History VideoGame / BurnoutParadise

** Speaking of expies, the Carson GT Concept, a muscle car based on the Chevrolet Camaro, comes with [[{{Film/Transformers}} Bee Yellow]] as its default colour.

''Burnout Paradise'' is an arcade-styled RacingGame developed by Creator/CriterionGames and published by Creator/ElectronicArts. Released for the UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 and UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} in January 2008 and later for UsefulNotes/MicrosoftWindows on 5 February 2009, it is the fifth and most recent main title (and seventh title overall) in Criterion's ''VideoGame/{{Burnout}}'' series.

A remastered version of the game, ''Burnout Paradise Remastered'', was released for UsefulNotes/XboxOne and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 [[https://www.polygon.com/2018/2/20/17032438/burnout-paradise-remastered-release-date-trailer-ps4-xbox-one-pc on 16 March 2018]] [[MilestoneCelebration to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the original]]. Handled by Stellar Entertainment Software in cooperation with Criterion, it supports 4K resolution at 60 FPS on Xbox One X and [=PS4=] Pro,[[note]]native 4K on Xbox One X, checkerboard 4K on [=PS4=] Pro[[/note]] with native 1080p at 60 FPS for the standard models. ''Remastered'' contains all DLC included except for the unlock-all-in-game-content-immediately Time Savers Pack. EA Access subscribers on Xbox One got to play the game a week early on 9 March for up to ten hours. A Windows PC version of ''Remastered'' was released on Origin on 21 August 2018,[[note]]UsefulNotes/{{Steam}} followed suit on 4 June 2020[[/note]] which means that PC gamers finally get to drive on Big Surf Island ''officially'' (no mods required) and play Cops and Robbers. A port of ''Remastered'' for the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch was released on 19 June 2020, supporting 1080p resolution docked and 720p resolution handheld, but still running at 60 FPS like every other release.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/GunsNRoses ♫ Take me down to the Paradise City]]\\
[[Music/AppetiteForDestruction Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty ♫]]'']]

* LettingTheAirOutOfBand: Blowing the [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard General Lee]] horn of the Hunter Calvary Bootlegger and its toy counterpart and then crashing it while the horn still plays, it dies.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted2012'' is essentially ''Burnout Paradise 2''. Fittingly, it was made by Criterion.
** As a nod to this, the ''Remastered'' version does away with officially sponsored billboards and replaces them with fictional sponsors. One of them is for the "Hughes International Airport", the name of the airport added to Fairhaven in the ''Terminal Velocity'' DLC for ''Most Wanted''.

* ObviousBeta: The original release of ''Paradise''. ''The Ultimate Box'' version was supposed to be the intended product and includes bikes, fog, an in-game clock, and several features they couldn't finish on time. That said, the unpatched/outdated version plays fine with no game-breaking bugs, making ''The Ultimate Box'' a "Director's Cut" if anything. The devs were also lauded for including those gameplay changes free-of-charge for existing players in an early era of horse armor microtransactions.

* FakeBalance: The three boost types. They're supposed to be useful in different situations, but in practice the Stunt boost is the best of the bunch since it's just so much easier to refill it compared to the other two. There's actually a real argument to be made that it's better to go with Stunt cars than Speed cars in races.

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/GunsNRoses "Take me down to the Paradise City]][softreturn][[Music/AppetiteForDestruction Where the grass is green and the girls are pretty"]]'']]

** A significant amount of the cars are taken from every previous Burnout game, including the non-Criterion ''Burnout Dominator''. An older example includes the Hunter Manhattan, which first appeared in Burnout 2 as the Classic.

* UpToEleven: In ''Burnout Paradise'', the SFX and music volume goes to eleven.

* SpiritualSuccessor: ''VideoGame/NeedForSpeed: [[VideoGame/NeedForSpeedMostWanted Most Wanted]]'' 2012 is essentially ''Burnout Paradise 2''. Fittingly, it was made by Criterion.

** It's possible to get all of the [[CollectionSidequest smash gates, billboards and super jumps]] with the first car you get. Getting every single one of each awards a heavily souped-up, carbon fibre version of one of the game's cars. Have fun.
** The 2018 remaster comes with all the original's DLC and its cars for free, with the exception being all cars unlocked through the Big Surf Island license; you're still gonna have to finish that. Otherwise, there's no restrictions or unlocks required for the DLC, so you can quickly trade in the starting junker and its low stats for something that can easily plow through the early parts of the game.

** Speed boost cars are overall faster, but usually more fragile than the other cars. The fastest standard cars in the game, the Krieger [[http://burnout.wikia.com/wiki/Krieger_%C3%9Cberschall_8 Überschall 8]] and [[http://burnout.wikia.com/wiki/Krieger_Racing_WTR Racing WTR]] (and their variants), are also the weakest cars in the game.

