I'm excited about the update but still pissed they have yet to include a global leaderboard for showtime. People complained about showtime not being as good as crash mode, and Critereon defended the choice, but what bothers me, is that showtime , is not part of the game. No online showtime battles, no showtime global leaderboard, showtime doesn't contribute to your license. THey could at least had it contribute to your license over time, and the fact that they have a leaderboard but "friends only" means they can make it global, they just don't want to. Which is killing my favorite part of the game.

From the playstation blog (more details on update)

The Live Page does two cool things:

First, it serves up news about the game – so that’s news about updates and the kind of stuff you’d expect on criteriongames.com, but it’s also news about what’s happening in the game – so, expect to find news about what you’ve done in Paradise City as well as about what’s happening online, like when we hit the 100 millionth crash, for example.

Secondly (and this is the really, really cool bit), it’s where we can, using the Game Calendar, create what we’re calling ‘Live Broadcast Gameplay’. This is how it works:

If you check out the Game Calendar, you’ll see certain dates on it are ringed. These represent ‘Live Events’ that will occur on that day. In the news panel on the Live Page there’ll be a corresponding story telling you about what’s happening on those days.

So, for example:

Saturday 12th July 2008 - Prize Cars Weekend
Where for one day, if you go online we’ll let you try out all of the Carbon and XS Cars (that are normally available only when you complete the offline game) for you to test drive in races and Freeburning.

As this shows – it really allows us to mix up the game, and we’ve got a schedule packed with cool events that stretch out through the summer.

This breaks down as:

I still haven't played this game online, I am just happy driving around randomly, though loads of stuff keeps on popping up at the top of the screen that confuses me.

Also, what are these freeburn events that everyone keeps on going on about?

Well I finally picked this title up today and was completely unaware this was coming. How nice! Now I get the game plus an immediate boost to its content.

Developers who take this care to support the community that forms around their games are the best IMHO. I'm not saying you should buy the game blindly if its not to your tastes... but I think they always deserve recognition vs developers who drop support like a hot potato and move right on to the next title to get more money out of you.

I still don't get Critereon, they are giving all kinds of things away for free, except the two things everyone has been asking for from day one. Crash Events, and the ability to restart the race. So what it means loading time, if you don't like it you don't have to do it. Either way it's about giving the player options. Just like my earlier complaint about the showtime leaderboard missing global stats, it's unbelivable how they are ignoring the public cries on these issues, but they are dumping tons of other content in this game, it all sounds good, I just think they are working insanely hard to prove their right about those choices.

I'm so ordering this game on Sat, through VG Store, no less.

So for £18? I must say that that is a great deal, other people should take advantage of it, as it is a great game, though do be prepared to sit through a long patch. I actually imported it from the US (though it seems to be from asia... I am not sure), but this is a great game whatever the price

 I was going to pick this up when I went Florida, but seeing as it is roughly the same price as what I was expecting to pay out there, I can't see why not. +1 Respect points for informing us. :)

I wish this game did have the crash events.  That is one reason why burnout 3 is my favorite of all the others.  I know some of the other games had crash evernts but burnout 3 did it best for me.  I stil play burnout 3 when friends are over just for the party crash mode.  Its great fun playing against 3 or 4 friends.  I also miss the split screen action.

I 100% agree, that was the best, crash mode was like it's own game put in. I'm finding their abadoning this aspect of the franchise slowly, Revenge, had it but just tossed it in with everything else. Paradise reduced it to  Showtime, and stopped it from even contributing to game progression, or any online play. Burnout Domintor totally elminated any crash mode. I really hope the Flat-out makers pay attention to this and make a sequal that gives burnout crash mode fans the experience they've been hoping to get from Paradise.