Burnout: Paradise Lost and Found
When Criterion’s Burnout: Paradise demo went live last December, fans of the high-speed, crash-and-burn racing series were largely unimpressed. And for good reason: It was boring. Instead of the open racing world Criterion promised, the demo was tiny slice of unremarkable cityscape that played host to a scant handful of racing events.
Criterion’s Alex Ward responded to the chorus of yawns and whines with an indignant holiday missive on Criterion’s website. “We think we made THE best demo released all year,” he wrote before launching a full-frontal defense of the upcoming title. “This new Burnout is an experience that YOU choose how to play rather than us forcing a game structure on you - when the rest of you get to play the full game I am confident you will agree.”
I wasn’t convinced by Ward’s open letter. Let’s face it: Game industry talk is very, very cheap. But as I now know from a series of marathon sessions with Criterion’s finished product, Ward was right. Criterion knew what they were doing when they built a game that defied established conventions.
(Read the rest of this article over at The Escapist)