Hi there! It’s great that Criterion Games has made it to the PlayStation.Blog, so with this first post it’s best that we bring everyone up-to-date with what’s been happening since Burnout Paradise was released at the end of January.
The truth is – we simply haven’t stopped.
We’re into our “Year of Paradise” – 12 months where the Burnout Team keeps on developing exciting new stuff to expand and change Burnout Paradise (and in the process, we aim to radically change what everyone expects of downloadable content).
We’ve so far released our 1.1 update, and our second update, codenamed: “Bogart,” packed with fixes and game-enhancing features.
Now, we’re expecting our third FREE update codenamed: “Cagney” that’s coming on 10th July (yes, that’s FREE – just put your Burnout Paradise disk into your PLAYSTATION 3 and it’ll download automatically), and we’re really excited about it as we count down to its release.
We’re talking:
3 new Online Game Modes
- Online Stunt Run – you and up to 7 others compete for the highest stunt score
- Online Road Rage – where you team up and try to stop the other team from reaching their destination
- Online Marked Man – someone gets called out and everyone else tries to hunt them down
70 new Online Timed Challenges
- Everyone teams up to pull off stunts and other feats in the world, against the clock
New Vehicles (including the Hunter Olympus)
Major improvements to our Ranked Racing system
Plus heaps more, including:
- 1080i support for PlayStation 3 owners with “almost HD” sets
- Improved Standard Definition rendering for PlayStation 3
- Support for Custom Soundtracks on PlayStation 3
Outside of the game, our website, www.criteriongames.com is changing too – we’re posting up to 4 stories daily direct from the team and we now have an audio and video podcast from the team that goes out on a weekly basis. This week’s podcast released on Friday, we’re talking in detail about what to expect in “Cagney” and the other game-changing updates beyond that.
The pace of change here at Criterion is breathtaking, so we’re going to be posting here on the PlayStation.Blog at least once a week to let you know more about what’s happening and what’s coming to Paradise City.
such continued quality in updates and downloadable content that makes me glad that this was one of my first ps3 games, and that i am a fan of the burnout series.
now if i could have an update that would allow me a higher camera angle, i would be in racing heaven. oh, and i miss the crash junctions and traffic checking, too.
nonetheless, an awesome game.
hmmmmm….. me thinks he shouldn’t have mentioned custom soundtracks :D lol
@tretle and others, 1080i IS full HD. 1080i is part of the HD specification. 1080i is a HIGHER resolution than 720p (why do you think its not supported when 720p is?)
720p and 1080i are each OPTIONAL but at least ONE has to be supported for a TV to be HD. 1080p is a much newer (originally Sony-only) concept which they call “True HD”.
That said, the HDTV specification is 1080i or 720p — BOTH are full high definition, BY DEFINITION. Neither is “not quite HD”. I love my 1080i CRT HDTV compared to almost every 720p LCD screen I’ve ever seen and anyone else who owns one can probably tell you the same.
Do some research before venting next time — 1080i IS HD. Real HD. The HDness. Completely HD.
PS most of the TV shows broadcast in HD are in 1080i.
I may just have to pick this game up. Wasn’t that trilled with the demo. I did love Revenge however on the PS2.
I passed on this one. :( (During Boycott Sony Phase, for the lies about PS Home)
But this mistake can be corrected. :)
Huh?? this is foriegn language to me maybe some one can help whats the diffrence between 1080i,1080p or 520 what ever it is all i know is i have a samsung 50″ HDTV and it looks good when i play all games what is the diffrence if some one could tell me please thanks
P.S ps blog show me some updates on metal gear solid movie :) :)
Sweet about time I find a good Reason to put in my Burnout in agian :D just been playing some MGS4 playing it slowly and enjoying it on ACT4 now.
Thank you for the Update! ;)
I really thank you for Custom Soundtracks also… gives me a reason to put more song on my PS3 again :D
THANK YOU FOR THE HARD WORK! keep up the great work Team!!
Skater_Ricky,
Speaking of Burnout though, I love the game, and I’m completely enjoying cruising and getting to know the city still. There’s lots of stuff to see and lots of shortcuts to be found and used in races against your friends.
The webcam support is also cool (I hear you guys are finally going to add push-to-talk?) but having the mic on all the time is annoying when you have your PS Eye sitting on top of a set of home theatre speakers ;-)
Keep up the updates — I’m loving the podcast (CrashFM and CrashTV) via my PSP.
PS for the PSP users amongst us, please make a nice simple page with links for the subscriptions to the above RSS feeds like http://criteriongames.com/rss or something because it was annoying typing the URL in manually while reading it off a computer screen when the PSP wouldn’t load the Criteron homepage (out of memory).
Needless to say, you guys be PWNing other developers when it comes to supporting your games. Nice work!
