Burnout™ Paradise Remastered

I've spent more evenings than I care to admit just cruising Paradise City looking for billboard jumps, and coming back to this remaster reminded me exactly why. This is the complete package: every car, every mode, Big Surf Island, Cops and Robbers, Burnout Bikes, Legendary Cars, the Cagney community modes. All of it, day one, no DLC paywall. For PC players especially, this is actually the first time the full-fat experience has been available on the platform, because the older Ultimate Box release never included Big Surf Island or the Cops and Robbers pack. That alone makes it the definitive way to play on PC. So what kind of game is this, for anyone who missed it the first time around? It's an open-world arcade racer built around speed, destruction, and momentum. There's no lap-based circuit structure here. Events are point-to-point, starting anywhere in Paradise City and ending somewhere else, and it's on you to learn the streets well enough to find the fastest route. The city spans five districts plus Big Surf Island off the coast, and it rewards exploration: 705 smashable billboards, jumps, and shortcuts are scattered throughout, and the road signs function as your GPS rather than an on-screen arrow. You memorise this city; it doesn't hold your hand. The event types range from straight races and Burning Routes (time trials tied to individual cars that unlock upgraded versions) to Stunt Run, where you chain drifts, jumps, and boosts for combos, Marked Man, where everyone hunts you down, and Road Rage, where takedowns are the whole point. Online via Freeburn, you can drop into a session mid-drive with no lobby screen, which still feels clever, and between standard online races and co-op Freeburn Challenges there are over 500 community objectives to chip through. Hardware note for the racing crowd: this is not a wheel-and-pedal game. The remaster actually dropped the wheel support that the original PC version had, which is a genuine step backwards for sim-adjacent players. Gamepad is the intended input and it works well, but if you were planning to dust off your wheel rig, leave it in the cupboard. On the casual-friendly side, the game is approachable from the first minute: no licensing tests, no tuning menus, no setup sheets. You pick a car, you drive, and the boost system rewards aggression rather than clean lines. That accessibility is a genuine strength. On the couch local multiplayer side, though, I have to be straight with you: there is no split-screen. The Party Mode lets up to eight players share one controller in a pass-the-pad tournament of challenges, which is a reasonable Saturday night option, but four people racing simultaneously on the same screen is not happening here. Online co-op for up to eight players is where the social magic lives. The caveats worth knowing: Steam user reviews sit at mixed (around 61 percent positive), and a portion of that friction is technical. Some players have reported launch issues, and the requirement to run an EA account through the Origin client adds friction that a 2008 game probably should not need in 2025. The visuals are sharper and cleaner at 4K than the old Ultimate Box, with retextured roads and buildings and a crisp minimap, but the gap is noticeable rather than dramatic. The game's age shows in small ways, including no fast travel (you drive to every event start) and a difficulty curve so gentle it borders on non-existent. If you are coming from Forza Horizon or a modern racer expecting GPS routing and hundreds of licensed cars, expect a culture shock. If you are coming in search of pure arcade momentum and the kind of crash physics that still makes your face contort, this city delivers.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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