Burnout was initially a fairly straightforward racing game that took place over a series of tracks. Clearly, crashes were a big part of the game, and later versions included a crash mode that made a feature out of them.
Every one of the four previous titles took place on a series of self-contained tracks and, shortcuts aside, there was only one way from the start of a race to the finish - which incidentally was usually in the same place as the start. The tracks were always part of a larger game map, and parts of one track were often reused in other tracks, so you got a picture of the overall terrain - but you could never drive it all.
This, the fifth Burnout (unless you count the PS2/PSP only Dominator), takes everything that was good and great about Burnouts I to IV, and turns it on its head. Instead of taking place on a series of distinct tracks, the whole map is open for you to drive, at any time during the game. The whole city and its environs are a giant playground – and Criterion has stuffed it full of toys and games to keep you occupied.
The game begins with some annoying chick welcoming you to Paradise City. I mean, she's probably not annoying at all in real life, she's probably a very nice woman, maybe she's hot, too. But right now, she's talking when I want to be driving! I repeatedly press [Start] and [X], but to no avail. This intro animation and narration is clearly Criterion's clever way of hiding the game's loading time. Load times, no matter how brief they are, are always a pain in games. And Burnout Paradise certainly has some loading time at the start of your session. But once that's done – the loading is over. Finished. Complete!
Paradise City is one huge sandbox for you to play in to your heart's content. You can free-drive or enter events; go on-line and compete with friends then come back off-line; you can enter Showtime (more of that later) all without a pause or stutter of the game's real-time driving experience. It is simply awesome and it makes all other driving games look archaic.
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tyrion 25 Jan 2008 19:08
1/12
the completist demon on my left shoulder (is that where the demon sits, or is that the angel shoulder?)
The demon must sit on the left (sinister) shoulder, surely?
DoctorDee 26 Jan 2008 08:15
2/12
tyrion wrote:
the completist demon on my left shoulder (is that where the demon sits, or is that the angel shoulder?)
The demon must sit on the left (sinister) shoulder, surely?
Predictably leftist statement there.
Sinister is no more than the heraldic and archaic form of left which you righties have turned into a term of approbation. It is no more acceptable to use the word sinister than it is to use racist terms. It is simply pointing out our difference, one that we are born with and cannot help, in order to belittle us. To imply that we are evil or untrustworthy.
Left handers face such considerable trials in society, scissors and only right handed clubs being available for hire at the driving range for instance, that many of us are forced to dabble in ambidextrosity. The human brain was simply not made to work that way, and as a result many of us are doomed to become psychopaths and basket cases.
Jimi Hendrix played a right handed guitar upside down because a left handed one was not available to him. To this day left handed guitars cost far more then their right handed equivalent. Imagine if vacuum cleaners cost more for black people, or toiletries cost more for lesbians. THAT would be discrimination. But charging lefties more for goods is acceptable.
If one looks at the fields of endeavour in which left handers are well represented, it's always ones where the equipment does not preclude it, baseball not golf, painting not kirigami.
It is to be thanked that Matt Groening, a left-hander himself, has brought the subject to mass attention by writing it, in the shape of Ned Diddley-ed Flanders Leftorium, into the Simpsons. It is ironic though, that even as one who you would expect to sympathise with our plight Groening made Ned a religious nut-job.
So please remember, next time, before you jump to abjure lefties that without them, the world would have not had the talents of: Kurt Cobain from out of Nivana, Diego Maradona, Mark Spitz from out of the olympic swimming, Jimmy Connors OR John McEnroe from out of the 1984 Wimbledon final, Goran Ivanesivic from out of another (more recent) Wimbledon final, Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth from out of American rounders and chocolate bars respectively, Peter Fonda, Matthew Broderick imagine a world without Ferris Beuller. Is THAT a world you would want to live in? Peter Fonda, Bruce Willis, Wil Wheaton, Christian Slater, Mickey Rourke, Keanu Reeves, Luke Perry, Lisa Kudrow, Nicole Kidman, Robert Plant out of the Led Zeppelin, H.G. Wells, Leonardo da Vinci or M.C. Escher (from out of the Blazing Squad???).
So we're all, like... sinister and you're all "adroit", and stuff?? Oppressive pig!
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config 26 Jan 2008 12:03
3/12
To this day ginger haired people (of which I am one) get the piss taken out of them, even on prime time TV.
Learn to deal.
:)
Learn to deal.
:)
DoctorDee 26 Jan 2008 12:29
4/12
config wrote:
To this day ginger haired people (of which I am one)
I thought you were more of a strawberry blond these days.
config wrote:
get the piss taken out of them, even on prime time TV.
I pity the ginner leftie!
PreciousRoi 26 Jan 2008 12:38
5/12
Ooh, the left-handed, red-headed stepchild...I know at least two of them, probably three...
"Beat him like a red-headed stepchild" was a popular phrase I still use to this day...despite knowing several.
What about us poor brunettes? Many of us tormented by the media's depiction of blondes as superior, so many of our women with such self-hatred that they bleach and attempt to "pass". We're an opressed semi-majority, I tells ya...
"Beat him like a red-headed stepchild" was a popular phrase I still use to this day...despite knowing several.
What about us poor brunettes? Many of us tormented by the media's depiction of blondes as superior, so many of our women with such self-hatred that they bleach and attempt to "pass". We're an opressed semi-majority, I tells ya...
Maines Stassive 26 Jan 2008 13:01
6/12
DoctorDee wrote:
M.C. Esher (from out of the Blazing Squad???).
