A lot of things are better dark… Dark Chocolate, Dark Elves, The Dark Knight.  And now, Burnout is joining The Dark with the latest in the evolutionary series of patches that are totally transforming the arcade racing game.  On the official playstation blog, Jeremy Chubb, Producer at Criterion Games describes some of the changes that are coming - including Night/Day cycles, Motorbike racing, and some great new content.

In an exciting development, there is actually going to be a gameplay impact from the new night cycle system.  The awesomely named Midnight Runs will occur - you guessed it - at night.  So… what if you’re grabbing a quick game in the middle of the day?  No problem.

“From 8pm to 8am it’s night,” says Chubb.  “We figured you’d want to decide how fast this comes around, so we made the clock customizable. You can easily switch between day and night and try out the different gameplay whenever you like. You can also control the speed of change – anything from 24 minutes to real-time (24hrs), if you’re up for an epic session!”

So, if you want to, you can synchronise the game clock with your PS3 clock, and play the night away, enjoying a virtual sunset/sunrise as you get a real sunset/sunrise.  Or, you can bounce between the two, as you wish.

Another innovative feature means that the night-time will have less vehicles, meaning that those of you with a thirst (Dare I say, a Need?) for Speed will be able to satisfy that craving without impacting hapless traffic with your high-speed high-jinks.  This will definitely be good news for the Motorcycle riders… there’s no chassis or roll-cage to protect you out there on the roads!

All good news, and with just a couple of weeks to go until it goes live, free on your PS3, the anticipation is most definitely building.

Filed under: Burnout Paradise