Burnout 5 will be based in a sandbox-type world called Paradise City. Wiping out the menu driven interface, Burnout 5 promises crash junctions and racing through out the city. Records will now be kept on player's drivers licenses.

"Burnout 5 is a complete reinvention of the series, built from the ground up for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360," said Alex Ward, director of game design at Criterion Games. "To create truly next-generation gameplay, we needed to create a truly next-generation game, from top to bottom."

The physics will have a lot more parts to work with as well. Whereas cars in Burnout Revenge were composed of 12 different parts, cars in Burnout 5 will now have 80 different pieces that can get blown off in a collision.

But merely copying reality isn't what Criterion wants to do. "We see a lot of teams trying for 'real physics'--which we translate into 'boring physics,'" Young continues. "But where we differ from them is that they try [to] get it accurate, whereas we're not trying to get it accurate--we're trying to get it believable and spectacular."

That's why now you'll see much more spectacular crashes. Roofs can be shorn off, and you'll be able to see cars get torn completely in half. Young beams, "A takedown's going to be so much more rewarding-- if you take a guy down and he hits a cross-traffic truck and blows into pieces, it's such a bigger moment than when it hits a car and bounces off."

Ward adds: "Real physics don't make for great gameplay all the time. If we want to blow the car up, we'll blow the car up. Like when they blew up the Death Star--there's no fire in space."

burnout doesn't use licensed cars cause most car companies don't like to see their cars blown to bits. they think the general public will think their cars are weak if they do that!

yes, free roam means you can go anywhere....like needforspeed undergound2 and above..

Have always been a big fan of the Burnout series. Nice to know they're back - like an old friend. Somehow I miss having the races in diff parts of the world as in previous releases e.g. Europe (snow, mountains), Asia (dense traffic, beach-front), US (city, highways). Hope the sandbox Paradise City offers a varied mix of environment.

Why huss_wuss and wcloh's most recent game shows Burnout Revenge? Dusted off the oldies for a quickie is it? Hahaha .....

Are those cars available in real life? I can't seem to recognize them.
But I must say, this game looks awesome!    It goes into my X360 wishlist. 

What does it mean free roaming? Does that mean we can go where ever we want??

IIRC this time the dev go back to their roots ala burnout 2 style. So no more hitting traffic from behind to clear the way instead you'll crash

ps - huss faster renew your live to gold la, said no money but can buy nfs carbon

free roaming?......remember NFS underground?the game sucked becuz of the free roaming..hope EA learned from their past mistakes

i dnt think this burnout revenge free roaming will be like nfs undrgrnd.. cos undergrnd series never really defined the free roaming concept properly.. its more like a "u can run around in a bigger box kinda thing".. i thnk i'll be more a test drive unlimted's free roaming concept.. cos the map looks huge.. so, lets see wat the game would be like..

free roaming?......remember NFS underground?the game sucked becuz of the free roaming..hope EA learned from their past mistakes