Burnout Paradise on January 22, Demo in December

To me, Burnout is the best driving game on the market today, because unless you’re an absolute car freak, Forza and Gran Turismo try appealing to something that just isn’t there. Burnout, on the other hand is just made of one thing: win. And by win I of course mean insanely fun gameplay, and when you’re talking about a videogame that’s really the only thing that matters. The next installment in the series seems to be shaping up to be the best one yet, and we’ve now got an official release date; Burnout Paradise will be released on January 22.

That’s still a few months away, so to make up for that, EA Criterion will be releasing a demo of the game on both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Marketplace sometime in December.

Alex Ward, Creative Director at EA Criterion says, “The Burnout series has always been about reinvention.  Burnout Paradise does exactly that.  This is the definitive Burnout experience because Paradise removes all restrictions, breaks all the rules and puts the control in your hands.  We’re taking risks with Paradise but we believe that every iteration of Burnout stands on its own and we feel Paradise is the best Burnout yet.”

You might be able to tell I’m pretty excited about Paradise. And you’d be right. And to boot, this may be the first Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 game that I’d much, much rather have on PS3. (Stranglehold wasn’t it, even with its Hard Boiled-ness, because it was delayed for so long.)