Big Surf Island gives gamers a new way to experience Burnout Paradise. This stunt driven island will have you catching huge air, hitting multiple barrel rolls and doing things you’ve never been able to do before. The new content offers a brand new island set across from Paradise City and includes 15 new events, 12 new Roads to Rule, 75 Island Smashes, 45 Island Billboards to crash through, 15 Island Mega Jumps to hit, 10 new Freeburn Challegnes, 12 new night and day Bike Road Rules and 9 brand new cars. Having put tons of hours into Big Surf Island I can safely say this is the best DLC given to us from Criterion Games and is definitely worth the $12.99 price tag.

When you first enter Big Surf Island you’ll be greeted with a brand new car, the Carson Dust Storm. The island being heavy on the stunts, this lightweight dune buggy quickly hits top speeds and allows you to easily perform stunts. To get to Big Surf Island you’ll have to cross the Paradise Keys Bridge, which was previously blocked. The first Mega Jump is also located here and you’ll soon find out why they call it a Mega Jump. This  jump shoots you high in the air over the middle of the bridge, higher than you’ve ever gone before in a Burnout car.

Once at the new island you’ll immediately notice the differences between this area and Paradise City. Other than the size and tropical setting, the biggest difference is Big Surf Island is all about going vertical. You can enter into parking garages head to the roof and jump onto any near by buildings. Almost every building you can drive in you’ll be able to go to a second or third level. You can also go off road and cut across the entire map on dirt. As Criterion puts it “if you can see it, you can drive it” and that is exactly the case with this new DLC.

Big Surf Island is also about exploring areas and doing things you’ve never done before. Everything from the events to the online challenges and the billboards will challenge you to re-think how you play the game. Once again gamers will have to work on a new license; however this time it’s a little easier than your Paradise City license. To get 100% on the license you will have to hit all jumps, smash through all the gates and billboards, and rule all the roads on Big Surf Island. The events are pretty much the same from Paradise City with some changes. Races are now lap based and you have to hit check points along the way. The checkpoints are much easier to see this time around and going around the island multiple times is a lot of fun. It brings you back to how Burnout used to be before becoming an open world game.

The new event added with the DLC is called Island Tour. This is a timed event that will bring you through many shortcuts and jumps throughout the island that you might not have known was there. The only problem is there are only two island tour events; seeing as these are the best events I only wish they added more of them. Completing all events won’t take you long but finding billboards, smash gates and Mega Jumps will. The billboards in this game are scattered all over rooftops and in places where you will have to hit long jumps to get to. Half of the fun of getting the billboards is finding the way to get to them. Finding Mega Jumps and the gates are just as exciting but playing online will help you find them. The new online challenges in the game are centered around showing you the heights of Big Surf Island. You’ll be asked to it Mega Jumps, drive to the edge of the highest building and catch air all at the same time by going off the Crash TV Ski Jump, the biggest jump in the game. Online multiplayer has always been a huge draw for Burnout fans and the new island should give any fan countless of hours of entertainment.

As good as Big Surf Island is there are still some issues but very small ones. The Freeburn Challenges are great but there are only 10 of them and can be done in less than an hour. Though you can complete all of them with only two players, finding someone to complete them with is tough. Even after all the updates and changes to the game, the one area that still needs to be looked at is their matchmaking system. Being able to get online quickly at any point in the game is nice but there needs to be a way to find a group that is doing only Big Surf Island challenges or other modes like Cops and Robbers. I spent more time looking for someone to complete the challenges with than actually playing the challenges themselves. It would have also been nice to be able to create custom races, which were disabled for the DLC.

Overall I am very pleased with the new content. Upon achieving the 100% on your license you will unlock the awesome Toy versions of the Legendary Cars, just one more reason why Big Surf Island is so good. If you are worried that you will be confined to just the island, don’t. Once you select Big Surf Island from the menu, you can still head over to Paradise City and continue with your Paradise City License if you choose to do so. Criterion really went all this time and it definitely shows. The new island offers up many hours of entertainment that any Burnout fan needs to experience. If you have been put off by having to pay for new content after going a year with Criterion giving it to us for free, now is the time to open up your wallets. With new trophies/achievements to get, new cars to own and 9+ hours of gameplay, $12.99 or 1000 Microsoft points is a bargain.

Doin It RIGHT: -    Beautiful tropical environment. - New stunt cars and Toy Legendary Cars are awesome. - Island Tour is a great new event. - Catch air like you’ve never been able to do before. - Can complete Freeburn Challenges with any number of players. - Over 9 hours of extra Burnout action. - Lap based Races take you back to old school Burnout.	Doin It RONG: - Only 10 Freeburn Challenges included. - Desperately needs new matchmaking system. - Can’t create custom online races. - Would have liked a couple of more stunt cars. - Sometimes jumps can bring you out of the map.
FINAL SCORE: 9 / 10

Note: Check out Crash TV video podcast to get some hints on how to unlock the new cars and how to find some hidden jumps and billboards.

       

Tags: Big Surf Island, Burnout Paradise, DLC, PS3, Reviews

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 8:37 pm and is filed under DLC, PlayStation 3, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.