Tell me the first thing you think of when you hear the words “EA” and “racing”. Chances are if it’s not either “bargain bin”, “oh god please, don’t make it at night again” (patrons of Underground and Carbon will know what that’s about) or “Need for Speed”, you may well be thinking of the highly entertaining Burnout franchise. This also means that you’ve been waiting patiently for a new instalment since the 360’s port over of Revenge, some two or so years ago (even longer if you’re a PS3 player).

Well, wait no more, as Paradise has arrived on the current gen machines and the expectation has been pretty high, though also a little cautious. When it was mentioned that the playing area was going to be free roaming, many people started to think that “the Arts” had managed to get their hands on a great racer and turned it into Need for Speed: Burnout, or something. To some extent, when you set off driving it does have that kind of feel to it, but thankfully that’s where the similarities end.

In Paradise City, the 120 events on offer are scattered across the map, but there’s always a possibility that you may get distracted by something else, like the occasional billboard vault, super jump or crazy stunt opportunity. This may also give a sense of deja vu, mainly because games like those in the GTA series have been doing slo-mo jumps for years, but when all the little extras become intertwined with Burnout’s classic arcade feel things start to get a little interesting.

Franchise favourites like Road Rage and fast paced point-to-point races are here, as well as a few new modes and tweaks on older ideas. Crash has been modified and is now known as “Showtime”, which gives you the chance to cause pile ups so huge they’d shame the Blues Brothers. Burning Routes are much like the old test drive races where you had a chance of winning the car you drove if you could beat the burning lap, but this time the reward is a souped-up version of the car you’re already driving.

The Marked Man option is pretty much NFS’s Pursuit Mode in disguise, but a whole lot harder. Consider knocking over the Terminator’s pint and copping off with his bird. That’s still not tough enough. Up to four black mob-style cars will do their best to hunt you down and stop you from reaching your destination by any means necessary. You can’t outrun them or get rid of them, so they’re a bit like Z-list celebrities, only less obnoxious. Good driving and a cool head are needed to see yourself through these trials, as well as driving through the Auto Repair shops to fix your wheels. Stunt Run is pretty much Tony Hawk with horsepower, asking you to amass a specific amount of points within a set time limit. They’re probably the hardest of all the events within Paradise City, as in order to hit the higher targets near the end of the game, you’ll need to link some serious combos, which is about as tough as trying to get through daytime TV without flicking onto melodramatic talk show.

Graphically, the series has never looked better. The fictional cars look stunning in every detail, as does the city itself, with masses of shortcuts and smashable barriers to plough through (400 to be exact). The first time you see a crash in slow motion is a genuinely jaw dropping moment, although after the hundredth time you just want to get racing again and the break in action can become a small irritation.

EA has always suffered from a blinkered, aging-hipster notion that if you like racing cars at stupendously high speeds then you’re going to have more rock than Birmingham Jail’s hard labour camp blaring from your Blaupunkt. Indeed, perusing EA Trax on this occasion will no doubt give you a few ’08 stalwarts or throw up the occasional, bizarre curveball (anyone remember Adam and the Ants?). It’s a tad cheesy, possibly grating (nice pun there… impressed – Ed.).

To Burnout Paradise’ detriment, EA has yet to understand that not everyone below the age of 35 thinks the best album in the world (ever!) was the soundtrack to Wayne’s World. We don’t all gawp brainlessly at greasy haired, screaming, makeup wearing noise machines on MTV in lieu of sleeping, working or thinking. I’m not saying I expect Mozart, but it’s a simple matter for eBay’s cheapest MP3 player to offer a music selection based on genre – so expecting the same from a virtual car stereo (other than the available genres of rock, brain-dead rock, adolescent rock, tragically aging rock, moronic rock, maudlin rock, Blackpool rock and more bloody rock) isn’t asking much.

The engine noises are suitably varied for the different styles of car, from the throaty V8’s of the muscle cars, to the high pitched “dogs, run for cover” screaming of the continental speeders. These orchestral grunts help to get your adrenaline pumping in the big scale of things, but those who don’t fit EA’s tragically narrow music demographic (and have been forced to switch the radio off rather than down a bottle of vodka and smash the glass into their speakers) could find the shrill engine accompaniment to be the makings of a first class migraine, however.

Which brings us onto DJ A-chronic-a on Moron FM. This man will wind you up faster than a Krieger Pioneer Super Gator with his incessant patronising and irritating anecdotes. You just know you can’t switch him off even before you play the game, and sure enough, that is the case. Whatever hold this depressingly cheerful voice actor has over Criterion that keeps getting him work is unknown, but a simple option to shut the bugger up would turn the developers from enemies into heroes.

As well as the standard game, we also get an all new online mode that’s been woven seamlessly into Paradise City. All you need to do is invite a friend to join you and instead of going through menus and lobbies, he or she will join you on the roads to take part in many challenges and competitions. It’s just like a kiddie’s playground, only with loads of horsepower. There are some 300 in all, including best times, crashes and some co-op stuff thrown in for good measure. It also gives people another chance to dust down their Vision camera and use it to pose smugly, or shake their fist angrily, in front of their friends, depending on how good or bad they’re doing.

What we have here is a Jack of all trades. Criterion haven’t changed any of the basics that made the series so good in the first place and have stuck to what they know, throwing in some fresh ideas to keep everything moving along at a fair old lick.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not without its flaws. A retry option would have been really useful, especially when you’ve driven 4.5 miles of a 5 mile route and then realise you’re not going to make it and have to drive all the way back to try again, but you can forgive  the odd little mistake because it trades them off against some incredible features very well indeed.