Hearkening back to Burnout titles of old, the Cops and Robbers add-on pits two teams of players against each other, both vying for control of a load of stolen gold bars. The goal is to obtain the bars and return them to your team’s base by any means necessary, which in Burnout generally means lots and lots of crashing. To help make the crashing more interesting, Criterion also provides 35 new police vehicles; re-skinned and slightly remodeled versions of 33 of the game’s already existing rides.

Is the Cops and Robbers pack worth your $US10 or 800 Microsoft points, or is Criterion getting away with highway robbery?

Loved
The Paradise City Gold Rush: Cops and Robbers pits two teams against each other as they vie for control of a large pile of gold bricks. The goal is to get the booty to your team’s headquarters and score a point while the opposing team attempts to take you out and grab the loot for themselves. The whole affair plays out like a sporting event, complete with the requisite trash-talk. With the gold carrier slowed by the weight of precious metals, teamwork is essential to winning the day. All in all, an excellent addition to Burnout Paradise’s online game modes.

The International House Of Cop Cars: Cops and Robbers introduces more than 30 police vehicles to Burnout Paradise’s constantly growing stable of vehicles. While each new car is a modified version of an existing vehicle, the modifications are much more than simple re-skinning. Each car gets a unique police car makeover, with custom graphics and light placement that makes sense based on each model. Criterion went as far as to give the cars different sirens based on their real-life inspiration’s country of origin. With fans readily paying $US8 for the four vehicles in the Legendary Cars pack, $US10 for 33 modified vehicles seems like a no-brainer.

Hated
A Distinct Lack Of Variety: The entertainment value of the Cops and Robbers game mode starts to fade quickly after your first few rounds, once you realise that there just aren’t enough variables to the formula. The gold spawns in the same handful of spaces, and the bases for the two teams are always the same. Sure, Burnout Paradise has plenty of ways to get to the same place, but in the end you’re still getting to the same place. It’s one of the limitations of a game play mode that calls out for more maps being added to a game that only really has one.

Of course you aren’t meant to spend your time online in Burnout Paradise only playing the Cops and Robbers mode, so the lack of variety isn’t as much of a problem as it could be. I liken online in Burnout Paradise to a group of kids playing on the playground, and Cops and Robbers is just another game those kids can play when they aren’t just running around aimlessly, bumping into things and falling over.

With a new way to play and 33 new police cars to play with, Burnout Paradise’s Cops and Robbers pack is the right amount of new content for the right price. I’d say it was a steal, but even I have more self-respect than that.

Burnout Paradise Cops and Robbers was developed by Criterion Games. Released on April 30th for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Retails for $US9.99 or 800 Microsoft points. Played multiple rounds across multiple online sessions.

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The long arm of the law finally reaches into Paradise City later this month, as Criterion Games announces the release date for Burnout Paradise’s Cops and Robbers pack.

The next batch of paid downloadable content for Burnout Paradise drops on April 30th, with the Cops and Robbers pack adding an all-new freeburn mode to the game. Cops will chase robbers through the streets of Paradise City, with nearly all of the cars in the game receiving a special police makeover. Some are pretty standard, while a few, as seen in the video below, take on a distinctly international flavor.

No word on price yet, so just start hording your Microsoft points and PlayStation 3 real money points now so you’re ready for the April 30th release.

Criterion Games released this video showing the 15 new cop cars coming with their downloadable Cops and Robber content.

Too bad none of the cop cars seem to be real ones. Though, they’re still pretty cool looking.

After more than a year of ignorance, police in Burnout Paradise’s Paradise City have finally caught on to the fact that the city is filled with dangerously irresponsible drivers.

This is a teaser trailer for the new Cops and Robbers mode, the latest in a long string of attempts by Criterion Games to slowly turn Burnout Paradise into a completely different game from the one we originally purchased. Not too much to tell so far; we assume there will be cops, robbers, and more than likely some sort of chase mechanic.

The only other thing we can determine from this teaser is that the Paradise City police department is ridiculously over funded.