"Burnout Paradise" is an amazing game. To anyone who argues that: your opinion is wrong. The 2008 open-world racer remains one of the most visually impressive releases in the current console generation and the silky smooth arcade controls offer an immediately engaging pick-up-and-play experience for just about anyone. So it is with no small amount of anticipation, then, that fans look forward to the next effort from developer Criterion Games. It seems that work has already begun on some sort of follow-up, and that things are far enough along for a rating to have been issued.

Australia's classification board has given something called "Burnout Crash" a rating of PG, Siliconera reports. Electronic Arts hasn't mentioned word one about anything with that title, though Siliconera also discovered a reference to it in a Criterion developer's LinkedIn profile. which pegs the game as an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release.

This is... interesting, to say the least. It's impossible to say what we might expect knowing absolutely nothing at this point other than the title. But if the game is already getting a ratings classification, it must be far enough along for people outside of Criterion and EA to have seen it. I wouldn't be surprised if we get an official announcement at or shortly before E3 this summer.

"Burnout Paradise" was last updated in the summer of 2009 with the release of the downloadable "Big Surf Island" pack, which added an entirely new location to the game's map along with new events, hidden challenges and vehicles. Criterion revealed the following year that the PC version of the game's in-game store had been officially closed. All signs point to a new "Burnout" speeding to the starting line very soon, and it's likely that we'll be hearing plenty more about this "Burnout Crash" soon enough.