I'm pretty sure MC Esher was part of the Sunbury Massive.
PreciousRoi 26 Jan 2008 14:05
7/12
I shoot pool left-handed...when I have to...much easier than going behind the back. I actually think I'm almost better at simple shots left-handed, with my right I'm capable of too much nuance...left-handed I'm only capapble of, and hence less likely to screw up , nice straight shots...
...also, I went on wiki to look up massive, as I knew it was a UK specific hip-hop term...it came up with (my best guess) a conglomeration of posses, but under posse theres not good, hip-hop related definition, did a bit of work on it...but someone could do better
...also, I went on wiki to look up massive, as I knew it was a UK specific hip-hop term...it came up with (my best guess) a conglomeration of posses, but under posse theres not good, hip-hop related definition, did a bit of work on it...but someone could do better
DoctorDee 26 Jan 2008 14:48
8/12
PreciousRoi wrote:
...also, I went on wiki to look up massive, as I knew it was a UK specific hip-hop term...it came up with (my best guess) a conglomeration of posses, but under posse theres not good, hip-hop related definition
I tried to be funny by suggestion that MC Escher was one of the Blazing Squad, a 10-piece chav-pop-rap act from North East London, nine of whom bore an "MC" name: MC Spike- E, MC Reepa, MS Strider etc. MC Kenzie once famously admitted to having anal sex (with a girl!) on BBC's Never Mind the Buzzcocks.
The idea that he was one of the "Sunbury Massive" is far funnier. A Massive is sort of a loosely defined group of friends, who will hang and party with one another. They are usually not organised enough to be considered a gang, and their main focus is on turntablism and clubbing. Unless any of our cooler readers have a better definition.
The reference above alludes, I think, to the Staines Massive, who are featured in the Ali G In Da House movie, by Sacha Borat Cohen. Staines is a working class area on the west of London, near to Heathrow Airport. Although its demographic fits with the likelihood of it having a "Massive" its profound uncoolness does not, hence the humour of Ali G being one of the Staines Massive. The UK band Hard-Fi come from Staines, and their lyrics evoke it well. It's near enough to London to be caught up in its sprawl, but too far from it to be cool.
Sunbury is a much more middle class area to the south of it. Esher is a small, leavy suburban village near to Sunbury.
PreciousRoi 26 Jan 2008 16:23
9/12
You know anything about its etymology? Does it relate to the adjective, denoting size and mass, or the noun, referring to a solid front, as a monolith, that such a group should aspire to present?
DoctorDee 26 Jan 2008 18:28
10/12
PreciousRoi wrote:
You know anything about its etymology? Does it relate to the adjective, denoting size and mass, or the noun, referring to a solid front, as a monolith, that such a group should aspire to present?
It's not a subculture I have much to do with. It's all to do with rave culture, and clubbing. I'm from the skater/grunge sub-culture, with a bit of emo thrown in for good measure (though strictly speaking, I'm older than the average emo's dad - but I dig Thursday, Saves the Day, Get up Kids and the Promise Ring).
I had always assumed it was in some way related to the saying " 'Avin' it large!" Which is (I think) club kid speak taking it to the max:
"Yo, dude! I 'eard you was 'aving it large last night".
"Large, bud? Nah! we was 'aving it MASSIVE! It was well mental"
PreciousRoi 26 Jan 2008 19:20
11/12
Now that I fink about it, I seem to recall hearing it in connexion with Rastafarian/Jamaican slang...
"An' 'ow was dat party y'went ta?"
"It was irie massif, mon, 'dere was a trailor load uv gurls, 'dere, mon."
but that still doesn't link with it being used for a group of delinquents...
"An' 'ow was dat party y'went ta?"
"It was irie massif, mon, 'dere was a trailor load uv gurls, 'dere, mon."
but that still doesn't link with it being used for a group of delinquents...
LUPOS 30 Jan 2008 18:06
12/12
DoctorDee wrote:
many of us are forced to dabble in ambidextrosity. The human brain was simply not made to work that way
Actually there are a great many naturally ambidextrous people out there (my mother can right with both hands simultaneously in opposing directions as if theres a mirror in the center of the page, not terribly useful but it looks really cool). There is very little backing for the idea that we are pre-disposed to one side or the other. There are some who contend that we tend to impose handedness on children and they then develop more on the appropriate side of the brain and that it may well actually effect there personalities and not the other way around as is commonly thought. As I've recently taken to the study of martial arts (bout 4 months now) I have endeavored to favor my "bad hand" whenever possible in order to improve my use of it. I have to say that after only a few months of very mild training I have seen drastic improvements in my dexterity with it and am inclined to believe that we just reside in a one handed world.
Millions of martial artists the world over can't be wrong.
On a related note a saw an episode of NOVA the other day about a family some where in the middle east where in almost all of there children (5 of 7 i think) are quadrupeds (walk on their hands). It was initially suspected to be some sort of genetic disorder and they hoped to be able to use them to find some of the genes that cause humans to stand up right in the first place. After a lot of reserching however they could get no consistent result between them and realized it was a case of nurture of nature. Many baby's start walking that way (bear walk/crawling) shortly after they learn to crawl and then usually, with the aid of the parent learn to do it upright. They believe that for whatever reason they where just accepting of their children the way they where and never forced or encouraged them to walk upright as they assumed they would figure it out themselves. So after spending upwards of 30 years walking on their hands and feet they discovered htat with some physical therapy they could indeed learn to walk up right properly (albeit a bit awkwardly).
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