Burnout Paradise: Hands-On With Big Surf Island DLC

The glut of downloadable content continues with Burnout Paradise . Hot on the heels of last month's Cops and Robbers release, Criterion Games has unveiled its latest DLC pack: Big Surf Island. Due for release later this summer, Big Surf Island is a brand-new chunk of real estate for you to zip around like a maniac. Located off the eastern edge of Paradise City and accessible via a huge suspension bridge (that turns out to be ideal for nailing some great big-air jumps), the island locale is tightly packed with asphalt and off-road adventure.

Roughly comparable in size to the downtown area of Paradise City, Big Surf Island feels larger, if only because there's so much packed into the island. One area is filled with tall skyscrapers that you can jump off of; another features tight and twisting mountainous roads, leading down to yet another beach area that dirt drivers will enjoy. In fact, more so than even the back roads of White Mountain in the main Paradise City map, Big Surf Island is defined by its drastic elevation changes that will provide you more than a few opportunities to get airborne.

Just as in Paradise City proper, you'll have tons to keep you busy when driving around Big Surf Island. In addition to a whole new set of Island-specific challenges, the game will have 75 smash gates, 15 mega jumps (one of which is accessed via the aforementioned bridge leading onto and off the island), and an inordinate number of billboards to blast through. There will also be nine new cars to unlock--you start off with a Dust Runner that looks like a souped-up dune buggy and handles like a dream, and you'll unlock the other eight new rides by completing challenges, like burning routes.

Check out the above video demo for a nice little tour of Big Surf Island to get a taste of what to expect. No price has been set for the Big Surf Island DLC yet, but we do know the release date: June 11. Big Surf Island may be more of the same, but since it's Burnout Paradise, more is exactly what the fans want. Now, if only we could get Criterion to open up about the next Burnout game...

[UPDATE: The original video wasn't working properly, so we've replaced it with the full Big Island tour demo.]