The countdown timer has finally hit 0 which means that the game we've all been waiting for is finally here... well in North America anyway. Everyone in Europe will have to wait a few more day until Friday 25th.

Now would be quite a nice time to reflect on the coverage which Operation Burnout has provided for the last 1 and a half years for Burnout Paradise

Burnout 5 Announced

On 29th of August 2006 Burnout Paradise was officially announced by EA games under the working title of Burnout 5. The press release didn't reveal too much information about the game, just that it was in development, by Criterion, for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. Paradise City was named and there were a few hints dropped about the open world gameplay to come. The press release stated that Paradise city would be the "ultimate seamless racing battleground". The press release also mentioned a 2007 release date and the ability to "literally rip their cars in half". Unfortunately neither of these where made true.
View the announcement post @ Operation Burnout

September Magazine Details

A few weeks after the initial announcement of Burnout 5, Official US Playstation Magazine gave us a first glimpse into the visual aspect of Burnout Paradise. The front cover (pictured below) gave us a slight insight to kind of destruction to expect.

Check out the original news post and the follow up post with some additional information about the article.

Quite Time

Over a month went by without a single word about the new Burnout. A small image (right) in late November slightly broke the silence. It was another small bit of targeted artwork found on Criterion's website. The period of no new news about Burnout 5 was covered up by the rumors and then the announcement of Burnout Dominator.

Old Concept Art and Advertisements

December really did prove the calm before the storm when in early January 2007 Operation Burnout helped bring to the attention of the world a load of Burnout 5 media which was quietly published on Criterion games website. The images were from Septembers issue of OPM. After publishing the images on Operation Burnout, a lot of people started to take notice and the news soon spread right across the internet.
The images were, in hindsight, were not very accurate to the final game. We see a larger map, trains and a car being torn in half. Old concept art indeed.
Unfortunately, EA were very unhappy with Operation Burnout for publishing these images as it allowed them to be distributed out of context. The images were removed but after much contemplation the images were re-hosted after realizing that it was EA who allowed the images to be distributed out of context by uploading the unprotected PDF in the first place. No one really took notice about the whole incident anyway as they were too busy staring at the first true "next-gen" Burnout.
Later that month a couple of adverts appeared promoting the PRE-ORDERING or Burnout 5, just under a year before it was finally released.

Dominator Delays Information

Probably due to the upcoming release of Burnout Dominator, it was another LONG wait from January to April until we saw some more information on Burnout 5. Once again the images which were published, this time on GamePro.com, were unwanted by EA and they soon got the article and the images pulled. Fans need not worry though because a handful of eager-eyed, quick fingered people managed to get hold of the pictures before they were removed and made quick work of distribution them around the internet.
Operation Burnout posted the images which compared to what Burnout Paradise looks like now, look very cartoon-y.

Burnout 5 is Paradise

On April 30th, 2007 EA announced that Burnout 5 has gone though a name change and will now be known as "Burnout Paradise" (After the city you see!). With the name change came the first official screenshots from the game, a logo and pack art (which would later change) and a trailer showing off the jaw-dropping graphics of the game.
The announcement was huge news, but nowhere near as big as the unveiling of Operation Burnout Version 5. This was actually extremely good timing to coincide with the other, much less interesting and less important, news about a change of name, or something like that.

More in May

There were a few more screenshots published shortly after the big announcement at the end of April. We also got details about some retails cars, most notably the GameStop car which looked stunning in front of the setting of Palm Bay Heights and in the horizon the epic mountains of Silver Lake.

Burnout Paradise was starting to take shape into what it is today. A release date was still ambiguous with only a "Winter" release date announced.

E3 Build Up

E3, the worlds best and most exciting games convention was in sight for most of us and it was obvious that we would see Burnout Paradise there in, hopefully, it's full glory. In light of this we expected June to be a quiet month with not a lot of new information. Oh, how wrong we were!
The Burnout Paradise logo and pack art which was put up on EA's press site on the 18th of June got us all thinking that the Paradise branding was set in stone. I don't think anyone expected a re-branding later on.
Just over a week later Issue 7 of PlayStation Official Magazine UK was published and it delivered a load of new details about the game, including the size, 70km², the introduction of a handbrake, Playstation Eye support, Petrol Stations, Auto-repair stations, Paint Shops, Junkyards, 8 players online, freeburn, road rules and finally crash mode anywhere at anytime. This was probably the biggest dose of information we ever had. If that wasn't enough then we also saw 5 new screenshots.

