A month ago, EA released the Burnout Paradise demo on to the world. After having listen to the boys on 1UPYours rave about the game, I had the highest of expectations. Needless to say I was pretty let down when I actually played it. How could Criterion ruin the awesome Burnout formula? What was I going to do now for my racing fix? I watched as Alex Ward (head of Criterion) and various game journalist tried to convince us that the game lives up to the hype, you just need to play the full version. I was of course uneasy.

Fast forward to a couple of days ago. I decide to give Burnout a shot and picked up the full version. After playing it for the past two nights I must say that my impressions from the demo were completely wrong. This game is the next evolution of Burnout. I spent the first night playing through some of the single player and had a great time. Then last night I played some multiplayer with Nimolta and another friend. It was the most fun I’ve had in an online session ever. I can’t wait till more of my friends pick it up so we can increase the mayhem.

So while demos are a great thing and have a place in this world, they shouldn’t be your end all decision on games. You might just miss a Burnout Paradise.