There is an excellent and lengthy preview of Burnout Paradise that discusses all the changes being made to the series to bring it into a more open-world style of game up on Eurogamer.

I’ve never played a Burnout game as they seem well-liked yet descriptions seem to include a lot of caveats mixed with the raves. Paradise sounds like the developers have listened to what people complained about and made (sometimes drastic) steps to address those issues. I’m inclined to make this my first foray into the world of intentional car mangling.