The more I think about it, the more I think that the theme of control that other games have emphasized recently (think Portal, Bioshock) would be a perfect fit for a Burnout: Paradise style Twisted Metal and the Calypso character, but perhaps with him serving as more of a taunting antagonist a la Brian Cox in Manhunt, who constantly makes it dangerous for you (giving you 60 secs to escape an arena, forcing you to race with everyone else to another one under another time limit, chased by Minion perhaps, et cetera). I'm also thinking it'd be an excellent opportunity to turn the other drivers into real characters - think Battle Royale, where some people placed in this forced-to-kill-one-another situation are completely terrified (so some drivers would be screaming I'M SORRY while they try to kill you), some just do what they have to survive, and a few of them relish the opportunity to do violence (Sweet Tooth would be the obvious choice, and it'd be great to be fucking scared whenever he showed up). Not only that, but let's say you have parallels to the moments in Portal when you got into the areas hidden inside the walls - out of the system's control. I'm envisioning something like being chased by Minion or whatever when if you blow up the right stuff you can escape from what seemed like a predefined path to the next arena into an area of L.A. that is clearly "backstage" or something that Calypso hasn't secured control over as a part of his event. I dunno, I think it'd be an unparalleled opportunity for emergent narrative with drivers and a Calypso that feel like real strong characters for the first time outside of their special powers and cutscenes (it'd require plenty more voiceover work for Calypso taunting you and for the voices of the other drivers, of course).