Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Review – Free Download on Steam
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box redefines the racing genre by immersing players in a sprawling open world filled with high-octane thrills and adrenaline-pumping challenges. Set in the fictional Paradise City, this game invites you to explore a vibrant landscape where the rules of the road are merely suggestions. Here, cars are not just means of transportation—they’re designed to be crashed, smashed, and pushed to their limits. The game offers a unique blend of exploration and competition, featuring hidden shortcuts, exhilarating super jumps, and a variety of events that keep the gameplay fresh and exciting.
When Burnout Paradise first hit consoles in January 2008, it quickly captivated gamers with its innovative approach. The Ultimate Box edition takes everything to the next level, bundling in several downloadable content packs that enhance the experience. With the inclusion of a day and night cycle, new vehicles, and online challenges, players can expect a wealth of content to keep them engaged.
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Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box Review
It’s not every day you come across an open world in a racing game, but that’s exactly what Eden Games has created in Test Drive Unlimited, and Criterion has created in Burnout Paradise. In the fictional world of Paradise City, cars are designed to be crashed, and there are shortcuts and super jumps to be discovered, as well as multiple paths to the finish line. Winning challenges earns you new cars and better licenses for more difficult tasks, which makes for an impressive offline experience and a completely different atmosphere for a game like this. While Paradise City has its share of problems inherent in any open world, the overall experience of the game provides great fun, especially for those PC players who have not yet tried the Burnout series.
Paradise first appeared on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles in January 2008, and since then the game has been expanded with several downloadable packs. All available content, including a day and night cycle, a collection of motorcycles and new online challenges, is included in the Ultimate Box version for PC.
There is also the option to restart events in the game, which avoids the long trip back to the starting point if you want to try again, unlike the original version, which makes the game much more convenient.
The city itself isn’t a bustling metropolis – you won’t see any pedestrians roaming the streets – but there is plenty of traffic and hidden shortcuts to explore during your free rides. While in your car, you can stop at traffic lights to activate a variety of events, such as stunt challenges, races, “marked character” (reach the finish line while other drivers try to destroy you) and “road rage” (destroy a certain number of cars in a limited time), as well as timed rounds. The cars you can unlock are divided into categories: speed, stunt and aggressive, each with its own characteristics and driving styles, which makes them really interesting to test.
Open World Racing Impressions of Paradise City
One of the franchise’s signature features is the boost system, which fills up as you drive risky. It works differently for the three types of cars: fast cars can only activate acceleration when the meter is full, aggressive cars can increase it by destroying opponents, and stunt cars earn more by performing tricks. All types of cars provide incredible acceleration, which is impressive in its speed. Criterion successfully conveys the feeling of speed as the environment rushes by, and over time you learn to control the car thanks to a sensitive and reliable system. When you lose control and crash into a barrier, an oncoming car or another racer, you are shown a slow-motion scene of detailed car destruction. While it can be frustrating to lose time, destroy a stunt combo or drop a position in the race, the spectacle of such accidents remains exciting.
- Acceleration system: different for the three car types.
- Speed sensation: excellent transmission of speed to the player.
- Open world: no structured routes in the races.
- Short routes: marked with yellow gates and blue markers.
- Free events: repeatable challenges without defined routes.
Paradise City lacks the sense of structured challenge that you would get if the events were isolated and not part of an open world. There is no set route during the races, which certainly has its advantages. If you spend time exploring, learning shortcuts or the best roads, you will have an easier time reaching the finish line. However, the city is quite dense, so it will take some time. Shortcuts are marked with flashing yellow gates, and jumps are marked with bright blue markers, but it will be difficult to get used to their location. Quite often, you will be racing, trying to use a shortcut that you think will allow you to get to the finish line faster, and as a result you will end up not where you planned, forcing you to restart the race.
But once you learn all the intricacies of the routes, it will not be such a big problem, so it is better to stick to the streets at the beginning. Navigation is made easier by several tutorials at the beginning of the game, as well as a mini-map, flashing turn indicators and road signs. The signs adapt to your location in the city, highlighting recommended routes to the finish, although there is a learning curve here as some turns appear so quickly that they can be easily missed, especially when accelerating. Once you get the hang of the city and its surroundings, relying on memory and intuition, navigation will become much easier.
With more free-form events like Stunt Races and Destruction Challenges, you can go pretty much anywhere without worrying about navigating. However, since these are open-ended challenges with no set route, this can get tiresome over time. The challenges themselves don’t change, only the points or destruction requirements increase, so in the case of Stunt Races you’re better off sticking to a combination of tricks in familiar areas that yield great results rather than experimenting. The starting positions for events change depending on which traffic light you start at, but overall each event plays out similarly, especially when you repeat previously completed challenges to level up your licenses.
Exploring Paradise City From Chase to Online Competition
When you’re not doing light challenges, there are a few other activities to do besides exploring. You can set a time record for each section of the road, and you can activate Showtime mode at any time. However, fans of the series may be disappointed to learn that this mode has replaced the structured, mysterious crash modes of previous games. Its randomness is nowhere near as satisfying. In Showtime mode, your car rolls across the asphalt, and you can rack up points and multipliers by crashing into other cars. While this mode can be entertaining as a short break, it won’t last long. One of the most interesting parts of Paradise is the occasional free-for-all car chases.
- Non-Challenge Activities: High Scores and Showtime Mode.
- Showtime Mode: Replaces the old Crash Modes, less satisfying.