@gamesblow,
Think about it. Just THINK ABOUT IT! XMB is Sony’s operating system on their Playstation 3- allowing users to access it can allow users to access everything on their hard drive, essentially allowing people to even play their own music through their system on Burnout Paradise regardless of the custom soundtracks.
Seriously, what keeps you going everyday? Every single post you rant on in a condescending matter towards the hardware and software developer and its community, and hardly offer any actual advice to improve on technology and what not. The constant rants on nearly EVERY SINGLE post hardly offer any kind of intellectual value to the community. I just want to know why you feel you are superior to everyone else here on this Web site. It is ironic that Sony will even give you a t-shirt for posting on the blog, even if it means criticizing them without even giving sound advice to fix any problems. Progress is only made when a solution is found after one finds a problem.
Anyway, I am finished with my rant.
Criterion Games, you are one of my favorite 3rd-Party developers out there; just keep working on improving your game- Burnout Paradise is an AWESOME game, I can’t wait to play the Cagney release with the Online Road Rage- It sounds very familiar to the Online Road Rage on Burnout 3, which was also awesome; however, if you, the Burnout Team, is reading this, I wonder if there is a possibility in a type of Melee Road Rage, where either a time limit or a type of elimination through “Totaling your car” can determine a winner between 8 rivals. I’ll probably even email the Mailbag about this later.
@55 (Eternity_Viper_Snake)
Diffence is Size of frame itself just think of it as a size of a picture..
Would you take a 5×8 picture and strech to a 1080×1260 Revolution size on your Computer screen monitor.
1080i = (i)= Interlace – less quality
1080p = (p)= Progresive – Pure Ditgital Signal.
Hope that helps ;)
@ gamesblow, it is pretty weird to have to drive a car without anyone in it…but maybe thats what the pseye is for? Taking your photo and using it on your drivers license…i dunno maybe they were just too lazy lol to do put a random figure in the car, it would be cool to have like a Flatout effect where a ragdoll physics character flies out of the windshield or something…i always found those good for a few cheap laughs :-P OOOH! put the guys from PAIN into the cars of Paradise!!! lol that’d be pretty sweet imo. But besides that,the game is pretty fun if you don’t mind the can’t restart a mission unless you go ALLLLL the way back.
Also, I’m pretty sure that custom soundtracks was announced before the 2.40 patch was announced so no need for people to get down on them for that.
@59 (skaterricky)
thanks bra that did help so i need to get a 1080p here comes another loan cha ching $$ LOL :) i was wondering why other tv’s looke alot more better than mine even though it was the same size dam it :# thanks again..
The numbers we’re quoting (1080P, 1080i, etc) represent the number of horizontal lines of resolution the PS3 displays on your particular television.
For example:
Full HD (or 1080) represents 1080 lines of horizontal resolution (or 1920 x 1080 pixels). There is also a lower-rez version of HD (720) that has 720 lines of horizontal resolution (usually displayed with 1440 x 720 pixels).
SD (or Standard Definition) is referred to as 480 as it only displays 480 lines of horizontal resolution (or 720 x 480 pixels).
Now, the i and P thing are just terms used to describe how each frame is actually displayed on your television. Progressive Scan modes (ie: 1080P or 720P or 480P) show each frame in it’s entirety. However, interlaced modes (1080i, 480i) show all of the odd rows of a frame, then all of the even rows of a frame in quick succession.
The interlaced modes are kind of a throw back to the old days when televisions weren’t able to refresh fast enough to display an entire frame. So they only displayed half a frame at a time. It happens so quickly (60 fields a second) that you don’t even really notice.
SO:
1080P and 1080i are the same resolution, but one just refreshes a little differently.
Hope this explanation helps.
Awesome; very nice to see you guys committed to providing aftermarket value to folks who have bought the game. I’ve never worked in the games business, but as a programmer, I know how often you have to ship something before you get all the features you want in. It’s great that you guys are getting the chance to make the game be all you wanted it to be. Kudos!
@ 64 (TouchyEd)
thanks man (in more detail) im just going to have to compare either one (1080i,1080p) and see witch one is better thanks guys for the explanation…
P.S. (chanting) remake,remake metal gear & metal gear 2 solid snake for ps3!!! LOL :)
@60
I have no clue what you’re talking about here. I haven’t said anything ill or slanted towards Sony or the dev’s of Burnout.
I simply stated as another at the end of page 1 stated, people are expecting too much out of 2.40.
Get off your lecture Father Dowling. go solve a Mystery. It sounds to me you’re upset that I got me a T-shirt and you didn’t. It seems to me you’re upset that I am a famous forum poster across the internet.
Then again, it also seems you’e trying to goat me into a bickering match. I said nothing here that was condescending, other than the fact people were crying about 2.40 and in game music. I simply wanted people to realise in game xmb and in game music are “probably” going to be 2 different things. could be wrong, could be right. We’ll see.
