The Ultimate Box introduces motorcycles to Burnout for the first time. Motorcycles are all about speed and can weave through Paradise City's densest traffic. Unlike racing with cars, motorcycles don't need repairs, can't boost and are ineligible for most of the game's racing modes. Unfortunately, this means that motorcycle racing isn't as fully developed as we'd hoped. All racing events pit players against the clock, with special day and night events that include check points spanning the whole city. Although riding down streets at top speed trying to beat the clock is exciting, we would have enjoyed more variety, like a motorcycle stunt mode.

The offline Party Mode is the only offline multiplayer mode, and lets up to eight players pass the controller around and take turns competing against each other in short Stunt, Skill or Speed challenges. While this mode is amusing, it's very slow paced, made worse by how Burnout relies so heavily on fast paced gameplay. The Ultimate Box would have benefited greatly from real-time offline racing. The PC version supports multi-monitor setups, so a dual monitor two player Race or Road Rage would be ideal, but we would have settled for regular split screen action. Incidentally, we would have also liked more control over the music selection besides just skipping to the next track. A means of turning off certain tracks or a way to play music from our personal collection would have been nice. Essentially, we prefer that Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata not play while we're racing across the city, and we'd like a better way of getting through the collection of waltzes and classical music than skipping through each one as they come up.

Although some of the new features in Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box hits a few road bumps, there's no denying the game's addictive quality. At one point in the game, we ended up losing our way in the middle of a race and decided to make a few super jumps and wreck some cars. It was at this point that we realized we were probably having more fun than is healthy. The Ultimate Box may not be perfect, but it is one of the best driving games around right now. Just be prepared to have "Paradise City" by Guns 'n Roses stuck in your head for a long while.

Download the Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box Trail (2.92 GB)