Burnout 3 (2004-04-28 demo)


Build Info
Platform: PlayStation 2 Compilation date: April 28th, 2004 Also known as: "April Build" Released publically: Yes

This promotional demo for Burnout 3: Takedown (then known as simply Burnout 3) was compiled on April 28th, 2004, exactly three months before the game's final retail version. Its executable was recently patched to activate a functional menu system, revealing lots of normally hidden content and a considerable amount of differences.

Notable Differences

Since this demo was initially compiled 3 months before the retail game, it is quite different in several areas.

HUD

This HUD dates back very far within the game's development, and was in the demo but pulled shortly after in development once manual transmission was gutted entirely. The color palette also changed from orange and yellow to blue and gold. The crash screen has a more simplistic and dramatic design, featuring black bars that are also seen during replays in the retail game. The layout is different in some modes, staying compact but displaying lots of information at the same time. The boost bar also shakes intensely during use, which was removed post-E3.

Damage Model

Due to this being around the time the damage modeling was starting to be overhauled, this demo uses a combination of the chassis crumpling seen in earlier versions, and the bending/stretching of later versions. Deformation is very intense but to a degree realistic, with most parts rarely ever breaking free from the vehicle besides wheels and the hood, akin to a real car crash. This demo also saw the last appearance of a damage feature nicknamed "Folding", where the vehicle's chassis violently compresses and folds vertically.

Early Vehicle Designs

While all other releases of this demo contain only three player vehicles, the NTSC-J release contains over thirty, many of them featuring designs that likely date to circa May 2004. Some vehicles feature early, completely different designs, and some also include LOD models based on even earlier versions of the vehicle's design. Many feature placeholder or, in some cases, never-before-heard engine sounds.

Downtown Billboards

Some billboards and ads present in Downtown's retail version are missing, such as the licensed Axe billboard and billboards promoting other EA titles.

Car Combat

Unlike the retail game, combat behavior in this demo varies among vehicles, with some being better at combat than others. The demo's ValueDB contains per-vehicle masses and values for reactions to attacks, indicated very prominently by a select few vehicles that will barely budge even after the strongest of hits.

Physics

Cars feel slightly lighter on average than the retail game, with certain ones feeling much heavier or handling tighter than their retail counterparts.

As a side effect of the "floatier" physics, rivals can be taken out by keeping consistent pressure on their door area until they tip over; a similar likeness to this can be seen in real life crashes.

AI

In split-screen modes and Championship events, the AI is much faster and more aggressive than usual, attacking the player at almost any given opportunity, even if it sometimes means taking themselves down too. Their average speeds usually exceed that of the player even in the same vehicles, and will rarely slow down until the final lap (a customary AI behavior in the Burnout games).

Early Crashbreaker

Similar to Burnout Revenge, the demo features a crashbreaker that must be charged, although instead of getting a number of cars to crash or explode to fill it, the player must instead travel lots of distance and/or collide with vehicles. Since explosions are not present this early on, initiating it sends all nearby cars into an airborne stasis indicated by the same distinct sound and particle effect used when the player vehicle propels itself off the ground in a crash.

Crash Camera

This event-based camera is featured in the retail game's crash mode, the demo is where its full extent can be seen. The camera itself stays fixed to the player car, rotating and panning to give a view of each subsequent wreck, as well as approaching rivals, allowing the player to avoid or aim for them.

In the retail game, this camera still sometimes appears outside of Crash but rarely reacts to the environment, typically staying fixed at one angle. Crash cameras present before this point and in the Crash + Burn trailer are used as post-race and replay cameras here.

Darker Undertones

Earlier versions of Burnout 3 are thought to be a lot more grim in tone, and this demo is no exception. Impact Time tracks are far more brutalistic and audibly violent compared to retail's, and audible screams or shouts of pain can be heard when the player or nearby AI drivers crash. Text strings in the executable indicate these undertones being much heavier even before this point, with the HUD message for a Psyche Out takedown possibly having been Caused A Suicide!

Known Issues

 Issues marked with * are only presented in the modded demo featuring functional menu systems.

Outside of Championship events and Split-Screen modes, the AI do not act as they are meant to, being far less aggressive than they should be.
Replays do not work for single-player modes; the player is simply sent back to the main menu shortly after finishing an event.
Running out of time or being totaled in a Road Rage event will soft-lock the game.*
Road Rage is unable to pool in new cars of the same class after a rival is eliminated for reasons unknown, and will reuse the same vehicles similar to retail.*
In a similar instance to Road Rage, Race events' rivals will copy whichever car the player is driving.*
Crash Mode must first be completed through the dedicated menu before being able to play in Single Event.*
Reverse tracks in Single Event will respawn you facing the wrong way; Race and Championship events are the only exceptions to this.*
The option to enable vibration for the controller does not do anything.*
Due to the lack of tracks, a sizeable portion of the game is inaccessible and much is still unseen.*
The dedicated Crash Nav does not work; it attempts to load a Crash event instead of initializing the Nav itself.*
Several menus are inaccessible without replacing an existing menu:*
- The Championship event list featuring Race, Road Rage and Crash events
- The proper Crash Nav menu
- The full Driver Details menu (then known as My Burnout), featuring lap records and completed Takedown Milestones

Burnout 3 (2004-04-28 demo)