Phew! Another big week, here at Criterion Games, but it’s great to be back on the blog! Today, we made the first of a series of announcements calling out our 2009 Burnout Paradise content.
So first up, we’re talking about the in-game browser for the PLAYSTATION 3. We always like to embrace the great hardware innovations for PlayStation. We’re using the browser to bring you closer to your friends and also to get you the latest news on what we’re working on – it’s like having criteriongames.com inside the game.
We’ll bring you all the latest on this PlayStation-exclusive feature over the coming weeks, but for now all you need to know is it’s called Burnout Paradise Network and it’ll be ready in Feb ’09.
Next up let’s talk Burnout Paradise Party Pack.
Burnout’s an awesome social game, but the action’s all online. With Party, we wanted to create something for when all the players are in one place – gathered around a single screen.
Fans of the classic Crash Mode from Burnout 2: Point of Impact will know that this is not the first time we’ve done something like this. And we hope the response to Party is as warm as it was for Crash mode.
So, if you like to get together and play games, it’s time to break out the drinks, party hats and balloons!
Now you can enjoy Burnout Paradise in a completely new way.
1. Get together with up to 7 friends and gather round your PLAYSTATION 3. Here you can see some of the Burnout team lining up for a little Halloween-themed fun. You can see the full session in our latest Crash TV video podcast – it’s The Halloween Special!
2. Start Burnout Paradise and get the Party Pack update from the Store
3. Pause to admire the excellent new Party Edition visuals and atmosphere! We’ve overhauled not just the presentation screens but also the in-game visuals, which are now brighter and more colourful in recognition of Burnout’s new party theme.
4. Select 8-player party and get ready for the action. If you’ve got the PlayStation Eye add your picture now.
5. It’s pass-the-pad, so you’ll only need one controller to play, no matter how many players are involved!
6. The game selects a player at random and drops them into Paradise with a simple, fun challenge to complete.
Land a barrel roll!
Survive racing oncoming traffic!
Race a circuit of the dirt track in the best possible time!
There are 3 types of challenge to take on – Stunt, Speed and Skill. Stunt involves jumps and tricks. Speed features quick time trials and timed challenges. Skill includes racing through oncoming traffic and drifting your car.
7. Pick up the winner and run around cheering / commiserate the loser
8. Give it another go! Don’t forget, there are extra trophies and achievements available within this pack, as well as a stack of other enhancements.
You’ll be able to purchase this awesome premium Burnout Paradise content from February 2009, but if you haven’t got Burnout Paradise already, there’s never been a better time to buy.
We announced today that we’re bringing all the 2008 innovations as well as Party to something we’re calling Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box. It’s a new packaged game that’ll be available in Feb 2009!
Look out for more soon – either here on the awesome PlayStation Blog, back home on the Criterion Games Web site and in our video podcast – Crash TV.
You guys rock! All other developers should follow your footsteps. Your devotion and dedication to your customers is amazing! You’ve earned my respect Criterion! Keep up the good work!
@C-h-a-o-s
You don’t have a web cam anywhere in the house? You don’t HAVE to use the PSEye.
Jeremy,
Any chances of bring back the tradicional Burnout crash mode?
I miss that so much!
@Jeremy Chubbs
“I’d go PSN, because it just seems so cool to be finally buying full games on The Store.”
I wish all 3rd Party devs thought like you. If they can’t take advantage of the blu-ray, take advantage of my huge hdd.
Will we ever see seasons/holidays in Paradise City? Today its Halloween, it would be cool to see some pumpkin decorations and stuff around as I cruise through the city and since its autumn the trees should be a lot less lively. Also optional weather effects too. Let it snow!
You guys are AMAZING!
It’s just unbelievable how much you work to make this awesome game even more awesome O_o
Thank you a lot! I love this game , and you all xD
Wow. I’m totally buying this now. You guys deserve mad credit for this!
I was waiting the Island Pack, however good news :)
Amazing, its amazing the support that this game is having.
