[Criterion Games]

Best part? "Trophies will be retroactive, so, if you’ve achieved something today, the day the update arrives (not Cagney, we want to emphasise) that will be reflected in your Trophies," Phipps writes in the posts comments. Nice!

Trophies, Timed Challenges for Burnout Paradise [PlayStation.blog - thanks, Tw3nty0ne!]

I finally bought the game this weekend ($40 at Walmart) and I must say I am not disappointed with my purchase. A whole lot of game for a rather nice price, and with August bringing the addition of motorcycles to the game it only gets better.

Criterion Games Announces Date for Cagney Software Update [The Criterion Games Blog]

360 Bogart is online now! [Criterion]

Burnout Paradise Ultra Widescreen PC Footage [Criterion Games]

The game, the first ever in the franchise to come to the PC, is being "rebuilt specifically for the PC" and will include expanded multiplayer, enhanced online feature and new "community driven content."

Criterion will be holding a press conference on their website later today to talk more details about the upcoming game. Hit up the jump for the full release.

Criterion Games

EA’s Burnout Paradise Revs Its Engines on the PC
REDWOOD CITY, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Criterion Games, a studio of Electronic Arts, (NASDAQ:ERTS) today announced that the award-winning driving game Burnout™ Paradise is being rebuilt specifically for the PC. Burnout Paradise will be the first Burnout title ever made for the PC, customized with expanded multiplayer, enhanced online features, and community driven content.

Originally released for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and Xbox 360™ videogame and entertainment system, Burnout Paradise has won over 55 awards worldwide. Burnout Paradise delivers an open-world environment built for intense speed, excitement and exploration and sets a new standard in the seamless transition from single-player offline to social online gameplay.

Burnout Paradise for the PC will combine all the open world racing, intense speed and action of the original game with new gameplay for the PC version.

Gamers can tune into a live webcast at http://criteriongames.com at 8:00 AM PST on Friday, May 9 for more details on this announcement. For more information about Burnout Paradise, please visit http://criteriongames.com or the EA press website at http://info.ea.com.

Burnout Paradise for the PC has not been rated by the ESRB or PEGI.

In addition, the Davis update will bring night time driving to the game—adding a bit of realism to freely racing around public streets without getting constantly arrested and frisked. Here's the full Criterion announcement:

Criterion Games announces motorbikes in Burnout Paradise!

This is the biggest news in Burnout history!

For the first time, we'll let you loose in a Burnout game on motorbikes!

And because we're dedicated to bringing you game-changing new Burnout Paradise content all year, bikes will feature their own game modes, challenges and even some new locations tailored to fit their unique performance and handing characteristics.

The other big news relating to bikes is that we've introduced night-time to Burnout Paradise for the first time.

We wanted to clear the traffic out a little to give you the chance to learn how to ride in safety, and we've always wanted to cruise the streets of Paradise City with incredible night-time visuals.

We expect to ship bikes as part of our Davis software update, due for release sometime in August.

As always, we're bringing you the hot news from Criterion Games as it happens. Hit the site soon for more news and the first high-definition bike footage.

Criterion Games announces custom soundtracks for Burnout Paradise on PlayStation 3 [The Criterion Games Blog]

Three new FreeBurn game modes unveiled for the Cagney Update!!! [The Criterion Games Blog]

Straight from Criterion, here's the stuff that's on offer:

The Top 10 problems reported by you have been fixed, these are:

* PS3 game can crash when a player is taken down and the player that has performed the Takedown leaves the game.
* The game indefinitely displays "Connecting to Paradise City Servers" if it's having problems communicating with the rebroadcast server.
* Disconnecting the controller before a race begins can mean that race timings can be manipulated with players who didn't cross the line first being awarded the win.
* Repeatedly joining and leaving a game with 8 players can cause the game to hang.
* Hammering the A (360) or X (PS3) after unlocking a car can cause the game to hang.
* East Crawford and Watt St achievements cannot be achieved if the player goes online and sets road rules before attempting them.
* Audio distortion when using 5.1 / DTS and looking back at the car.
* Enhanced 360 streaming performance stops instances where the game seems to pause for a second or so.
* Total time driven in player stats would stick at 145 hours.
* VoIP connection problems with 8 player games. This is now live on the Paradise City servers.

The update also adds the following game experience enhancements:

* We fixed Head-on Takedowns as these seemed generally unfair and unrealistic. Unfair low speed Takedowns have now been eradicated.
* Increase online race timer timeout so players have a greater chance of finishing the race.
* Fix drifting bug when drifting and boosting. There wasn't any real control on the brake so players would grind around the walls of the corners. Giving you all better control of the car.
* Stabbing the boost has too much of a jerky behaviour in the car handling, when in Stunt Run.
* Surround sound fix - Centre speaker was 4dB louder, ruining the mix. The speech has now been positioned correctly.
* Increase the # of search results returned for online games.
* Increase Picture Paradise timer so it doesn't kick in so quickly.
* Post event ticker commentary is not now displayed for disconnected players.
* Show player the number of Complete Challenges easily by listing X/50 in the Challenges menu.

Other high priority issues that have been fixed:

* Instances where Barrel rolls were not registering correctly in Stunt Run.
* Takedowns online were not counting towards the Total Takedowns.
* Some instances where Revenge Rivalries desync & don't get fixed until players are updated online.
* Some instance where the Host couldn't change the game access if the game was created through an invite.
* Online challenge issues where the challenge couldn't be completed if it was started at the exact time that a player left the game.
* Incorrect rivalry updates when European players played against English or Japanese players. Online connection issues.
* Rich presence on 360 didn't change correctly when there is a change in the game parameters.
* Instances where Friends were not being displayed on the mini map.
* Some online race start points face the players in the wrong direction.

