Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely love Burnout. I’m not very good at traditional racing games, but there’s something about the unrealistic world that Criterion created that fits perfectly for me. Burnout Paradise isn’t perfect by any means, as there are some things that could use tweaking, and other things that could be changed completely. I’ve heard the many complaints out there about Paradise, but for what it is, it’s an awesome game.

Well, for 360 owners, it just got a whole lot better. Cagney hit live yesterday, and while some of the changes to the game aren’t very dramatic, they’re all pretty awesome.

Take the jump to see what I have to say about it.

Before I move on to the events, I’d like to point out that many of the smaller changes impressed me more than anything else. The game now automatically turns on Road Rules as you’re driving down the road, meaning you no longer have to hit a button to activate it. I’ve already beaten quite a few of my friends’ times while just driving through the city, and when you’re in online freeburn, it just adds an extra layer of competition to the game.

Yamster already covered many of the different changes Cagney brings to the game, when the update was released for the Playstation 3 about a month ago, so I’m going to try and focus on the new freeburn modes. Cagney added 3 new modes to the game: Road Rage, Marked Man, and Stunt Run, as well as plenty of new challenges for players to compete in.

Road Rage - Probably the weakest of the three new events, Road Rage automatically throws the players in a match into two separate teams: Red and Blue. While on paper it looks pretty good, it turns out to be less fun when the players are spread out across Paradise City. The Blue team has to race through a number of check points while the Red team is trying to stop them. I realize that this is how it was done in Burnout Revenge, but why not have the real Road Rage? Start players at point ‘A’ and say “15 Takedowns to Win. Go!”? Even in Revenge, I wasn’t a fan of the racing style of Road Rage, and it’s the same way in Paradise.

Stunt Run - If you’ve played Stunt Run in the single player portion of Paradise, then you know what to expect. When the event starts, players are given a few seconds to get into position, and then the scoring begins. You have two minutes to rack up the most points possible, and like in the single player, you can continue on after the time limit ends as long as you’re holding a combo. For Stunt Run fans, this is definitely a competitive event and loads of fun, especially when you might get a bulls eye on you for being good at Stunt Run while the player at the bottom of the list decides he doesn’t want you to land a jump. Good times.

Marked Man - This is definitely the most fun of the new game modes, and is really more akin to tag than the Marked Man from the single player. In the single player, you start at point A and have to race to point B without being taken out. In freeburn, one player is designated as the marked man and loses his radar and all his boost. He has a certain amount of time to try and avoid the rest of the players who not only have their radar, but have infinite boost. The best part about this is that the game knows when the designated marked man is extremely far away from the group, and gives the players more time to hunt him down. The event chooses each player as the mark once, then the player with the most points wins.

I could go on about this update all day long, but Yamster has already covered most of it. If you want to know my original impressions and advice for Burnout Paradise, you can check out my survival guide. I think I may be writing another very soon to add in the couple of updates that have happened since writing the original.

That’s all I’ve got for now. If you’re on the 360 version of Burnout Paradise, look out for me in the streets of Paradise City. Cagney has gotten me extremely excited to get back in the driver’s seat.

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