SGC member Drattigan’s coughed up a little bit of news regarding Burnout Paradise’s next big update. You heard it here first! Remember, getting stuff on the front page is as easy as finding something good to write about in your own forums blog and writing it up. If it’s funny or just damn good, it could end up on the front page. Nice work Drattigan and remember guys, you wont find this exclusive news anywhere else!

Following the recent release, and phenomenal success, of Burnout Paradise’s Codename Cagney, Criterion Games were delighted to announce at E3 earlier this week of their latest installment in the ‘Year of Paradise’ update collection, codenamed Réalité (pronounced ‘Reality’..it’s French or something). What has currently shocked fans of the game is the fact that the update is set for release a month before August’s Davis update, the apparent next chapter in Paradise City’s downloadable line-up. So, as the seconds to launch tick and tock by, we anxiously ask ourselves, what do we have in store for us next week?

Find out after the jump.

Since the game’s launch in January, literally hundreds of gamers have fired their complaints and praise across the Internet to the company. But with Criterion, this feedback hasn’t gone by ignored, left to rot in the back of an inbox; oh no, they’ve been taking note.

Top of this list has been to increase the game’s “realism”, and because of this, Codename Réalité will focus on how to make the game play more realistically. As much as the game suspends our disbelief most of the time (the game sporting crashes that genuinely look like crashes, etc), there are still elements of the Burnout experience that lack a much needed sense of realism and really make us remember that we are, in fact, playing a game. The developer has reviewed the instances pointed out by consumers and has made these amendments:

“The Garden of Eden”: To start, Criterion have finally come to their senses and understood how void their game is of organic substance. Drum roll please as our friends at Burnout play God by removing Paradise City’s “ghost town” label and throw the existence of human life into the game. Not only should we expect to see drivers and pedestrians come next week, but also a digital recreation of the famed DJ Atomika himself. This could perhaps become Paradise’s biggest selling point, if only to run the smarmy DJ down at 150mph and reduce him to a splattered mess.

Gear changing: Changes have been made to how each vehicle functions. With a nod to reality, cars will now come equipped with a gear box. As speed and the revs of the engine increase, the necessity to change gear does too. If the player refuses to change gear yet carries on accelerating, the car overrevs and explodes. To change gear, the player must either move the SIXAXIS (for the PLAYSTATION®3 version) or right analog stick toward the appropriate gear, the same as you would in an actual car. It has already been officially stated by Criterion Games that “the gear box will be added to every vehicle” and that “there will be no automatic cars.”

Paradise City Police Department: Police stations will now exist in each corner of the map. In Burnout Paradise, the police are not your friends. Any form of anti-social or life-threatening behavior will not be tolerated, so if you’re caught Traffic Checking, speeding or participating in any event, you’ll immediately be placed into a high-speed pursuit, the only escape from which is to hide in one of the various Parking Lots situated around the city. Criterion Games would like to point out that “the Paradise City Police Department can only be deactivated when Freeburning online, and even then for 5 minutes at a time”.

Burnout Paradise’s Réalité Update details continue over the page!

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