For those of you that played it, what did you dislike most about Twilight Princess? Was it the bloom and brown that’s run the gamut of every title last year? Was it the completely useless items that muddled the reason as to why anyone would even call it a Legend of Zelda game? Was it the mind-numbing linearity and lack of side-quests outside of collect-a-thons? Or, perhaps, was it the lack of difficulty?

Well, chances are it was all of those things combined, but the whole easy-mode thing probably stuck out the most. There’s a mass of games falling prey to this idea, theory, and concept that games need to be far more accessible to help penetrate the market more. Developers around the world are doing research groups in order to meet the demands of people who will never play their games anyway.
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Criterion, the creators behind the Burnout series, have been nothing but awesome so far. Not only did they deliver on their promises for Burnout Paradise on the first go – a massive free-roaming city with hundreds of secrets and thousands of car-wrecking possibilities – but they’ve been spoiling us with free downloadable content that any other game developer would be forcing us to pay through the nose for.  While we’ve been enjoying that, we can’t help but feel guilty about it. Thankfully they’ve given us an opportunity to give back to them what little we could, with the very first purchasable downloadable content pack that they’re busting out, and even then it’s literally a steal.

Presenting: the Burnout Paradise Big Surf Island DLC pack!

What’s the big deal about Big Surf Island, anyway? Well for one, it’s a huge island that connects to Paradise City, and its emphasis is letting you grab the biggest amount of air possible with your car via its ridiculously-awesome jumps. Here’s the statement from Criterion themselves:

Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience – the highlight of a year of incredible premium content. Burnout already delivers incredible value for money – literally hundreds of hours of gameplay with your original disk or PSN purchase, plus more with the free Cagney Pack and free Burnout Paradise Bikes.

Awesome, Criterion. Why can’t other game developers be like you?