Criterion explains Burnout Paradise online hard drive requirement
Hoping to diffuse some of the resentment felt by Xbox 360 Arcade owners who only recently learned that they can't race online in Burnout Paradise, Criterion has issued a public statement on the game's official website, clarifying the reasons for the hard-drive-only requirement.
The Burnout team explains that it was a priority to have the offline and online modes of the game transition seamlessly into each other, something that wouldn't be possible using the limited space of a memory card. Criterion states that they had been in talks with Microsoft to work out a solution for Core and Arcade owners, but when none could be found they opted to not limit the robust online gameplay experience in order to facilitate HDD-less 360 owners.
While this does leave Core and Arcade users in the lurch, Criterion does point out that the online leaderboards for Burnout Paradise are fully accessible without the hard disk drive, meaning players can compete for best times with their friends, just not during the same race.