I take my hat off, good work guys.
this game will never die! and thats a good thing. great support all around guys.
peace,
Lh
You guys have really shown me that you are top notch developers. I am not normally a fan of racing games but Paradise pulled me in. I’m glad to see that you guys are going to be supporting it well into 09 but I have a quick question. Would it be foolish to hope for a new Black in the next couple of years?
funny how everyone is appluding them about this but a while back when the trophies came out everyone was slaming them for not being retro active
SWEET…Criterion you have been AMAZING with continued support for your titles. I hate it when a company puts out a good game and drops it like an orphan on the fire dept. steps.
More developers need to take your example and implement it ASAP.
time for a Burnout party…BYOB :D
I wish more developers would start showing the PS3 this kind of love. You guys at Criterion have went above and beyond.
I hope you keep up the great work in future titles too, the PS3 has so much to work with for the developers who really care about their games!!!
Couldn’t get any better!!?
More solid news from Criterion, by far one of the top 3 consumer-friendly developers out there.
Hey EA/Criterion,
I’m sure you guys had great success with burnout paradise. Now given that Obama paid you guys to advertise in the game, how about sharing a little of that wealth. I mean ingame advertising should help decrease the cost right? Lets hope these new updates remain free and we might help you advertise more junk. If only the advertiser know that ingame ad doesn’t work.
@ Jeremy Chubb and your Team
I just want to let you know, from another fan, that the support you guys have been giving this game is astounding and you set the bar very high for other developers.
I also want you to know that I have a personal boycott against EA (which I won’t go into here) but I have set aside that to purchase your game. With the amount of equal support you provide to the PS3 and constant updates (free helps too ;)) I feel that you deserve every penny you get.
Continue the fantastic work and you have earned yourself a new, loyal fan/customer.
Thanks again, all of you.
I really didn’t expect to see even MORE content coming out for BP, but I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. One of friends just got a PS3 and I was emphatic that he needed to get BP with it (Which he did). This just makes the game even better.
Criterion, well done yet again. At this point, I feel like I should buy the game again because we’ve gotten so much free content :)
As it is, Burnout is easily one of the best games this generation, and it’s far and away the best value–there’s no other game in my collection that I just keep going back to, and the continued updates only further contribute to this fact.
Everyone at Criterion: thanks for all your hard work–your development team is definitely one of the most respected among the gaming communitiy.
Oh, and one more thing: PLEASE DON”T EVER LEAVE THE OPEN-WORLD STYLE OF GAMEPLAY!!!
Awesome updates! I wish EA Sports would learn from you guys…release a new game, then do add-ons for a year or two instead of bringing out more buggy crap every 12 months for the quick cash grab. /rant
So yeah, Burnout Rocks!
Are you guys still working on adding Helicopters or was that canceled?
Thank you so much for your continued support of this title. All other developers should pay close attention on how to make customers brand loyal and keep them coming back for more.
Criterion Games rocks!
:P
Wow, about time you guys asked for money for an update! I’ll gladly purchase this mode when it comes out. February will make the game supported for over a year, that’ll be the 13 month mark! :D I’ve had a great time since January, and the updates keep on coming!
The visuals look even better in these screens, which is hard to believe.
@52
No, I don’t have a use for them. A picture on my screen really doesn’t warrant a purchase of a webcam either.
@14
That feature right there just shows the dedication the developers at Criterion have to their fans. It is little things like that that really makes you guys shine in my book. Hands down Criterion is my favorite developers. Great work guys!. I am never giving up this game and plan to buy the PSN version just so I don’t have to use the disc anymore (another great option for your fans!).
The support you guys are giving to this game, especially on the PS3, is simply awesome.
All these updates are awesome and I can’t wait to see what all is going to be delivered next year. But, does that mean no more updates for this year? I thought there was one more update coming?
@74 (Chaos)
You could always shell out a measly $10 for an extremely bare-bones webcam:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16830194002
Or just look at the other very cheap options: http://www.newegg.com/store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=152&Tpk=webcam
It adds to the fun of the online mode.
the game needs split-screen multiplayer.
it was the best part of burnout for years!!
anyone?
You’re really doing an outstanding job with the support for Burnout and it truly is a very accessible fun game. I’d say keep up the good work but you’re already doing that. Congrats.
