the minimap is.

You never lose focus or panic too much. You really shouldn’t. This game is giving me sweaty hands. My eyeballs move like I’m in REM sleep or something. I look to the bottom right to get a sense of where I should turn. I look to the top to see if this is the right intersection to turn, if I were to trust the game. I look to the bottom left to see if my nitro meter is ACTUALLY charging cuz running against traffic is kinda risky, you know, like in real-life…

Then I fucking crash.

I stare at the slow-motion replay with the anger and frustration gushing out from my heart. I feel the flames burning. I wanna wreck something real bad. And I know it’s not my in-game car that I just did.

Am I too careless? Or is the human brain not supposed to take in all this clutter? I believe in the latter. The HUD isn’t effectively communicating stuff to the player. As I said before, GTA4 racing (albeit horrible handling), communicates the route clearly so you can focus on the road. Open-world racing? Criterion I don’t think you’re doing it right. A GPS with a fast re-route function is the best option. It won’t distract players from looking for shortcuts, as long as the GPS knows how to get to the point. It even gives players more time to focus on the road. No fancy ass street signs and compasses and shit that’s actually counter-intuitive.

Burnout Paradise has great handling and it’s amazing to drive the cars. It may be a good driving game, but it sure hell is not a good racing game. Now you see why I didn’t like this game.  

 How about you Giantbomb, or the Paradise lovers, justify your love.

     Hey guys, thanks for clicking in. A bit about why I’m blogging: I rant on a lot of things. And weirdly, I usually don't understand why people would like games i find bad, and why they hate games i find amazing. Opinions. But rather than just trying to “win” every argument with "EVERYONE HAS THEIR OPINIONS RESPECT MINE AND FUCK YOU", I would like to look into the WHY of things. I want to understand why people think so, and I want people to also try to understand my perspective. So here I am, sitting in my room, blogging about video games.
 

Read me Rant on: Burnout Paradise

 Burnout Paradise has some of the best car handling I’ve played in a game. I’ll give you that. But the racing part, is what I thought was abysmal. I played up to 20 or so A-ranked matches until I came to the conclusion that I’ve had enough. You know what? Even GTA4 is a better racing game than this.

  Pretty ballsy statement but you know what’s another ballsy move? Not having a map GPS. And that is the sole reason why Burnout Paradise just isn’t that great. I’ll admit. I do suck at this game. I sigh at my own suckage. Most of the races I’ve won were probably out of luck. But not having a map GPS led to a foundational problem about it being a racing game.

Criterion made a decision not to have a map GPS. Those things when you drive around the mini-map kinda highlights for you the “shortest” route? Ya that one in GTA. And for those who don’t really know how the racing works in the game, you are given the same start and finish locations and you have to basically trek through the open-world city faster than the other racers.

I haven’t read/watched any design documents on the making, so I wouldn’t know for sure but I’ll just go head in and assume WHY Criterion made that decision: They want the players to learn the city, the streets, and be familiar with all the shortcuts you would f… fuck it. It’s a damn bad decision. No one, absolutely no one, can remember all the routes and streets. I can RECOGNIZE some landmarks but honestly we're not on some sight-seeing tour; it's a gawddamn race. It’s only natural I want to get to the finishline as fast as possible. And no, I’m not going to remember your video game streets, especially when they don’t look all that different. Often I go through shortcuts only to find I went off-track. So much for a “shortcut”. Throughout the 10 or so hours I’ve put in the game I find myself constantly having to pop up my map to see where my destination is, and what route I should take. You can see how this immediately breaks the speedy flow of a racing game.

Criterion made another weird decision by not including a GPS that works, and giving you a shitty GPS. It’s on the top of the screen, it shows the direction of the finishline, and the street names. Okay I can see Criterion is trying really hard to encourage players to drive their own way as long as they get there. Point is, I can’t without having to pause at every intersection. When you are at the intersection, street names pop out left and right of the street you are on, and flash to indicate you should turn left or right. So there is some form of a GPS in the game. (Aha suck on that hater.)

It’s not really a problem until you get faster cars at higher tier races – the “GPS” is useless. You see, when you’re at high speed and nitroing with all this motion blur on, your brain tends to focus on the road ahead of you. Not only cuz the ring of motion blur tricks your mind into doing that, but also because you know you the consequence if you crash into something. And you often do. I don’t think I’ve ever hated slow-motion in a game this much.

Now comes the problem of the interface/HUD. It is not effective. Look:

There are FOUR areas of focus.

1. You look at the road ahead and the oncoming cars, if you crash, you’re screwed. Or you may find a shortcut if you are lucky to make it through.

