Wow! Week #3 for Criterion Games on the PlayStation Blog!
Week #1 we set the blog alight with details of the new game modes coming to Burnout Paradise in the Codename: Cagney update.
(And mentioned 1080i support for those who have HD TVs that only support that mode!)
Week#2 we talked about the Timed Challenges coming to Burnout Paradise in the Codename: Cagney update. (And broke the news that we’re supporting PlayStation Trophies retroactively in Burnout Paradise at some point, too!)
This week…
Well, we’re pleased to announce that Codename: Cagney – the FREE update game of changing content for Burnout Paradise is here!
To get it – just put your Burnout Paradise disk into your PlayStation 3, launch the game and it’ll download automatically.
It’s that easy – and it’s all FREE – new online game modes, new vehicles and a stack of enhancements and fixes to make playing Burnout Paradise even better.
But even with all that there’s more – there’s the Game’s new Live Page, which is the thing we’re really excited about and want to let you know about this week.
The Live Page does two cool things:
First, it serves up news about the game – so that’s news about updates and the kind of stuff you’d expect on criteriongames.com, but it’s also news about what’s happening in the game – so, expect to find news about what you’ve done in Paradise City as well as about what’s happening online, like when we hit the 100 millionth crash, for example.
Secondly (and this is the really, really cool bit), it’s where we can, using the Game Calendar, create what we’re calling ‘Live Broadcast Gameplay’. This is how it works:
If you check out the Game Calendar, you’ll see certain dates on it are ringed. These represent ‘Live Events’ that will occur on that day. In the news panel on the Live Page there’ll be a corresponding story telling you about what’s happening on those days.
So, for example:
Saturday 12th July 2008 – Prize Cars Weekend
Where for one day, if you go online we’ll let you try out all of the Carbon and XS Cars (that are normally available only when you complete the offline game) for you to test drive in races and Freeburning.
As this shows – it really allows us to mix up the game, and we’ve got a schedule packed with cool events that stretch out through the summer.
This breaks down as:
Every Tuesday, we’re going to mix things up online by focusing the game around a specific set of cars. For a whole day, your online junkyard will look radically different. This coming week (Tuesday 15th July 2008) will see only Speed Boost cars online.
Every Thursday, we’re going to mix up racing (both ranked and unranked.) Everyone’s junkyard will be as normal, but in races we’ll supply a certain set of cars to race in. This will really level the playing field in racing.
The other great thing about Live Events is that it allows us to award our players with all kinds of cool stuff. So, starting in a few weeks’ time:
Graduation Weekends
In these, we’ll let you try out new cars and new liveries for a whole weekend. Over the course of the weekend, you’ll be able to test drive our vehicle of choice, and if you want to keep it, then we’ll set up an online challenge for you to complete.
The first such event will be our “Mount Olympus” event in which you’ll get to test drive the new Hunter Olympus, and, if you win an Online Road Rage event in it, you’ll get to keep it forever.
We’ll be running multiple Graduation Weekends that will introduce even more vehicles and for those players who participate in all of them, there’ll be a special prize.
So there you go – more exciting and innovative stuff from Criterion Games. Now, let’s see what we can come up with for Week #4!
Great Update!!
Criterion are awesome!
I have had this game since it came out but havent played it in a while im about to update and start kicking a** again im updating as i write this mrssage love u guys and the support u are giving this game!
It is amazing how Criterion is supporting Burnout after it was released, the game is great and I will continue to play it.
I’m looking for the Bikes update!
I knew this update would entice me to start playing it online even more, but damn! 1080i support is perfect for my almost-full-HD television! The new Live Page looks amazing as well, I cannot wait for those events. Gotta download this update as soon as I get out of class!
@toxic-inferno,
Thanks for the heads up!
Stellar job! You guys are the best… thanks for all your continued work and support for this great game! :)
Criterion with this adds ( Cagney + trophies )just make me buy now this game. Congratulations.
I’ll definitely re-buy this game as soon as they incorporate trophy support.
Awesome game awesome update!!!
Criterion is by far the best supporter of their game with –FREE– DLC and updates. Love the work guys.
60th post…LOL awesome update, Bunout has beem one of my favorite games i’ve played on the ps3….great job guys!! now back to taking punks down!
kudos to Criterion Games.
Not only is Paradise a nice game, the support is awesome (especially for PS3 in comparison with other multi-games).
I wonder how they still can be so customer-friendly with EA as publisher. You would expect of them to want like 0,99$ for each new paintjob (sorry EA) XD
I am for example so disappointed from IW/Activision, that they don’t bother to include rumble, ingame-Music or Trophy in CoD4, that was such an unexpected big success. The should have made enough money to let IW add some stuff…
I even regret buying CoD4 new for full price and in the contrary, I’m glad I did so with Burnout. So folks, get BP, Developers like Criterion should be rewarded :P
One question regarding 1080i: Like in similar Updates for other Games, I always have 1080p then, too. Is the PS3 automatically convert it to 1080p? While I can understand, users with HDready Displays should stick to 720p, I own a fullHD and the 1080p Mode didn’t seem to be worse than 720p (or should I check my eyes? ^^). I actually prefer 1080p, cause my TV can disable Overscan in that mode.
To Sony: I’m a bit concerned, that no one will include custom Soundtracks into PS3-Games.
The system Burnout Paradise now uses is not the new one but the older XMB-System, which was available over a year now (introduced by Mainichi Issho). Why would the Developers include Custom Soundtracks now with the ingame-XMB-System, when like 95% did not bother to use the old system before? :/
Please open up Ingame-Music to all games – even without Game-Updates every User can manually disable the Music-BMG in every game.
Is it a patent problem with MS? I know it is already possible in the non-public-Firmware, so PLEASE… ;_;
I guess at the end of the day, I\’d suggest working out what works best for your eyes!
Official word from the guys on the team is that 1080i is better than SD (as you know we added that support for TVs that aren\’t fully \”HD Ready\” – in Europe \”HD Ready\” means 720p and 1080i minimum – that\’s why we said \’almost HD sets\’ in our updates)
720p is the way it was meant to be played and what it was optimised for.
1080p? I guess your TV must be doing some kind of upscaling – taking our 720p and stretching it. If it works for you, and you\’re enjoying Paradise, then stick with it – it\’s great to have such enthusiastic and excited players in our game.