With the recent release on the Demo on the Xbox Marketplace I finally got to taste the sweetness of the latest Burnout that everyone has been going on about. But are the new ingredients going to satisfy our hunger for an arcade racer?

You see, Burnout has always been in a league of it's own as it doesn't come under any of the other sub genres of racing games. Its not just about point to point racing, circuit racing, unlocking faster cars, overtaking and it sure as hell aint about braking! Its about ripping up the road, terrorising opponents with takedowns, wrecking your ride, balancing risks / reward, speed and then some more speed.

Over the life of this series the game has traditionally added a new features into its bag of tricks with each iteration. First we had crash mode (awesome) then traffic checking (lame) and finally online play. This year Criterion have taken a page from Atari's Test Drive Unlimited book and opened up the city so you can race against bots or you friends. The line between on and offline has been blurred.

It has stopped being just about driving skill as you now need to know your way around the city and utilise the shortcuts you have discovered while roaming around the Paradise City. I generally dont like these open ending paths as it creates an uneven playing field.

Paradise City is huge and if you get boarded of free roaming you can pull up at any intersection and start up a challenge. You will not find any circuit racing put you will have point to point and a new mode where you have to rack up points in a certain amount of time.

Crash mode has been completely removed. But fear not my young padawans as you now have Showtime mode where you can pull both triggers and basically crash anywhere. Sounds a bit odd to me but I haven't tried it out yet so what do I know right? I also dont know if there will be any other modes.

Showtime Mode and how not to hit a bus

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