Good news for Xbox 360 Burnout fans – the latest software update (codenamed Bogart) is now live.




For the full list of our changes hit this link or head over to the Paradise forum and let us have any feedback.

We posted earlier this week in response to Gravter's question:

"What happened to the old burnout.ea.com site? I loved being able to see my stats online and seeing if I still owned my 'blocks'. Is this gonna be back someday?"

We'll be adding much more to this awesome feature in the future, but in the meantime, we've just re-activated the profile analyser.

Look out for the banner to the right on our main page and input your PSN ID or Gamertag, select your system (PS3 or Xbox 360) and hit return.



We then display a stack of game info ranging from World Rank to Total Miles Driven.

You'll also notice that we've created links for all the players in our leaderboard in the top 10 banners here on our main page, so you can easily link through and find out a bit more about how these guys got there.

Look out for more on this and a the triumphant return of "Rules the Roads" soon...

We've already shown you the 7 winners of the Paradise Drives Competition. Now we can reveal the other 10 checkpoint races that will be available as Paradise Drives in our big software update codenamed Cagney.

Of course there's nothing stopping you from trying any of these now by creating them as Custom Drives (in fact we've already seen many routes almost identical to these being used in some of the lobbies we regularly race in).

Barnstorming

The shortcut through the barn is only one way to get onto ‘Lewis’. Anyone taking the railway will have to deal with potential head on collisions with racers taking the more conventional route.



Drag Club

The original Paradise Drive from this start junction ended at the ‘Country Club’. This new route requires the racers to drift that bend then race back along ‘Lambert’ to the ‘Naval Yard’.



Knot in Hill

Snaking through the traffic on ‘Hamilton’ is just the start of this route. Getting onto ‘Hubbard’ is particularly difficult when there are more than two racers together. From ‘Hubbard’ to the finish should be fairly straight forward but always proves tense with racers resorting to crazy traffic avoiding manoeuvres.



Lasso

‘Chubb’ or ‘Nelson’ the choice is yours at the start. However there is only one jump of the cliff and failure to land this will cost you plenty of time. You will visit the ‘Lone Stallion Ranch’ twice in this route; remember being there first at the finish is what counts.



Scenic Route

‘7th’ is straight so should be easy, however those who take more risks will be able to keep their boost burning longer and stay ahead. Even if you have been leading for the entire race the approach to the finish is strewn with danger, not least the jump from the dam onto ‘Casey’.



Side Splitter

This route is already very popular online and is a great, easy to navigate tour of ‘Downtown’ and ‘Palm Bay’.



Times Trial

The pillars of the El-Train are a great takedown opportunity near the start. Being first into the short cut through the shopping centre onto ‘Andersen’ usually means you will win this race.



Underwater

Use the dirt ramps in the middle of ‘Nelson’ to score some vertical takedowns on unsuspecting rivals then head into the winding tunnels of ‘Geldard’. Navigating the shortcuts, bends, and junction at the end of ‘Hans’ is key to winning.



Finally we couldn’t help but make some improvements to the two existing Paradise Drive checkpoint routes.

Around Paradise

Same route with fewer checkpoints - what’s your fastest time Around Paradise?



Lake Loop

A new start location results in a complete loop of the lake. The race might be a bit longer now but there are a lot less checkpoints.



Enjoy!

Here's AlexF to talk you through the changes we've made to increase graphical detail for standard def players.

"You all know that our big upcoming software update codenamed Cagney will feature 1080i support on PS3… but it will now also feature improved SD picture quality as well!

"For those of you who want details (we know you love the details) … the 360 version always renders internally at 720p and uses the free hardware scalar to provide SD support.

"On PS3 we have to do software scaling and when Paradise shipped we didn’t have the memory available to mimic the 360 behaviour, so went to great lengths to antialias the SD version an alternative way.

"Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that thanks to a combination of the extra memory in the latest SDK and a refactor of our graphics memory management, Cagney now renders SD internally at 720p just like on 360 and even though we’re doing an extra software scaling pass at the end (which the HD version does not need to do!) it still runs at our trademark 60fps.

"Here’s a “before and after” comparison in 480p. If you click through to our Flickr site, you can check these in a higher res. This first image is the current SD picture, it’s heavily antialiased as you’d expect.



"But look at the Cagney version here and you can see that it has more detail (e.g. the Junk Yard sign is more readable, there's an aerial on the car and the middle building, the grass is sharper) yet it's less flickery when you play it."




And here are some zoomed images for before:



And after:



You can see the difference in the these screenshots, but you can't really feel the impact until you play. If you know Burnout, you know it moves fast – a little extra detail goes a long, long way.

Big thanks to AlexF and his crew of hardware specialists for wringing this extra performance out of the hardware.