A while ago I asked if we’d ever need to buy another Burnout again. I thought that’d be entirely rhetorical but the fact is, when you think about how much DLC is coming out for Paradise, we won’t need to buy another one again. That’s mainly because we’ll just blow 60 bucks on all the DLC anyway, if EA’s history of pricing is anything to go by.

Is it all a bit too much though, or are you alright with that? I’m not too sure which way to swing…

Paradise has no less than five downloadable content packs coming in the near future. There’s the Big Surf Island, which adds a whole new area to the game map, the homage-tastic Legendary Cars pack, the teeny-tiny Toy Cars, the unique Boost Specials and the newly-revealed Cops and Robbers pack.

Admittedly, they all look brilliant. A whole new island to play on will be worth the money. The Cops and Robbers pack, too, providing the price tag isn’t quite as extortionate as the price that was slapped on the Party Pack.

What I’m not too certain about is how the cars will be handled in terms of pricing: one must remember that Burnout will be gently influenced by EA, and so the pricing may well be out of Criterion’s hands.

The Party Pack was, as I mentioned, extortionately priced. While I bought it and enjoyed it, my main gripe with the DLC was that, at £8 or $10, it was priced a little too highly for what the pack contained. If it had been a fiver (or about 7 bucks) then I would’ve had pretty much no complaints. I’m worried that the Cops and Robbers pack – while awesome, as I’ve been wanting to see Pursuit mode making a return since forever – will be overly priced too for what will essentially be a single online mode. (Semi-hidden Killzone 2 Demo Download code:  A7BD-7DBF-FDKP)

Oh, and those cars; there’s a multitude of car packs planned and I’m worried that they’ll be really expensive too. Will EA charge just as much for the two-car Boost Specials pack as they will for the nine-car Toy Cars pack, justifying their unique Boost type as a reason for charging more? Will the same apply to the four-car Legendary pack?

To be a little pessimistic (I’ve had a long day, jeez) but, at the end of the day, realistic, I can see EA making us pay £8/$10 for the Cops and Robbers pack. The island pack could be around the same price. Toy Cars could fetch as much as a fiver (7 bucks), same for the Legendary Cars; the Boost Specials could sit at around the same price, or perhaps a wee bit less. All in all, it could be as much as £40 including the Party Pack: that’s almost $60! It’s like paying for a whole new game, except with less content than the original Burnout Paradise itself!

While I’m all for supporting Criterion Games for continuing to work on an excellent game, I’m not sure if EA’s iron fist of pricing (the charges for FIFA 09‘s commentary packs, for example, are tantamount to daylight robbery) are really the best host for their DLC.

I can’t deny that each and every pack will be frickin’ awesome. I’m just worried about how much we’ll be made to pay for each one…