Burnout Paradise and my current work

I am currently working on a car simulation and its quite a tough nut to crack. The most precise direction I was given for my task was "it should drive ly Burnout"... and with that instruction in mind I set out to acquire a copy of Burnout Paradise for Windows.

On the surface this game is pretty cool and I understand why I was told to make something along those lines. It is probably one of the easiest driving games I have ever played. No matter how fast you drive, unless you touch the brakes, you can turn as much as you like... no drifting! Hmmmm, I suppose the game is quite different compared to Gran Turismo (I sucked at GT but boy was it fun), but does it have to be that arcadish? Just a tad more difficult controls would make the game more interesting in my humble oppinion. I guess the driving could work if only the handbrake was less responsive and more interesting. Almost the second you touch the handbrake button, the car turns at least 180 degrees and slows to an almost complete stop... I want to screach around the bloody corners! But no, I have to chose between making a nice curve (even at top speed) and coming to a complete stop while doing a 90 degree slide using either the brake or hand brake... where's the fun in that.

Back to my initial reason for playing the game: I was requested to create something similar in the game engine we use. Right now I have something that kinda works like Burnout but (in my oppinion) is abit more fun because of the slip and slide action when turning. It is still a bit to difficult to control at the moment (driving on a constant wet surface I suppose) but something abit in between should do the trick. I am still missing proper brakes, hand brakes and a decent gearing algorithm (no gearing in Burnout Paradise either, weak!).

PS: The slow motion crash and take down effects in Burnout Paradise are the only justifications I have for actually continuing to play the game. Why did they remove the takedown playmode that was featured in Burnout 3: Takedown? I loved smashing busses into each other....