Widescreen Gaming Forum

Securom = online activation + phone call to EA after 3 installs, right ?

Ok, I've reached the end of my allowed demo time. Here's how it works :

-in the demo you can enter a couple races of your choice, unlock three car models (no bikes), then it's over. Buy the game for more. Fine.
-same thing for the billboards you smash or super jumps you clear, they're not counted in your savegame, you must buy the game for your progression to be saved. Sounds ok to me.
-you can then roam around freely, explore the city and your "psycho riceboy" side... until you reach the 30-minute time limit.
-when your demo time's over, you can always run the game and drive across Paradise City, but only for a couple minutes. Then you're given the choice to quit or buy the game. And since you always start at the same point (junkyard), party's over - unless you enjoy driving around the same block over and over again. :? No more fun : uninstall or buy. How nice.

Although the free-roaming, pick-your-race architecture of the game is great, a time-limited demo feels a bit like a gun pointed toward your face. EA and I don't seem to put the same meaning in the words "try before you buy". On the other hand you can upgrade the demo to the full game at any time (with an internet connection and a credit card of course), which means the demo is the full game, in a WYSIWYG way so to speak. Too bad the game's not cheaper in its download-n-play form than the boxed version, but that's nothing new.

As for the game itself -- I found it almost more fun to make a mistake and crash in slomo than to go anywhere or win races :D The "crash test" part is much better than any FlatOut or Crashday, the damage model is so detailed it feels a bit like a real arcadey version of Grid actually ! I'd love to see how a bike gets trashed...

Securom = online activation + phone call to EA after 3 installs, right ?

I'd love to see how a bike gets trashed...

Or just use a fake key+crack which works just fine, No more online activation.

But yes thats what it is. They have included the key extraction tool with it which is nice, but still blarg.

Don't get your hopes up :( the bikes don't really get wrecked much at all.

I played Burnout II it was a blast. This should be sweet...just its more fun in a lan...tehe.

Can't you use a controller with the game? That shouldn't be so different from the console versions, should it?

True, but a decent set of keyboard controls would still be welcome...

I shut it off after a few minutes. The cut-scenes and the showing-off of the dynamic crash sequences drove me insane.

I just got this game and have been playing it for the last couple of hours. Well, actually less then that because it's freaking weird as far as the hard to figure menu goes. They actually don't even show you in the menu how to get to the options screen. You have to hit Esc, then F2 twice. I have to admit though, I'm amazed this game only takes up 3.2GB of space (without the EA downloader).

Since it's patched to the "Ultimate Box" version, it has the Party Pack (shows in menu) and supposedly the Restart option they added, but that's yet another one of those figure it out if you can things. If anyone knows how to employ the restart feature on the PC version, please explain.

Graphics are pretty decent and it's very well optimized, esp considering it's a fairly expansive map with lots of drivable areas and destroyable objects. The gameplay is pretty addictive, but of course very arcade in nature. It can be hard at times to navigate during high speed races unless you bring up the map so as not to miss turns.

I thought the stunt events would be the hardest, esp after watching video reviews indicating that it can be harder than expected to pull off certain stunts (flat spins, barrel rolls). Oddly enough the stunt events have been the easiest. Even if I waste time driving around not able to find ramps at first, I still wind up with around 3 times the required points to beat the event even with fairly mediocre stunts.

I'm sure the appeal will increase once I learn the map well and the knack of the harder stunts. I can't help but think their having made this one force the player to navigate more was to keep it fresh for those whom already played Burnout before. It would no doubt feel more repetitive and less rewarding if you could enter events via the menu, but some are more into the raw carnage then driving around getting to know the nuances of the city I suppose, so they catered to all those complaining about no restart and offered it in a patch.

(EDITED)
Just found out on the EA Burnout Paradise forum you have to hit Numberpad 6 during or right after an event to bring up the Restart option onscreen, then Numberpad 2 to scroll down when necessary. Why they choose to over complicate the menu I don't know.

Kinda weird about the time-limited demo thing, as the 360 version didn't have that. You could drive for as long as you want and I don't believe it ended even when you did the two 'missions' included.

I shut it off after a few minutes. The cut-scenes and the showing-off of the dynamic crash sequences drove me insane.

There's only cutscenes at the start really, and you can turn off the slo-mo crashes in the menu.

I think the game is awesome, and extremely well optimized... I can even run SSA. Great stuff.

There are so many ways to crash while exploring the streets that I found the slomo cams pretty entertaining, but it's good to know you can disable them.

More than cut scenes per se (the intro is pure PITA) it's the annoyingly slow pace of over-complicated things that got on my nerves, especially vehicle selection at the junkyard. Such a waste of time before you can finally hit 'confirm' and go back to the streets !!! On the contrary, the instant "drive-thru" repairs are a very nice touch. Game designers : Jekyll & Hyde ? :?
The control scheme is weird, but after a couple minutes I didn't feel the need to rebind it all. (Partly because I wished to avoid anything menu-related at all costs, of course.)

Anyway I still had fun with that game, and I think I'll buy it. Definitely not for 50€ though.

Edit: I can confirm that once the 30-minute demo time is over, you're forced to quit/buy after 3 minutes of play :shock:

One thing that was hard for me to get used to is the cars steer opposite of how they do in most arcade racers. You have to brake to steer tight enough, and I don't mean handbrake. I find the handbrake has too much spin effect and the cars under steer without a touch of regular brake here and there.

In a lot of arcade racers they make the cars steer more sluggishly when braking, rather than the other way around. I have the steering sensitivity set at max, just to be able to swerve away from traffic well enough. It's definitely a fun game though. I ended tonight's session with a couple showtime runs with the Carson Inferno van.

Kinda reminds me of outrun style steering.