This coming Thursday is shaping up to be one of the greatest PSN days ever. Not only do we have Wipeout HD and Megaman 9 debuting on that day, we’re also going to receive a full digital version of Burnout Paradise. For how much? $29.99 USD or so.

The first full sized third party game to enter the PSN network. Exciting times.

Unfortunately, I’m going to delay this purchase. Wipeout HD already has my number and it can’t be ignored, but for those who don’t love their Wipeout as much as me, be sure to check it out.

By the way, the demo on the PSN Store is severely out of date and isn’t quite indicative of what the retail product is right now.

Criterion announced that a downloadable version of Burnout Paradise is coming to the PSN Store for $29.99. That’s incredible. Really it is. It’ll be the first third party full sized downloadable game.

I may just download this game once it is released on the PSN Store just to use some of that 320 GB hard drive I just installed. Even though I disagreed with game at first, I must give kudos where kudos is due: Criterion really knows how to support their games.

Read a snippet of the full press release below:

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January NPDs were released not too long ago with some shocking numbers as follows:

Hardware Numbers

1. Nintendo Wii - 274,000 
2. PLAYSTATION 3 - 269,000
3. PlayStation 2 - 264,000
4. Nintendo DS - 251,000 
5. Xbox 360 - 230,000
6. PlayStation Portable - 230,000

Software Numbers

1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xbox 360) - 330,900
2. Wii Play (Wii) - 298,100
3. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Wii) - 239,600
4. Rock Band (Xbox 360) - 183,800
5. Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock (Xbox 360) - 182,700
6. Super Mario Galaxy (Wii) - 172,000
7. Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360) - 144,100
8. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (PS3) - 140,000
9. Mario Party DS (DS) - 138,500
10. Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games (DS) - 133,000

My comments and amateur analysis below.

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It’s a generally accepted that the XBOX 360 Arcade (formerly known as Core) SKU (sans hard drive) should not be purchased by anyone who considers themselves a gamer. Unfortunately, since the SKU exist; uneducated consumers will purchase it which means Microsoft has to do their best to accommodate them.

At the moment, the XBOX Live! Arcade download size limit is set at 150 MB. Awhile back, the limit was raised from 50 MB in order to for Konami’s Castlevania: Symphony of the Night to be released. Why was this limit imposed? Was it to help gamers save bandwidth? Or was it imposed in order to help Arcade SKU owners save precious memory card space? Guess which possibility I believe.

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I never purchased a Burnout game, but I have always enjoyed the little time I spent with them over the years. Like fans of the series, the fun of wrecking your car in rush hour in a spectacular display of twisted metal, broken glass and exploding sparks struck a cord with me. Unlike true fans of the series, Burnout games were never more than a few sessions of thrills for me. With the release of Criterion’s Burnout: Paradise demo on the PSN and XBL today, I was curious to see if this installment was worthy of a full price purchase.

After spending an hour or so with demo, the answer short answer is: no. Long answer? Read on.

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