@50 who said:
“Guys there are two types of “custom soundtracks”:
1. The game uses music from the HDD. This is what we’ve seen in SSHD, Pain, MLB08, is coming to Burnout, and we know will be in Wipeout HD.
2. The other sort is where the PS3 OS just plays music over the top of the game audio. This is the sort that may be possible with in-game XMB. But it is not as good as option 1.
Just because some games are getting patched for custom soundtracks does not mean that in-game XMB won’t allow you to play music. It just means that some games are doing it _properly_ :)”
This man should win post of the day. Intelligent response and I think people should try and follow his lead.
As for Burnout, I haven’t been playing it because of work and such but above all else I’m giving my friend a little time to catch up to my level so I don’t crush him. Great game and I’m looking forward to Marked Man Online.
That’s great news. I just picked up Burnout last week ($40) and I am resisting so hard to play it because I want to play it with this update. I want the custom soundtracks!
Thanks for the awesome stuff! :D
As much as I dislike EA, I have to give props to the folks over at Criterion Games. Free content is always welcome and good to see you’re still keeping up with this game.
Keep up the good work.
@ gamesblow, why cant you just ignore it. Or understand what made those people annoyed in the first place.
Your comment was sugarcoated bull. In reality you have no idea of how they are implementing in game xmb.
My personal opinion which I have based on facts is that the reason why not all games will support in game xmb is because Sony kept one spu out of developers hands(good idea) but they didnt place any restrictions on any other aspect of the hardware(memory etc).
There are going to be some games which handle memory management badly and some that handle it well.
It depends on the game developers themselves.
The original battlefield 1942 for the pc was renowned for memory leaks and shoddy programming in general.
I wouldn’t mind if you actually had a valid reason for stating something as fact other than look at the firmware without in game xmb support. How can you determine a conclusion on in game music based off firmware with no in game xmb.
P.S the fact that you take great pride in being a famous blog commenter is quite sad. I would understand being proud of being a famous blog poster but a famous blog commenter? Just shows people that you have way too much time on your hands. Enjoy the T-Shirt.
Every developer should be doing like you guys over there. Criterion FTW :D
Nice. Other than this, the only thing that could make my day better is an announcement of them remaking Burnout Takedown.
While I am by no means a fan of EA, the commitment Criterion has shown to this title is indeed impressive. Nice work. -.^ (Being able to pick out our smilies rather than guess as to how to make them would be nice…)
“famous forum poster on the internet…”
Haha. Nice kid, nice.
@gamesblow post 67,
I could care less about a t-shirt. If I wanted to flame in and get off-topic in each developer’s post for the past year, I could’ve gotten one as well. Rather, I could either create my own t-shirt design w/ Photoshop and Illustrator (which I already have), or I could build a game that I would see fit to be fun playing (which I did for a Senior Project.)
So, congrats for getting a t-shirt and being a FAMOUS web poster on teh Interweb.
Hmmm, you know what? Hopefully Sony will give out another t-shirt next year… perhaps I shall start my flaming/spamming spree while I have the time..
SONY SUXORS!!!11!!!!! LOLLOLOOLOOLLOLOLOOOLLOLOLOLOLOLOlo1loloLOLOol1lOOLOLOL
OMGWTFBBQ +=3’/ 4|2[- $0 (_)[\]0|2][&][~4|_!
@ Simon Phipps and everyone at Criterion:
applause
Wow. That be some stellar support for Burnout Paradise. Especially seeing you have “Davis” and “Eastwood” coming after this. Awesome. You guys and gals are deserving of an award or two. Very well done.
/applause
p.s. welcome to the PS Blog
@64
Looks like you had that ready to go Copy and Paste :P
But I explained it in less detail and means just as much.. most ppl dont care for lines of refresh due to the eye can only catch so much in anyways.
Just go with the DIGITAL AGE and buy a FULL 1080P ;)
Flame ON!
Have a Good Metal Gear Monday Everyone! :D
The Criterion devs listened and patched the game to support 1080i. Why won’t the PS3 do this on its own like the XBOX 360? Many of us with 1080i (Almost HD) television sets would be thrilled!
Free is always good, I hope many developers follow the likes of Criterion
@78 (Skatericcky):
Actually, I didn’t copy and paste anything.
The answer that you provided (in comment #61) was simplified to the point of being largely innacurate.
You said that the difference between 1080p and 1080i was “the size of the frame” which is totally wrong. They share the same frame size, they just refresh the frames differently. You also said that 1080i had less quality than 1080p. Again, very misleading.
You also implied that 1080P used a “pure digital signal” whereas 1080i doesn’t. Again, absolutely incorrect. Both can be purely digital. Both can be purely analog.
