Criterion's claim to fame lies in the Burnout series. Black aside, the team has always been motivated to bring gamers a fetishistic view of car crashes without delving into creepy Cronenberg territory. Whether it was Burnout 3's accessible gameplay or Revenge's twists on multiplayer, the developer enjoys accentuating the best and worst of humanity's competitive streaks in its games. Burnout Paradise, the first game built for HD systems, aims to rise above its predecessors in that regard. You'll be able to judge for yourself next week as the demo releases in the PlayStation Store and Xbox Live Marketplace; GameSpy have installed it and put in a fair amount of time on it.