2. You look at the “GPS” to see when you really need to turn

3. You look at your nitro bar and see if you are actually recharging it when going on an opposite lane. You can use your peripheral vision, but still.

4. You look at the mini-map because you know the “GPS” in 2 doesn’t really work.

Oh don’t forget you’re going 200miles per hour all the while doing that.

In most track racing games, you look to one. You look to the front. That’s it. The route is fixed and it’s the matter of how to make a good fruitful turn, not where to go.

In real-life driving, normally under safe situations you look to two. What is in front, what is in the back. We have voiced GPS’s to minimize having to look to even more places.

In other open-world racing games, you look to two. What is ahead, and what the route your GPS tells you to follow on the minimap is.

You never lose focus or panic too much. You really shouldn’t. This game is giving me sweaty hands. My eyeballs move like I’m in REM sleep or something. I look to the bottom right to get a sense of where I should turn. I look to the top to see if this is the right intersection to turn, if I were to trust the game. I look to the bottom left to see if my nitro meter is ACTUALLY charging cuz running against traffic is kinda risky, you know, like in real-life…

Then I fucking crash.

I stare at the slow-motion replay with the anger and frustration gushing out from my heart. I feel the flames burning. I wanna wreck something real bad. And I know it’s not my in-game car that I just did.

Am I too careless? Or is the human brain not supposed to take in all this clutter? I believe in the latter. The HUD isn’t effectively communicating stuff to the player. As I said before, GTA4 racing (albeit horrible handling), communicates the route clearly so you can focus on the road. Open-world racing? Criterion I don’t think you’re doing it right. A GPS with a fast re-route function is the best option. It won’t distract players from looking for shortcuts, as long as the GPS knows how to get to the point. It even gives players more time to focus on the road. No fancy ass street signs and compasses and shit that’s actually counter-intuitive.

Burnout Paradise has great handling and it’s amazing to drive the cars. It may be a good driving game, but it sure hell is not a good racing game. Now you see why I didn’t like this game.  

 How about you Giantbomb, or the Paradise lovers, justify your love.

I'm just replying to say that the 'omgggggg' part of your thread title is exceedingly irritating.

I like the sheer absurdity of the whole game, from how wildly out of control it all is to the ridiculous crashes. It just feels good to play to me, I guess. I agree, the HUD could have used some serious overhauls, but most of the time I just glance at the mini-map occasionally. The boost meter is sort of in my periphery, and it's a simple enough gauge for me to tell where I am on it without having to devote a glance downward, and the street signs are something I only look at very occasionally.

Not to sound rude, but your opinion is kinda invalid since, as you pointed out, you're bad at the game.

After a couple years, I still know that entire city like the back of my hand. When I do get a tad bit lost, I'm entirely capable of looking up at upcoming street names, or glancing over at the map to pick out a route.

PS - Paradise is a driving game, not a racing game (I know, I sound retarded by saying that, but it's true). Meaning, the racing part of the game isn't the focus. Looking at it that way is a part of your problem.

I have the same problem as you, and i finished the goddamn thing. But relax, it's just the first step of Burnout PAradise 2 or something, where they use the Saints Row III GPS system, and put the nitro at the center of the screen. 

Thanks for that random car pic. I was starting to get bored.

Burnout Paradise is my favorite racer of all time so I could disagree with you more. Think I clocked over 100 hours and got my criterion elite it was fun times, but to each his own I suppose.

Pretty valid points, it might well be a poor game If I really cooled my mind down and analyzed it. But it feels so good. Its an amazing TOY.

Reading this, I'd say your arguments are pretty valid. I recently picked up Burnout Paradise for a second time, this time on PC, and going back to it, I agree with your primary complaint - that the GPS system is poorly implemented, and is counter-intuitive to the nature of street racing (i.e. keeping your eyes on the road ahead of you to make sure you don't crash and burn). In hindsight, an alternative system would have made that aspect of the game a lot more bearable - a GTA-style line on the mini-map, or voiced directions a la real sat-navs, or even prompts overlaid on the road like in Just Cause 2 would all have been viable improvements. In practice, I don't personally have much of a problem with it - the intersection markers at the top of the HUD are in my peripheral field of vision and when they flash at me, I'm able to notice it without taking my eyes off the road ahead and steer accordingly. I can appreciate that some people might struggle to pick up on that stuff, though, and I wholeheartedly agree that a better-implemented GPS system would make routes much easier to follow and make the game more fun.