Now that I think about it, I’ve had the game since January and never once played it online. Having to create a seperate account outside of PSN is just plain wrong (hello MGO…). So this party pack will help make up for that with official multi-player challengers beyond the ones my friends and I have come up with. :)
Someone asked earlier if you’ll be supporting youtube in the future..and you said you were trying to get crashTV on you tube…but i think he was asking if we’d be able to record in game video for youtube like they do in PixelJunk Eden. if he didn’t mean that…then i’m asking it….any chance? cause that’d be a cool feature.
Party mode looks awesome. And with all the free stuff you’ve given us already, you deserve to charge for something.
I’ll definately be buying Party mode. You guys deserve my money.
In-game BROWSER? Daaaaamn. Excellent work!
DONT WORRY GUYS!!! I am buy this game. You have added sooo much stuff, its unbelievable. Great job. Just need to scrap up the money, yeah i know its cheap.
Thank you for the Great SUPPORT :D
when are ya working on a next gen Black 2.. Black was a great game last gen..
Awesome bring it on !!
You got a customer here no matter what.
Great work guys…
really guys this game is amazing even without all of the extremely awesome updates, you are the kings of DLC. And the fact that you deliver such a quality product ,for FREE no less, really shows that this is a labor of love for you guys and that you’re in it for the GAMERS not the money So thank you criterion, alot of devs could learn from your ways
I’d like to say ‘thank you’ to all at Criterion for the amazing support you’ve provided with this game.
The subject of paid-for DLC is a hot topic on our clan forum at the moment, with a number of people feeling increasingly ripped off by the increasing amount of content being charged for by some devs. We don’t mind paying for genuine additional content, but it seems increasingly like many companies are deliberately leaving things out of ‘finished’ games, for the sole purpose of charging for them later.
PAIN is one such example, where the purchase of additional content is REQUIRED to obtain Trophies. I know that content is cheap, but that’s really not the point.
Criterion’s approach with Burnout Paradise has been exceptional, and a real breath of fresh air, with lots of content added at no additional cost to the gamer. Consequently, I personally will have no objection paying for this and any future add-ons for the game, and I’m sure many others will feel the same… even though you’re bound to get some ingrates who say “oh, why do we have to pay all of a sudden?”
So once again – thank you, Criterion.
I BOUGHT THE GAME AT LAUNCH AND THE SUPPORT YOU GUYS HAVE GIVEN IT IS OUTSTANDING, CONGRATS ON ALL OF YOUR SUCCESS AND I HOPE IT CONTINUES!!! :D
Please, please, please can you fix the bug whereby if you are using steering wheels with forcefeedback and then you enter the XMB while in-game, through pressing the PS button on another controller (or even it going the XMB save game screen when saving), the force feedback on the wheel gets switched off and you have to restart the game.
I bought a full raceseat with G25 wheel for this game and can’t check my trophies without the feedback getting switched off, many people have complained about this on the forums.
if criterion was a woman, i’d ask you to marry me. =P
but seriously, thank you ever so very much for the continued support of one of the best dang games on any console this generation. other developers and console makers should be bending over backwards to have such a dedicated team of individuals working for them. bravo Criterion, you deserve every single ounce of praise you’ve recieved thus far, and then some.
Now this game is great. There’s so many things to do and now this pack. How great is this? (Oh and forgot to say, the license designs in the game are cool)
Awesome, just awesome. You guys are clearly the best developers at the moment when it comes to extending and simply enhancing the game experience. You guys have redefined what “DLC” means. Awesome.
I bought Burnout Paradise ages ago and didn’t really like it. Then trophies were added and BAM! I got addicted… AND FAST. Lesson Sony? Do everything you can to get developers to add trophies. I was once a trophy sceptic, no longer!
Looking awesome guys. What I would love to see in this game is Youtube support. To be able to upload a take down on a friend (or stranger) and show the world would be awesome.
I love this game. I swear it’s the best 60 dollars I have ever spent.
It’s great to see a developer who cares about the game they put out and, more importantly, the customers and community enjoying it.
Awesome. As mentioned, only 1 controller is needed, but any chance of split screen multilayer coming to Burnout Paradise? It would be great feature…
Yup, split screen would be awesome.
Which is precisely why Criterion won’t do it.
Or give us proper weather.
Or a replay option..
Or customizable controls..
Or the ability to race bikes..
Or mixed bike & car matches…
Or XMB soundtrack access….