Burnout Paradise, by Criterion Studios and Electronic Arts

We respect Gran Turismo. We've enjoyed Ridge Racer, Midnight Club and Need For Speed. But when it comes to racing franchises, there's only one that's ever seeped into our dreams, and that's Burnout. If Burnout 3: Takedown was, as one writer aptly described it, "Tekken with cars," then based on our ongoing experiences with near-final code, Burnout Paradise would have to be the Grand Theft Auto of driving, so carefully has Criterion Studios built the game to become the first game to truly get open world racing right. Need to repair your car or get a new paint job? Just drive through the appropriate building. Looking to add a new car to your collection? Spot it on the open road, hunt it down, take it out, then swing by a junkyard to pick it up. Ready to jump into a racing or stunt event? Pull up to an intersection and hit both the gas and the brake to get your competition on. This is truly open world racing done right, running at a blistering 60 frames per second and spit polished within an inch of its life to boot.

As excited as we are about the game, we suspect that the Burnout Paradise will nevertheless be somewhat polarizing. Traditionalists may find it difficult to to accept the go-anywhere, do-anything freedom which has replaced the event-by-event structure that typifies the majority of racing games; it certainly took us a good half-hour or so before we could finally let go of what had been and open ourselves up to what could be. Nowhere is this more true than Paradise's Showtime Mode, which has taken the place of the much-loved Crash Mode from previous Burnouts. Rather than being a separate mode as it had been in the past, Criterion has integrated it right into the open world of Paradise City; at any time, you just hit R1 + L1 on the PS3 (for Xbox 360, it's the two bumpers) to trigger Showtime, where as long as you have boost, you can detonate your vehicle and propel it into other cars. Each car you hit adds a dollar value to your damage total and boost to your meter, while buses serve as damage multipliers. Your mission is to keep the chain of collisions going for as long as you possibly can.

The end result can best be described as Katamari Damacy, but filtered through the explosive fantasies of Michael Bay, with your car rolling through the streets leaving nothing but scorched asphalt and twisted metal in its wake. Some will find the simple pleasures of Showtime too mindless to be genuinely entertaining. To them, we say embrace the Zen of destruction. Intersections, on-ramps, hairpin turns--all present either target-rich environments packed with unsuspecting motorists or barren stretches of road that will bring your chain reaction, uh, crashing to a halt. Your mileage may vary, but for us, it has yet to grow old. Those of you in possession of an Xbox 360 or a Playstation 3, download the newly available demo and let us know what you think.