The primary complaint I'd level at Burnout Paradise is its incredibly repetitive nature. Given the size of the city and the game's open-world nature, there really isn't a lot of variety in the game. Events may start at any of over a hundred checkpoints, but they all end at one of just eight destinations. The result of this for me was that I ended up feeling like I was running the same events over and over again. The antidote for me was to play the game in short bursts, to prevent me getting burned out (no pun intended) on the repetitive race structure.

Also, I'd like to respectfully disagree with your point that GTAIV's races are a shining example of open-world racing. They're nothing but checkpoint races, and you're not directed to the next checkpoint by a line on the GPS - rather, you're shown a blip, and must assess the immediate road layout in order to deduce the shortest route to that blip. All while making sure you don't smash into an oncoming cop car/garbage truck/wall. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy the street races in GTAIV (in some cases a lot more than the street races in actual street racing games). I just wouldn't hold them up as a pinnacle of open-world racing design.

I know that this has probably been said, but to put it simply:You never got over the hump. At first not having GPS is frustrating, but after a few hours of pausing after every turn you start to learn the map. When you get to that point the game is amazing, because you are both plotting and executing the route on the fly. If the game just told you where to go then it would be more funat first but less satisfying in the long term.

Part of the fun in Paradise at least comes from learning the terrain, thus having a super obvious GPS would kind of spoil that. That aside, my biggest issue with the game was simply that the game world was a little to small, it sure looks big when you first drive around in it, but till the credits roll you will drive over the same streets over and over and over again, with nothing thrown in to add some variety. The thing that the game however did brilliantly was that it was non-stop driving, everything you could do in the world could be done by driving somewhere in the world. This gave the game a Mario64-style sandbox feeling where you could simply drive around in the world and have fun, without ever being thrown out of it. The way new cars got unlocked was also really nice, as they would pop-up in the game world itself and had to be chased down, it was simply something that happened, not something that needed to be started or tried.
 
It's not a perfect game and I can certainly see how some aspects of it could get kind of old after a while, but on the other side I haven't really seen anything quite like it and I would love to see more games trying to do go sandbox with racing games.

burnout paradise was so awesome, I wish they would make a new one

BP is one of the most fun racing games ive ever played.

i hadn't played it in ages but just picked up up free for the PC thanks to the info from a fellow giantbomb member. been having so much fun with it.

yeah its get really hard, but i if you remember that all the races finish in 1 of 8 places (it actually tells you this in the unskipable tutorial at the very start) its pretty easy to plan your route. and as has already been said its not as big as it first seems.

Nice post - I agree with most of your points. I really couldn't get in to Paradise, having to actually pause the game mid-race just so I could work out where the hell I was going didn't seem like fun to me. I liked the concept of Paradise, but in practice it just annoyed me.

I imagine that Burnout 3 and 4 will always be my favourites.

Sounds like you just suck ass in this game. I stopped reading after like the 4th paragraph or something where you said you couldn't recognize the city. I have that city imprinted in my head so when I start a race, I look at the destination and automatically know which route I'm taking. The game does show the cross streets at the top and the blinking sign whether it's the left one or the right one is always the turn you should take. I agree with the crashes though, it takes too much time and when you respawn again, everyone's ahead of you but at least it looks cool when your car gets wrecked. This is my favorite racing game, granted I barely played any racing game my entire life but oh well. This game was my first platinum trophy because I loved it.

It's not like I didn't post this and not expect the majority who would read this are fans of the game. Glad you guys enjoyed your purchase. But please do tell me how you guys got over your learning curve and how that flawed design didn't affect you? Because that's the problem I'm raising here.

@ShaggyChu: 
it... it took you a couple of years? Ahaha just kidding. Well I do think Criterion is expecting too much of me. It's not a niche game like Demon's Souls where the selling point is difficulty. Burnout Paradise is an arcade racer, everything feels great, so shouldn't the route be at least accessible, requiring minimum learning as well? I have spent 10 or so hours in that game and still have a problem finding a way. What I suggested, of simply having a GPS routed out for you, does not detract players who want to be good at the game from memorizing shortcuts and finding the shortest route. You can still be really pro at the game while we newbies can at least on our own merits, finish the race feeling satisfied. 
 
I disagree that Burnout Paradise is a driving game though. The races count up for a major chunk of the game, and it's not optional. Not finding enjoyment in that pretty much means i won't find new cars and enjoy the driving. Thanks for your comment anyways.
 
@dankempster: 
Ahaha no I didn't want to make GTA4 sound like the racing game king, it's just that when I thought about a GPS system that worked, first game that came to mind was that, and I just kinda stuck with it. Anyways, I do agree that the game needs a bit more variety. They at least need more end points. Also, nice pun. It's hard to resist eh?
 