And what are you talking about “lines of refresh”? What exactly is that? Did you just make that up?
You clearly have no understanding of the topic. So don’t insult me for trying to provide a more accurate response to the guy’s original question.
Wicked game… Just picked it up for $39.99, a must own….
Great support unmatched can’t wait for the next update.
Just got a 46″ HDTV so it looks SWEET!!!
@ gamesblow “i will not buy a game, because i can’t see the driver boo hoo” you are so silly not to mention ignorant. back to topic I’m waiting for this is a new update.
“1080i support for PlayStation 3 owners with “almost HD” sets” – so are you saying 720 and 1080 aren’t HD?
I think you are misconstruing the meaning of “trueHD” which some have tagged 1080p. Also, it sounds like you are bitter by making the “almost” comment.
Sorry that you had to cater to what your customers own but it wasnt until the later part of 2007 that 1080p TVs started catching up with 1080i/720p sets in terms of monthly sales but that does count the millions of 1080i already sold.
man. this might just push me to buy this game… I held off because it seemed too different from the burnout I know and love, but hmm…. maybe I’ll have to take a second look at it…
Off topic guys:
gamesblow is right that we shouldn’t get our hopes up too much for 2.40. All we know that it will have is in-game messaging. (from that european exec’s comments last march) All they’ve said since than is that it will have “in-game XMB.” which can mean a lot of things… best to not get your hopes too high because you could be setting yourself up for a (not-quite-so-bad) repeat of FW 2.00.
@83
Yeah, you sound extremely intelligent yourself, Byron. What with you not comprehending what I said and all. I didn’t say I wouldn’t buy it, as a matter of fact I said I was going to buy it. I simply said “AT FIRST” I couldn’t get over the fact the cars had no drivers. It’s a tad strange and most anyone would agree.
My tip for you… Go shave, the goats are gettin’ restless for sweet meat.
Gamesblow,
Do you EVER contribute anything valuable to these blogs? Or do you just like to be a little mosquito and relentlessly annoy people?
Huge Update !!!
Thanks the new truck looks sweet.
I hope to get some real time in with this title.
When Criterion said “almost HD”, they simply meant non-progressive HD sets, i.e. they can display 1080i, but not 720p or 1080p. Can we all stop bickering about whether or not “almost HD” was an insult, and my HD is better than your HD?
To answer the questions already asked about why it wasn’t in from the start (when it was on 360), they posted this on their blog back in April:-
———-
With the latest SDK Sony freed up some memory. We’ve upgraded to this SDK and made use of the extra memory to scale the 720p game to 960×1080 as part of the very final post-process render stage in the game; this 960×1080 video mode uses the PS3 hardware scaler to upscale the image horizontally to output at 1920×1080.
This scaling process in Burnout costs a very small amount of frame time (under 0.4% of a 60hz frame, which we can afford without dropping frames) since we’re going to a larger number of pixels, but it enables those with 1080i TVs that don’t support 720p to play in HD.
We really hope that this new option in 1.3 helps those people (with 1080i but not 720p-capable TVs) to enjoy Burnout Paradise in HD!
———
Source: http://www.criteriongames.com/article.php?artID=70
It’s great to see such support for a game and it’s all free. This would be DLC for a lot of games and with the next update having night time and bikes that’s almost enough for a new game. I heard rumors of even the new island being free.
Thanks for the free update guys.
@87
Like you’re not trying to annoy me by jumping into a conversation you have nothing to do with, Hypocrite.
Can’t believe you didn’t mention that they’ve completely remixed the engine sounds and made it 5.1 surround instead of 5.0. The change should be awesome.
Guys, you should check their site http://www.criteriongames.com
They have bunch of stuff about other incoming updates (like an island). I’m surprised that Cagney is free since they talked about charging for it awhile back… but I guess they’ll charge for the island.
Anyway, for a free update, it’s more than awesome. Most companies would milk a 5$ minimum for the same equivalent.
Devs from other parties should really contact criterion (I’m pointing at you EA that made the Orange Box port… contacting another EA member shouldn’t too hard), then some would understand the basic of developing on PS3 first (for Multiformat stuff)
I raise my glass to Criterion’s devs.
Cheers!
Looks like the PSN will be down tomorrow from 8am-12pm PST.
Now that. That’s community support.
Well done Criterion.
wonder if it will make the 100 mark :D
I’ve been in the forums and on the blogs for quite awhile…and if there’s one theme I’ve noticed it’s that collectively the Playstation community would like to see you go away Gamesblow.
You add nothing to the community.
You never answer any questions.
You never provide any meaningful posts other than your silly complaints and insults.
Now flitter off little June Bug.
Your welcome here has expired.
lol
Great news looking forward to it. I’m not a racing game fan buy Burnout Paradise somehow managed to get me hooked.