The popular racing game Burnout Paradise (5^th in the Burnout series) developed by Criterion Games and playable on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3, has a long standing tradition of regularly released downloadable content (DLC). After the previous released DLC pack featured day-night cycles and the addition of motorbikes, more changes are due in the next pack, entitled “Party” which is due to be released in February.

The title feature of the pack is the “Party mode” which allows several people to compete against each-other on the same console. The gameplay is not split-screen (a feature yet to be implemented in any Burnout game), it is instead hotseat-based. Basically how it works is that the players get a particular (usually simple) challenge with their car or bike, and the players, each with their own controller, take turns attempting it.

The challenges are three in number: Stunt, Speed and Skill. The first has the players performing stunts, the goal being impressiveness. Speed is your basic time-trial mode. Skill, in our opinion the most interesting of the lot, has players racing on a one-way street dodging oncoming traffic. We imagine this may be done best with the motorcycles.

The Party pack, as well as the previous packs titled Cagney and Davis, and “a mountain of new refinements” will be released together in “Burnout Paradise – The Ultimate Box” which will be released at around the same time as the Party Pack in early 2009. There are also rumors that Party will require a fee to download, unlike previous content which was offered free of charge.