@Grumbel: 
Driving around is amazing. The sense of speed and how the turns feel still gives me good memories of that game. But I really wished I could actually play with those controls on races that were fair.
 
@nintendoeats: 
Yes I never got over the hump. It's not Dark Souls where the real "game" starts after 60 hours in. I put 10 hours in and I frankly think it's too much for a game that's trying to be arcady and accessible.
 
@Burglarize: 
Burnout 3 and 4 were amazing games back then.
 
@awesomeusername: 
ummm so instead of just reading 4 paragraphs and reading the captions to my pictures, would you care to actually finish and know my point before making a comment? I do admit I suck at the game. But I also think it's not my fault for sucking at it. It's the design flaws that's causing that.

It seems to me that you were mad at the game for not holding your hand through the entire thing. It took me a few days to learn the city. After that, I didn't ever even think about looking at a map. Or what a friend of mine did was, at the beginning of a race, look at the map and plot a course. Regardless, this game isn't supposed to be HYPER REALISTIC RACING GAME 800. It's a Burnout game, which never really amounted to anything other than DRIVE HERE, CRASH THIS, YOU WIN. And Paradise did nothing different, except make it bigger and better than ever.
 
And the heads up display... Yeah, I never looked at anything other than the boost meter. I didn't ever really need to. I either followed all of the other cars to the destination and then crashed them for the win, or I just fought tooth and nail to stay in front and improvise the way there. The game wasn't even that hard, ever. All of the cars go the same speed. I used the Montgomery Hyperion the whole way through, aside from car specific races. Sometimes I went the wrong way and had to turn around and I still ended up winning.
 
I've never seen anyone over analyze a game as simple as Burnout Paradise before, because I just get the feeling you weren't very good at it and were mad at the game for it. No matter if you were or weren't, that's the vibe I'm getting from this.

@themangalist: But Paradise does have a direction system for players. When doing events with a finish line, the game sets an optimal route, and has the blinking signs for when you need to take a turn. You keep saying that Paradise should of had a GPS system like that of GTA4, but that only works in that game because you're going an average speed of like 50 in that game. In Burnout you're always doing a bagillion miles an hour. A little colored line a tiny map with all those streets literally wouldn't work.

The blinking signs is in fact much better for a game like Burnout. The games gives you an audio cue to let you know you need to turn soon. Since it's also as simple as a left or right, one doesn't need to take their eyes off the road to look at another part of the screen, as those signs are in your peripheral. Since the game is giving you a fairly good route, and you're not taking your eyes off the screen to stare at map, not only does this allow players to become familiar with the city, but also teaches them the optimal route from one point to another.

Maybe you're just bad at learning? *shrugs*

I disagree that Burnout Paradise is a driving game though. The races count up for a major chunk of the game, and it's not optional. Not finding enjoyment in that pretty much means i won't find new cars and enjoy the driving. Thanks for your comment anyways.

Actually, the vast majority of the content for Paradise is online with the challenges. I've put over 300 hours into the game, less than 10 of which were doing single player stuff. That's less than 5% of my overall time.

When you first said that you didn't like Burnout Paradise (don't remember in which thread), I thought you were crazy. After reading this I still think you might be a tad crazy, but it's no longer related to you not liking Burnout Paradise! Even though I, personally, enjoyed the game enough to play it for quite some time, I never did finish it. Thinking back to it now, and reading your blog post, makes me realize that, yes, it was the game's often chaotic design that led to me getting burned out on the game.

Good job on the blog. Excellent points were made.

But Paradise does have a direction system for players. When doing events with a finish line, the game sets an optimal route, and has the blinking signs for when you need to take a turn. You keep saying that Paradise should of had a GPS system like that of GTA4, but that only works in that game because you're going an average speed of like 50 in that game. In Burnout you're always doing a bagillion miles an hour. A little colored line a tiny map with all those streets literally wouldn't work.

I could read through all the replies, but I'll just save me time and say that there are two things I did not like about Paradise - no crash mode and no traffic attack. Traffic Attack from Burnout Revenge is one of the most fun things I have ever done in a video game. Ever.

Apart from that, I can not totally disagree with you. I like firing the game up and running around, maybe grabbing a race if I come across one, but I definitely lost interest in it, pretty quickly. Truth be told, I haven't really liked any of the Burnout games as far as how they're mission structure was laid out. I always felt like I had to do events I didn't like (Burning Lap, standard races) to get to all the fun stuff that made Burnout stand out from every other arcade style racer (Crash Mode, Traffic Attack, etc).