Pre-Alpha

E3 came early on the 8th of July thanks to IGN and their pre-e3 preview. It was Criterion Games though who finally gave us all what we were waiting for: footage of a car being totaled.

We all got to see actual in-game footage from Burnout Paradise and it looked far beyond anything anyone could have imagined. Just seeing the Hunter barrel rolling off the top of a cliff made us all want the summer weather to disappear in place for the cold winter and Burnout Paradise's release. All this before E3 had even started. A majority of the news from E3 which was posted here at Operation Burnout were interviews with the developers, including Alex Ward, Craig Sullivan, more Alex Ward and Matt Webster. There was also a host of other videos and details about Burnout Paradise from the event too.

Post-E3 Blues

Over a month of no news followed E3, which wasn't too bad as most of us were recovering from the overload of cool videos we had.
On the 5th of November, the drought of Burnout Paradise was finally over when 1UP rained some new screenshots and another interview with Alex Ward.

Both IGN and GameSpot managed to play Paradise a bit more and revealed a score of new details and screens, including the 200+ freeburn challenges and the fact that everything will be available to unlock right at the beginning of the game, allowing for players to progress through the game the way they want.
More videos and a very revealing interview with Alex Ward unveils some more new information. Burnout Paradise doesn't seem too far away at this point but there was still not definitive release date.
Despite this EA's quest to get people to pre-order the game continued with a trailer adverting the Steel Wheels car you can unlock ONLY if you pre-order from selected retailers. The final bit of news for September was the press release announcing DualShock 3 support for Burnout Paradise. Perfect, now all we need is for the DualShock 3 controller to be released!

Car Week

October saw the start of car week. IGN lined up a new car every day, along with a trailer and some screenshots of each car. On day 1 we saw the Montgomery Hawker, followed by the Carson GT Concept, Hunter Manhattan, Carson Annihilator and finally the Watson R-Turbo Roadster.
The biggest announcement of the month came in the form of a release date, 22nd of January 2008, just 87 days to go. However, we wouldn't have to wait that long to play the game as a demo was also announce to be released for download sometime in December.
We ended the month of October in a case of deja vu with the Burnout Paradise logo and pack art. It took a little bit of getting used to but eventually we learned to love it.

The Demo

Other than a bunch of new screens, November was dead. December on the other hand was buzzing with the Burnout Paradise demo just around the corner. Criterion put up a familiar looking countdown timer on their site indicating a demo release date of the 13th of December. GameSpot and IGN, as always, got a sneak preview of the demo and kindly wrote all about it for us. After what felt like a life time, the demo was finally uploaded onto the Xbox live marketplace and then the Playstation Network a few hours later. It was later revealed in a Crash FM podcast that the demo recieved well over half a million downloads. The popularity of the demo could be seen when playing online. I mean really, an online mode in a demo? What not just give us all a free copy of the whole game. Whilst we all had our heads stuck into the world of Paradise city, trying to achieve you first 360o flat spin and double barrel roll, the soundtrack was announce.
Who'd have guessed it that Guns 'n Roses, Paradise City song would feature in the game!
Finally, December saw the Paradise City map for the first time. It wasn't quite the size of the original concept map, but nevertheless, it was big.

Home Straight in '08

Initially the demo was good online. You and three other players could battle it out for top spot or team up to complete some freeburn challenges. However, in January, Criterion decided that this wasn;t good enough so DOUBLED the number of players allowed in a single game to 8. The demo had a fresh lease of life, with new challenges added too.
We caught a preview of the Official Prima guide which revealed a few more tid-bits of information. A TV ad and a bunch of reviews finished off the pre-release coverage of Burnout Paradise from Operation Burnout.

Not to worry because this isn't the last you'll hear from us about Burnout Paradise. The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed a few new links on the left. There will be lots more to come too, including a FULL guide which will completely dissect every aspect of the game. We'll bring you every smash, every jump and every event. Whilst you're waiting for that then check out the forums and join in the discussion.

Enjoy Burnout Paradise and stay tuned to Operation Burnout for coverage of... Burnout 6? Lets hope so.