* [[HaveANiceDeath Have a Nice Crash]]: The wrecks look good of course, though in the original console versions, the game drops to thirty frames per second in crashes since the game adds extra details of bits of pieces falling off the vehicles. Criterion made sure these wrecks were given the cinematic treatment so they could get away with this in the game. Thankfully, the PC and ''Remastered'' versions just go all out with sixty frames per second.
* InUniverseGameClock: The game defaults to an in-game day lasting 24 real time minutes (i.e. one real life second equals one in-game minute). However, you can actually change the passage of time in the Under the Hood menu. Other available settings include a 48 minute day,[[note]]two real life seconds equals one in-game minute[[/note]] a 2 hour day,[[note]]five real life seconds equals one in-game minute[[/note]] a 24 hour day,[[note]]a real life minute equals an in-game minute, but this setting does not necessarily match up with the time of day where you are[[/note]] a time of day matching the time of the console you're playing on,[[note]]i.e. "true" real time[[/note]] and a setting that lets you make it [[EndlessDaytime constantly sunrise (6:00 a.m.), midday (12:00 p.m. or noon), sunset (8:00 p.m.)]], [[AlwaysNight or midnight (12:00 a.m. or... midnight)]]. Since certain challenges are only available at certain times of day, this can also be {{exploited|Trope}} to make it whatever time of day you need.

* LastLousyPoint: The Smash Gates, Billboards and Super Jumps can become this, as your only hints are a section in the menu telling you how many you've found in each of the 5 areas. DJ Atomika sometimes discusses it as well:
-->'''DJ Atomika:''' Is it just me or are there other drivers out there with ''one'' Smash Gate left to find? Just one - just ''one'', little row of yellow gates? Focus, Atomika... it'll be worth it!
* LethalJokeCharacter: All of the Toy Cars easily qualify, but the Toy Hunter Takedown 4x4 takes the cake. It can plow through traffic with reckless abandon and not even hitting a bus head on is enough to total it. The only downside is that it shares its full size version's lack of agility.

** The [[http://burnout.wikia.com/wiki/Hunter_Olympus Hunter Olympus]], an unholy hybrid of a Range Rover and a Hummer, is the slowest, heaviest, and strongest vehicle in the entire game. It's one of the two vehicles that can only be used online and has no boost but can toss traffic cars like ants and take down other players just by punting them. The Big Surf Island DLC introduces the [[http://burnout.wikia.com/wiki/Hunter_Olympus_Governor Olympus Governor]], the same vehicle but with Stunt boost and you can use it offline. Road Rage and Marked Man events are absolute cakewalks with this thing.

* MultiplayerDifficultySpike: The enemy racers in offline rarely ever use shortcuts, and can typically be taken down with a light tap to their side. Online Freeburn requires more effort for these sorts of things.

%%* [[OptionalTrafficLaws No Traffic Laws]]: Even the cops (in Cops and Robbers mode) don't care what happens to the traffic!

* ObviousBeta: The original release of ''Paradise''. ''The Ultimate Box'' version was supposed to be the intended product, and includes bikes, fog, an in-game clock, and several features they couldn't finish on time. That said, the unpatched/outdated version plays fine with no game-breaking bugs, making ''The Ultimate Box'' a "Director's Cut" if anything. The devs were also lauded for including those gameplay changes free-of-charge for existing players in an era of horse-armor early microtransactions.

* OnlyAFleshWound: Your car can crash, flip, have the roof crushed, dented, bruised and otherwise wrecked, but your car can ''still'' keep on revving. These are called Driveaways.

* ProductPlacement: Lots of ads in ''Paradise'': Gilette, nVidia, Vizio, Diesel... The last one[[note]]Unless you're referring to [[Creator/VinDiesel this guy]][[/note]] is quite unfortunate: as [[Series/TopGear Clarkson]] would say, "Diesel" is not a word petrolheads want to hear. This game even holds distinction for being the first video game with political in-game advertising, with ads calling for votes for UsefulNotes/BarackObama on Paradise City's billboards in some earlier Xbox 360 versions. The ''Remastered'' version does away with this and only includes billboards for fictional sponsors (such as in-game cars like the Hawker Mech or Hunter Citizen, fictional products, or developers Criterion and Stellar Entertainment).

->--'''Jules de Jongh''' in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpYFZh5Ddj4 the FMV intro]] to ''Burnout Paradise''

->--'''DJ Atomika''' (Music/MarkHildreth) at the beginning of ''Burnout Paradise'' in-game immediately following the FMV.

* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: Downplayed in Marked Man events. Your hunters are diving customized Hunter Civilian cars which can keep up with almost anything you drive, apart from top-end Speed cars with the boost held down. However, the Hunter Civilian you can drive really is that fast if you lean on its Aggression-type boost as well. The cheating comes from the "customized" part, which means they handle MUCH better than the player one, and the game will shamelessly respawn them close to you to keep the pressure on all route - [[RubberBandAI you aren't allowed to build up a lead and coast]].