In a fall season filled with 10- after 10-scoring games, we’re willing to bet you didn’t even remember that a new Burnout was coming. Were we right? But yes, the true Xbox 360 debut of gaming’s most purely fun racing series is gassing up for an early ’08 launch, and we admit we forgot about it, too…until we got to play it.

With this new Burnout — rebuilt from scratch for next-gen systems — British developer Criterion is putting its newfound horsepower to use by building a massive game world you’re free to cruise around, stopping at intersections anytime to trigger events. As we took the controller in hand and began bummin’ around the city, we were initially put off by the seeming abundance of standard, vanilla racing events at every other corner.

That is, until we started rolling up to lights and queuing everything else.

Road Rage, of course, returns. You have an unlimited amount of time to patrol town looking for foes to run off the asphalt. The event ends only when you’ve wrecked three times. (You’re allowed one visit to one of the repair shops scattered around town.) This part is every bit as awesome as ever.

We also got a shot at two enjoyable new modes: Marked Man and Stunt Run. The former is a survival mode where your goal is to reach the opposite end of the city while being chased by a relentless pack of aggressive pursuers. The latter, meanwhile, offers events that challenge you to hit a specific point total by driving fast, drifting, doing barrel rolls and spinouts, and generally just driving recklessly.

Unfortunately, the new Crash mode — now called Showtime — wasn’t yet ready for prime time, and of course it’s what we’re most interested in. As Criterion told us, it’s no longer about causing maximum property damage in a closed set-piece. Rather, it’s about slamming into something and keeping your car barreling through the air for as long as possible. On paper, this sounds like a classic case of fixing what isn’t broke, but we’ll reserve judgment until we get behind the wheel ourselves.

In the meantime, Paradise should, if nothing else, put your mind at ease. Enjoy and digest this fall’s bumper crop of awesomeness. And then, in the early part of the New Year, a new Burnout will be there to rip your bumper clean off, packing a walloping 88 unlockable cars and 120 total events. Tasty.

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SIDEBAR: Catching Up With Criterion

Paradise is a major left turn for the series. So we asked Producer Nick Channon for some details about the changes.

US: You guys have gone on record as saying that Paradise is developed first and foremost on PS3 — one of the few multiplatform games these days to go that route. We don’t mind as long as the game is great, but do the two versions differ at all?

NICK: You won’t be disappointed: the game is outstanding on 360. Fundamentally, [the two versions] are identical. The most important thing for us was that we make a truly next-gen experience. It was all about throwing everything away — even the car handling — and building a game specifically for the PS3 and 360.

US: How big is Paradise City? How long does it take to drive from one end to the other?

NICK: It’s huge...about 30 square kilometers. In fact, we still get members of the team saying, “Wow, I haven’t seen that bit before.”

US: What inspired you guys to take the game into an open-world format? Are you Grand Theft Auto fans? Or was it the nextgen technology? Or something else entirely?

NICK: We’ve always wanted to create an open city designed specifically for Burnout. However, until now, technological limitations have always meant that for us to deliver amazing visuals and gameplay at 60 frames per second, we’ve had to constrain ourselves to a track. Also, to us, “open-world” means giving the user complete freedom to play the game their way. Many open-world games still have a linear story driving you through the game. In Paradise, everything is open from the start: all the events are available, and you can start with any one you want.

US: How about the traffic issue? Some fans prefer Burnout 3’s “deadly traffic,” while others enjoy “checking” traffic, à la Burnout Revenge. What’s Criterion’s stance here, and how are you handling traffic for Paradise?

NICK: As with all the Burnout games, we’ve created a realistic traffic system throughout the world. How you “interact” with it is very much dependant on the car you’re driving. The lighter cars will be taken out when they hit traffic, but the big cars can rule the road, though they’re clearly not as fast or well suited to doing stunts as the lighter ones.