Burnout Paradise is the first installment in the long-running series, well known for its extreme 60-frames-per-second speed and crash-oriented carnage, to appear on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

This title does away with menus to create a seamless integration of event gameplay and online interaction. Rather than dividing races into different sections, the player can fully explore Paradise City as an open world, where every junction is an opportunity to start an event. Just pull up at the traffic lights and rev the engine to start an event. The same applies to the Showtime mode (formerly Crash mode). The preset junctions and traffic are no longer present and the player can now crash at any location in the world, by activating the Showtime mode. It can also be used in regular modes, as well as online games. The main game mode has the player earn credit to unlock new licenses and cars. The five main event types are:

• Race: the first one to reach the finish wins.
• Road Rage: perform a number of takedowns before time runs out.
• Marked Man: race for a location and survive the attacks from another car that tries to take you down.
• Stunt Run: use stunt moves to reach a target score.
• Burning Route: a unique route for each car in the game.

There are more than 80 cars present and there is a reworked damage system. More parts can be torn off and the state of the car determines if the player can keep driving or has to wait for a reset. Objects in the environment can now also be deformed.

The game supports mugshots with support for a camera. When a player is taken down, both players have their photo taken, exchanged and saved on the hard drive. There are also camera-less persons or an avatar can be used.