Burnout Paradise brings some really nice tweaks to the car racing/crashing franchise. My favorite by far was the detailed car deformation. The game now really tracks every little ding, dent and collision that happens to your car and doesn't make the car undriveable until you loose an axel. Believe me, that makes for some pretty trashy rides... in a good way.

The game seems to have a slicker feel to it than past iterations. Both the acceleration and breaking seemed a tad more responsive, but it didn't take long to get used to it. I didn't get a chance to check out the game on the PS3, which supports the SIXAXIS' motion controls, so make sure to check back with us after we get more hands on time later this week.

This time around the game also plays in free-roaming mode. Instead of having to drop to a menu to start a race you just have to pull up to one of the game's 163 traffic lights to get going.

Both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game will also support the consoles' video cameras. The game automatically snaps a photo of the grimace you make when you crash and transmits it to your opponent when playing online. Nice.

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