So does this means that all new Burnout Paradise maps will come free so that all users can partake in the multiplayer? No, but it's a good sign that Criterion may focus their paid DLC on individual items like cars rather than collectively shared add-ons like maps. We'll see how this unfolds, but so far, so good.

GT Concept,s new livery OH YEH ITS SWEET [Criterion via Shacknews][image]

We opened a dialogue with Microsoft to attempt to discover a possible solution and all possible technical options were investigated to retain the seamless freedom of Burnout without requiring the HDD. Unfortunately a solution was not available and we decided together that it would be in the best interests of the Burnout community if we require the HDD for full online play.

XBOX 360 HDD/ONLINE STATEMENT [Criterion via N4G]

Ward assures concerned fans that "Burnout has always and will always be about evolution. We're quite open about this, and we've said it many times and in many interviews so it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone really. Just because we do something in one game never means it may or will come back in another." The full, surprisingly frank rant is worth the read.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND SOME DEMO QUESTIONS ANSWERED... [Criterion Games - thanks, Aaron!]

The real world is a pain in the ass. It involves traffic, cleaning gutters and lines at the grocery store. And often gaming is effective because it streamlines the experience of life, like a movie, just giving us the best parts, the frosty tops of cupcakes without the dry bottoms. That's why when I loaded Burnout Paradise and found a large, beautiful world just waiting for my destructive domination, I was let down.

It's ungrateful, I know. A team of hardworking programmers and artists from Criterion have assembled a game that (like the upcoming Midnight Club) allows you to explore an open world GTA-style and start street races almost seamlessly from a traffic light.

But such a world brings its burdens that agitate my lazy bastard side. Such a world requires stopping for gas, finding repair shops and hitting up a drive-thru for a new paint job. And such a world also requires one of my personal pet peeves, maps, to navigate to and during races.

It's not that Burnout Paradise is bad or that the idea is inherently unsuited for the genre, it's just that I don't mind clean menu systems that can bring me to a race quicker than driving there. And I'm not sure that an open world is really making a game like Burnout any better (or something like Tony Hawk or even Jak 3). I don't always mind clean cut levels so much because they allow me to take the good bites first and last. What about you?

Starting Thursday, gamers will be able to grab the Burnout Paradise demo on the Playstation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace, but why wait until then to start studying what you'll be playing with?

Criterion Games posted a "glance" at their demo map today, showing off a wedge of Paradise City and some of the routes taken along the coastline including Motor City, Big Surf Beach and Ocean View. The demo will also include three events.

I can't wait to see the plethora of "O faces" that flood the net once the game, and it's auto snapshot ability, hits stores on Jan. 22.

GRAB A SLICE OF PARADISE ON THE 13TH OF DECEMBER [Criterion Games]

Countdown to demo play [via shacknews]

These days, everyone's all about the Unreal Engine 3. It seems we can't go a week without a new publisher licensing Epic Games' tech. Sega, Capcom, Activision, and Square-Enix are all on board. Even Electronic Arts is a licensee—odd because it owns Renderware. So what happened to dear old Renderware? EA's William "Bing" Gordon told Gamasutra:

Renderware didn't get the next-gen parts that we needed. We actually underestimated Epic early on. They told us, "We're going to do this, this, and this," and we thought, "Eh, it's going to be kind of hard." We also overestimated our team, then we looked up three months, six months, and nine months later and said, "Whoops, we underestimated Epic. Again. And overestimated our own team."

Epic delivers! For more from Bing Gordon, don't miss the rest of the interview. He answers questions on the potential purchase of Ubisoft, why EA passed on the Dreamcast, and taking a risk on Spore. Michael McWhertor

Bing There, Done That: EA's CCO Talks... Everything [Gamasutra]

Finally Some Burnout 5 Media! [Operation Burnout]

BLACK 2 will find it's way to next-gen hardware according to comments made by Criterion's Alex Ward to Eurogamer. Game hasn't shipped yet and Criterion's thinking sequel. At least they're optimistic.

Criterion and EA's run and gun Black is gold. The shooter, heading to Xbox and PlayStation 2 at the end of the month, has some of the slickest visuals imagineable on the PS2 and Xbox. With the Criterion team (Burnout makers) behind the FPS, I actually believe the hype when they say "taking it to the limit" rather than simply writing it off as PR tongues flapping.

Mike at A+E Interactive stirs up more interest in EA's first person shooter, Black by posting a few notes about the game after wading through the PS2 demo. From everything we've seen so far, it looks like the hype is warranted.

Black — the most eagerly anticipated first-person shooter since? [Mercury News]

GameSpot reports that EA's Black is being prepped to ship on Feb. 28 of 2006 for Xbox and PS2. The game takes the over-the-top explosions and destruction of the Burnout games and puts it in an FPS. Everything I've seen looks pretty impressive, but how well the game holds up beyond "breaking stuff" remains to be seen. At least now I know I'll be seeing it in February.

EA Planning Black February [GameSpot]

IGN has an exclusive video of Criterion's upcoming FPS Black. The clip is little more than gun porn, but God, it's hot. Environments blow apart like action movie sets, the guns spit bullet shells everywhere and it sounds like a warzone.

But, Killzone looked great in video clips, too. It remains to be seen if Black will have the AI, mission design and playability it takes to make a great FPS.