Today was the day that the Burnout Paradise demo hit the Playsation Network and the Xbox Live Marketplace. With many hopes for the second next-gen Burnout game in the series, many users rushed to download and try the game. Criterion Games has been releasing information out to the public slowly piece by piece with the previous release of a gameplay trailer, a map of the track available on the demo, and many screenshots. We slowly found out that Paradise City was going to be an open world that the players would be able to roam around then heard about other features such as new tracks, cars, etc. With the release of the demo, all the hype behind the new content in the game has been done just right. Read more after the break.

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The graphics are amazing and truly do shine. The cars look great, the city looks beautiful, and you can easily distinguish between objects. The car crashing physics have been improved as well. When you drive directly into a wall, you can see the front part of your car being crushed whereas the back isn't affected as much unlike in Burnout Revenge where the car would just explode. The car handling is very responsive and although there is an arcade-style touch to it, you shouldn't expect any less from an arcade-style racer.

One of the things that was being questioned was the online play. With a jump to an open world, many people were wondering how the online play would turn out. Criterion Games has handled this very smoothely. Its very easy to get online by just using the d-pad menu's to get you online. You automatically get put into a free roam world with other players where you compete for game goals, such as "Best Drift", "Highest Jump", "Longest Distance on a Jump", etc. If you want to race with anyone, you go up to the correct part of the map, and you hit the correct combination of buttons to get a race started. Countless hours of fun should be had online.

Overall, Burnout Paradise should be a game to look forward to. The demo was short, but it is a demo afterall, so you can't expect much. For those of you who haven't checked it out yet, head over to the Playstation Network or the Xbox Live Marketplace and download the demo to give it a shot. Criterion Games has successfully moved the Burnout franchise to a next-gen style title utilizing more of the features from the newer systems.

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