EA, the world’s largest producer of video-games, and Spielberg have pulled back the curtain on what marks the debut of the filmmaker’s first ever video-game “BloomBlox.”

Link to CNN Story.

With Burnout Paradise, they take many of the cool elements of Burnout Revenge (camera angles, car wrecking, jumps) and add them to a free roaming map. I think the “party game” feature of the split-screen in Revenge was nice–but I quite like the challenge features and racing against other online players in the big open city. I also enjoy the new marked-man feature that makes you the target as you traverse an area of the map. And some of the stunt areas and jumps are absolutely fantastic.

I think it’s often the natural progression of a game to have it become something different along the way. This is not always a welcome change mind you. For instance, a lot of people were angry when NFS: Most Wanted came out because many of the aspects of the NFS: Underground series were lost when they made it an open-map game with a concrete story. The same thing has happened here with Burnout–they’re execution is just a little better in some ways.

So as a new game on the block goes–I have to give Burnout Paradise high marks. It is a fast paced, beautiful game with a lot of fun and entertaining options.

The next thing I want to do is pair a blue tooth headset with it so I can chat with my buddies in game and hook up the Sony Eye camera so I can make funny faces when I get taken out. OK, I do that anyway, but with the camera on, you’ll be able to see them.

Writer’s Note: There was a game called Crash Day that I hoped to one day play. It promised to have many of the elements that appear in Burnout Paradise but never made it to the domestic market. The game ended up being a cross between FPS and racing games instead–so I don’t know if I would have enjoyed it much. I had named it vaporware but it appears now that the game exists in PC format–UK and Europe only… for a very low price.