Burnout Paradise, PS3.
I forget why I got into Burnout 3, since I rarely touch driving games... but I'm terribly confident that Burnout Paradise just leaped into the Buy It pile. Particularly if GTAIV gets delayed again.
Burnout Paradise lets you use your PlayStation Eye(Toy) throughout the demo... you can pose for your license, which is hilarious. Of course, being a demo, none of this is saved, but I would imagine the full game lets you constantly check your license for stats and unlockables.
During online multiplayer - which was a hoot, even in the confines of a demo - the game briefly activates the camera to snap a picture of yourself whenever your car gets killed by an opponent. That picture is then flashed to the opponent as some kind of crazy look-at-my-penis-fool reward. In the online matches I played last night, I was the only guy with a camera... so I can't say I enjoyed any photos of random people flipping me off after I smashed their car. After a couple silly poses and shots of the cat, I parked my cam on the latest issue of Nintendo Power. Fanboyism FTW.
Another great feature about the online multiplayer: it was completely seamless. There's no "MULTIPLAYER" menu, you just tap right a couple of times on the d-pad and you're in. No re-loading. No dropping you into a new world. It just syncs up your game with three other players, and the four of you then race around the town looking for challenges to win or just wrecking into each other. Should the host bail, you're just back to playing by yourself again, with no break in the action. Hot shit, that.
Think these CompUSA billboards will be in the final game? They just announced the complete shuttering of all their retail stores. One less place that pretends to know half a bean about what they're selling, in my opinion. Radio Shack, your crown is safe.
I liked that. When you reach a road that would extend beyond the demo, there's a construction sign promising the road will re-open in January 2008, the month of the game's release. Clever.
Great demo. Looking forward to hearing more about Paradise. I hope you'll be able to play your own music inside the game, rather than EA's typically awful Radio BIG crap.
