Burnout Paradise Bike Pack Preview
It's free. 'Nuff said.
Date: Tuesday, September 02, 2008
Author: Toni Dimayuga

  • Game: Burnout Paradise Bike Pack
  • Platform: PlayStation 3 Network
  • Publisher: EA
  • Developer: Criterion Games
  • Genre: Crash and burn racing
  • Release Date: September 2008
  • Why You Should Care: 70 Freeburn challenges; day/night gameplay; trophies; weather effects; online bike racing; It’s FREE!
  • Why You Should Worry: Only four bikes available

  • Since the announcement of Burnout Paradise’s Bike Pack downloadable content, racing fans have been eagerly waiting to race (and wreck) their shiny new motorcycles down the sleek streets of Paradise City. At a recent EA press event, I got to try a hands-on demo of this exciting addition to the game.

    The Bike Pack is stuffed to the gills with material, promising roughly 9-10 hours of additional gameplay. You start with two bikes (a FV1100 street bike and a Nakamura Firehawk V4 racing bike) and can unlock two more. I was hoping that there would be more bikes available, but for all we know they may be added in a future DLC package. Naturally the bikes are customizable; you can even designate a male or female rider.

    There are 70 challenges, which are called Freeburn Challenges. Compete with up to seven other people online on various challenges such as 15 near-misses. Or pop a wheelie and see how long you can maintain it. Half of these are timed challenges which are broken up in replayable sections, allowing you to continually improve your time. And don’t think that you’ll be racing down the same tired old streets you’ve seen from behind the driver’s seat in Burnout Paradise. A new map is included in the Bike Pack.

    There are some new environmental features in the Bike Pack that’ll influence your game. The player controlled day/night cycle will affect the number of cars on the road. Although there are fewer cars at night to potentially crash into, it’s also harder to see. Weather effects such as fog will have a slight effect on your riding ability. For example, it’ll be harder to see on a foggy or very sunny day.

    Oh, and did I mention that all of this content is absolutely free?

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