Burnout Paradise PS3 Update

Yet another exciting week here at Criterion Games. We’ve finally unleashed our first major content update for Burnout Paradise: Codename Cagney on the PLAYSTATION 3.

This was the much-hyped FREE downloadable pack for Burnout Paradise, bringing fans a live blog page and game event calendar, 70 new Freeburn Challenges, 3 online game modes (Marked Man, Stunt Run and Road Rage), plus a stack of changes and improvements to the game, including support for 1080i displays and improved image-quality on standard def TVs.

So, how did it go?

Well our game telemetry showed more players in Paradise City than at any time in the last 4 months – a huge spike in traffic! If you joined us, thanks for playing; if you haven’t come back to Burnout yet, there’s never been a better time. Cagney was a big hit, but we’re not through yet!

We ran our first calendar events – Drift Kings and Prize Cars – our first forays into the world of broadcast gameplay. We’re building the ability to change Burnout Paradise gameplay on-the-fly. Check the in-game calendar for upcoming events. Our goal is to make Burnout Paradise different every time you play.

It’s pretty exciting stuff but also pretty experimental! Our first tests were successful, but we tracked how people were playing (through game telemetry), and we’ve overhauled the schedule for the next few weeks, based on what we saw. Three events-per-week just felt like way too much for most players, so we’re going to rein things in a little and keep all our new cars unlocked, so nobody misses out on the action.

We started this off by introducing the stunning Nakamura Rai-jin Turbo to all players last week. You’ll need all your skills to control Paradise City’s newest and fastest car.

And the Hunter Olympus was made available on Thursday. As you can see from the shots, this car is a beast. It’ll breeze through traffic and makes a great choice in Marked Man. No boost. No acceleration, no problem!

We’ll look forward to joining you soon in Paradise City and bringing the Playstation Blog some hot news on our next update – we’re just putting the finishing touches on Burnout’s first motorcycles!