Players can also compete online, which includes additional game modes, such as "Cops and Robbers".

The game also features paid downloadable content in the form of new cars and the fictional "Big Surf Island".

Reviewers felt the game had an excellent sense of speed, and praised the open world gameplay, a first for the Burnout series.

A remastered version, titled Burnout Paradise Remastered, which includes all downloadable content (except the Time Savers Pack) and support for higher-resolution displays, was released on 16 March 2018 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and on 21 August for Windows via EA's Origin platform and has since been released on Steam.

[4] The remastered version for Nintendo Switch with refreshed online servers was released on 19 June 2020.

[7] Players have the opportunity to progress at their own pace and level; the game, unlike others, is not actually set to a rigid gameplay framework.

In Burnout Paradise, "Crash Mode", now called "Showtime", can be initiated at any time and place in the game.

[11] Races and other events are started by simply stopping at any of the traffic lights and applying the accelerator and brake at the same time.

[17] The concept of Burnout Paradise came from director Alex Ward's experience playing open world games, specifically Crackdown, Test Drive Unlimited and Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction.

He wanted to take this idea into Burnout Paradise: "My philosophy was that if me and you both played it for three hours, we'd both do different things".

[18] Ward also wanted to develop the game as a social platform, leading to some of its design choices for multiplayer formats.

The update introduced three new Freeburn multiplayer modes: Online Stunt Run, Marked Man and Road Rage.

An in-game store was also added to all versions which allowed users to purchase content from within the game.

Tweaks were also made to the vehicles (not including the freeburn exclusives) to steer the game more toward beginners and casual players.

Burnout Paradise features in-game advertisements for a number of brands, including Burger King, JL Audio, Nvidia, Gillette, Vizio, CompUSA and EVGA.

From 6 October 2008, in-game billboards featured ads for the then-United States Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

[34] The remaster contains all the previously released downloadable content, except for the Time Savers Pack (a DLC pack that unlocks all vehicles in the game without the need to progress through single-player), and support for higher-resolution monitors (up to 4K resolutions) with 60 frames per second support.

[5][35] Unlike the original, the Remastered version does not have real life in-game advertisements and are instead replaced by fictional ones.

In addition to the free updates, Criterion has released several optional, premium packs that add content like new cars, areas and modes.

The first update was the "Burnout Party Pack" and launched on 5 February 2009 in North America and the United Kingdom.

[45] Originally announced as the "Eastwood pack coming in Fall 2008",[46] the expansion known as "Big Surf Island" was released on 11 June 2009.

Big Surf Island also features new vehicles, which includes the Carson Dust Storm buggy, a car tailor-made for stunts.

In addition to the Dust Storm buggy two specially featured cars, the Hunter Olympus "Governor" and the Carson Annihilator Street Rod are also included.

[69] New gameplay mechanics such as gas stations and body repair shops were also praised which "mitigate potential frustration when the heat is on".

[59] Hyper's Daniel Wilks commends the game for its "great sense of speed and things that go boom".

[61] The Guardian's Keith Stuart added that the game "feels incredibly good to drive".

Criterion responded to this criticism by stating that they don't feel that this is a problem and that adding a "retry" option would introduce loading screens, which they "hate with a passion".

[73] The game has been the subject of several academic papers investigating a range of fields, often connected to the title's intensity and need for fast reaction time.

These include studies on gamer cardiology,[74] phenomenological correspondence and control abstraction[75] and computer game pedagogy.