- Car Chases: Destroying opponents earns their cars.
- Online Modes: Up to eight players, requires an EA account.
- Party Mode: Offline competition for eight players with short challenges.
After winning events, you can get notifications that other drivers are racing around. If you can destroy them, you get their car. This means that when you’re not participating in an event, there’s always a chance that one of these drivers will speed past you, sometimes even hitting you. They’re easy to spot, as they travel much faster than other traffic. If you want to claim their car, you’ll have to chase them down in a high-speed chase. Sometimes you can quickly hit them into a wall, but sometimes, especially if you’re in a less powerful car, the chase can drag on. Squeezing through traffic and obstacles is where you’ll find the game’s strengths. For those who’ve grown tired of offline competition, there are a number of online modes available, from custom races to specific team challenges. You’ll need to create an EA Account to join in.
These modes can accommodate up to eight players, and there are stat trackers to track your results. The boredom that can arise during a single-player game is not as felt in online games with live players, as the competition becomes much more difficult and the threat of being sidetracked is more real. Paradise City and its challenges seem to have been largely designed for this format of play, allowing the host to freely organize stunt missions, “tagged character” challenges, and many other events. If you get into a match with an experienced host, this promises to be a fun game. The problem arises with communication between players: VoIP support is available, but there is no text chat in the game, which is a strange omission from Criterion.
This is not as important during events, but it would be useful for communicating with others, especially the host, to determine the types of events or coordinate actions during team challenges, since not everyone has a headset. There’s also a Party Mode for offline play, which allows up to eight players to compete in short challenges, tallying up scores and determining a winner after rounds are complete. The idea is to pass the controller around after each round, though it’s not entirely clear how many PC players will try this, as it’s just an optional feature.
Burnout Paradise performance impressions on PC
Performance on our PC (GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB, 2.4GHz Quad CPU, 2GB RAM, Vista 32) was solid, which is key for a game that relies so heavily on the sense of speed. We maxed out all settings and played at 1920×1200, with the exception of SSAO, which significantly reduced frame rates. The game also supports multiple control schemes and multi-monitor support, which the documentation says requires Matrox TripleHead2Go hardware or enabling “Horizontal Span” for Nvidia users.
- Stable performance: Optimized for speed on PC.
- Visual effects: Good quality models, but not impressive graphics.
- Sound design: Clear car sounds that enhance the feeling of speed.
- Open world: Freedom to explore, but can be repetitive.
- Online communication: Adds competition and fun to the game.
Visually, the game isn’t as impressive as it could be, but the overall stability, daylight effects, and high-quality car models make the game a joy to behold. The sound design is even better, with crisp and sharp effects for each car, which make sounds reminiscent of fast-moving traffic: they whine, crackle, and rumble as they shift into higher gears. This enhances the already fantastic sense of speed and gives the world a more authentic feel. The ability to enjoy music ranging from Beethoven to Soundgarden’s Rusty Cage on the soundtrack is a nice bonus, although you can always turn the music off if you just want to listen to the exciting sounds of engines and the crackle of metal.
Burnout Paradise’s open world has its pros and cons. While you get the freedom you want in terms of challenges and exploration, some of the structured content can become repetitive after long sessions of play. There’s also a bit of a learning curve involved in learning how the different streets and routes connect. If you’re willing to put in the time to learn, there’s plenty of content to enjoy, including mastering the different car models, their controls, and acceleration systems.
Players looking for a new high-speed racing experience, or those who haven’t yet experienced the adrenaline rush that Criterion’s Burnout series delivers, will find this game a good choice. The open world benefits allow you to enjoy every race, and you can enjoy not only the speed, but also the atmosphere that this game creates. It is also important to note that communication with other players in online modes adds even more elements of competition and fun. Overall, Burnout Paradise is not just a racing game; it is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of speed, adrenaline and fun. Regardless of your playing style, you will be able to find something for yourself, from stunt races to chases and team challenges. This game deserves the attention of everyone who is looking for new experiences in the world of virtual racing.
System Requirements for Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box is an exciting racing game that requires certain system resources to provide an optimal experience. The game offers an open world in which players can explore, compete in races and perform stunts. To enjoy all the benefits, it is important to make sure that your system meets the minimum and recommended requirements.
The minimum requirements allow you to run the game, but for comfortable gameplay it is better to have a more powerful computer. The game supports Windows XP (SP2) and Windows Vista, so it is important to have one of these operating systems. The processor must be at least 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 Vista. For optimal performance, you need at least 1 GB of RAM (2 GB recommended) and a graphics card that supports DirectX 9.0c.
System Requirements
The recommended requirements will provide you with an even smoother and more enjoyable experience. They provide improved graphics performance and speed, which is critical for a game where speed is a key factor.
By meeting these requirements, you will be able to enjoy the vibrant and dynamic world of Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box, where speed and adrenaline always come first.
How to play Burnout Paradise The Ultimate Box for free on Steam via VpeSports
If you’re eager to dive into the thrilling world of Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box without spending any money, you’re in the right place! There are user-friendly methods to access the game for free through our platform. To get started, head over to our website and create an account. After logging in, explore the section dedicated to Shared Steam. Here, you’ll find a list of available games, including Burnout Paradise. Click on its review page, where you’ll discover a download button along with a detailed guide on how to access the game.
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Get ready to rev your engines and experience the exhilarating speed of Burnout Paradise!
Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Review
I love to play this game with my simulator rig.
A good racing game. But not the best