Criterion has just lifted the lid on the next downloadable goodie for the beautiful and increasingly brilliant Burnout Paradise. Welcome to Big Surf Island.

Recent Burnout downloads have been free, so you may be slightly taken aback to find out that this one is going to cost you. Rest assured, though, that you’re going to get what you pay for, as the Criterion blogmeister explains:

“We never expected to create anything this ambitious for the island, but as it progressed we got more and more excited about what it could become.

Big Surf is the culmination of everything we learned creating Paradise City, and we want it to bring you a truly spectacular new experience – the highlight of a year of incredible premium content. Burnout already delivers incredible value for money – literally hundreds of hours of gameplay with your original disk or PSN purchase, plus more with the free Cagney Pack and free Burnout Paradise Bikes.

We want Burnout Paradise players to experience the greatest support ever seen in a console game. We’re transforming not just Burnout Paradise, but the whole Burnout franchise through DLC, and we appreciate the support we know you guys will give us for our paid content. We think it’s worth it.”

Well, with thousands of blissful Burnout miles under our hoods we’re inclined to take them at their word - in any case we kind of feel that we owe them after the last two freebies. So, yep, we’ll be happy to lay our money down when the time comes. Speaking of which they’re still not saying when that’s going to be - the “big reveal” is promised at some unspecified time in the new year.

Thankfully Criterion are a little less opaque about the action in store, saying that the main screenshot provides the best indicator of what we can expect:

“The scaffold towers in the construction yard can be climbed and all the hoops can be jumped. If you want a taste of what the island is all about, head for the airfield, quarry or beach in Burnout Paradise right now and imagine an area the size of Downtown dedicated to that kind of gameplay.”

Need we say any more than that? Though not…