Driving is for suckers. But crashing, well, that’s a horsepower of a different colour.

Racing is one of the most enduring game genres. It started in arcades with 1982's Pole Position (watch this awesome commercial) where the games would thrive on multiplayer competition and even boast replica cars to sit in.

Racing has always been huge on home consoles, too, but once robbed of their reliance on quarters, many developers crafted realistic simulators rather than the more user-friendly arcade-style racers. And most were deadly dull to non-gearheads, especially when competing against computer-driven cars. But then Burnout pulled up at the lights, eager to please with its loose steering, lightspeed momentum and the most spectacular vehicular crashes ever pixilated.

Yep, crashing was no longer a race-loser. In fact, it was gleefully encouraged with the series’ trademark "Crash" mode. Over its many iterations, the Burnout series has grown to dominate the genre by simply focusing on fun. But this game, which is rooted in simplicity--car go fast, car go boom--has completely revamped itself for Burnout Paradise, the first proper now-gen edition.

Naturally, this caused an online uproar, because folks fear change, and makers Criterion were even forced to address the demo-inspired griping. Most of the bitching revolved around the game‘s upgrade from straight-forward tracks to an open-world racer--Grand Theft Auto without all the dead hookers. There were a few legit complaints--"Crash" mode has been replace with a slightly less impressive, Katamari-esque “Showtime” (though to their credit you can now trigger it whenever, wherever, which rules) and it certainly is annoying to drive your ass back across town to re-start a lost race rather than pressing a button to give ‘er another go.

But it’s a blast zooming across the expansive Paradise City to the G’n’R title track and launching diverse racing events at stoplights by simply spinning your wheels. What’s even better is the fantastic multiplayer, which allows you to seamlessly slip online with a quick touch of the button. Suddenly, it's real people behind those cars tooling across town and, well, it’s a lot more fun driving a real person off the road in an explosive smash-up.

It was an undeniably bold move to so dramatically revamp a successful series rather than just pretty-up yet another reiteration and Burnout Paradise's eventual popular and critical success should be a lesson to other publishers, in all genres, when driving their franchises from last-gen to this one.