Burnout Paradise (2007-09-04)
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Build Info
Platform: Playstation 3 Compilation date: September 4th, 2007 Also known as: "Sept 4" Released publically: Yes

One of earliest of the 60GB Criterion PS3 HDD builds, while bootable has massive amounts of problems. Many of the associated files are completely corrupted including the SHADERS.BNDL rendering the build nearly unplayable due to the lack of visibility. Geometry is extremely distorted and many rendering options in the debug menu do not work due to this issue, or crash the game instead. Despite this, the build is surprisingly jam-packed with differences that are highly desired by the community.

Due to the corruption of nearly every file related to this build, the original experience will never be replicated with what was recovered.

Notable Differences

AI

As of far, the shutdown system works differently. Upon starting a new save a lone rival, the Fastback, is released into the world. Instead of the roaming rivals being repeatedly teleported on top of you to ease the shutdown process, they now roam a section of the map and drive to your vicinity when you're active. Due to crashes related to SOUNDENTITY.BUNDLE further differences cannot be documented.

The Route Map, showing the lone rival targeting the player.

Camera

The cameras differ quite a bit in a lot of aspects. The shake upon collisions and crashes is much stronger, the FOV of the orbital camera when panning is different, and the super jump camera has changed.

UI

UI differs again in this build, though not working at all due to issues with GUIAPT files and being unable to pass the game's intro.

Crashes

Car crashes are very different here, very close to E3. The car no longer relies on Angular Velocity physics helpers and much like the physics seen as far back as November 2006, the vehicle relies largely on tumbles and flips to propel itself through the air. The Driveaway camera timer is also much shorter, cutting off quickly from a crash.

Traffic Checking

Traffic checking shows itself in this build, and this time in completion. Every vehicle can check all same way traffic without wrecking unless it meets the 5000 Driving Mass requirement set in the executable. The Kick Strength value tweakable in the debug menu determines how much pushback the player will receive based on their car's mass when checking.

Particles

Particle density here has almost tripled and is nearly the same as E3, shy of spark showers emanating from hard crashes. Cars leave massive plumes of smoke, many particle chunks and have a very thick mist of glass when the windows shatter.

The mass of particles spewing from the car in a wreck.

Sounds

Crashing sounds play with a lot more bass and minor tweaks in volume. Due to the corruption of the COLLISIONSPLICEBANK.BUNDLE Splicer however, the much louder volumes and new sounds are missing.

Explosions

It is unknown how to make them occur but according to the debug menu, they are present and referred to as Shockwaves, able to be adjusted. It is likely they're only for Showtime.

The menu options detailing explosions.

Known Issues

Note: Issues marked with [FATAL] will crash the game.

Shaders

Due to the corruption of the associated SHADERS.BNDL file in the drive, this build is nearly unplayable and the file has yet to be replicated. The only visible objects aside the massively distorted geometry in the distance are light coronas, texture shadows, and the sky. Everything else is completely invisible. There is no current possible fix for this.

The current state of September 4th.

Starting Events [FATAL]

Besides showtime, starting any kind of event results in a crash, related to Soundentity much like the rivals.

Accessing Menus [FATAL]

Accessing any kind of pause menu crashes the game due to an error related to 10 layers for GUIAPT. The cause is currently unknown.

Approaching Rivals [FATAL]

While it's more likely the rival will approach you, coming within short distance of them will cause the game to crash due to Soundentity. If you do not defeat all rivals via the debug menu, you will have to run from the Fastback rival in the world to avoid a game crash.

Collecting Smashes [FATAL X2]

The player is unable to collect any smashes when playing the game. Doing so will not only crash the game, but upon reload will require the player to restart their save file.

Starting A New Save [FATAL]

Sometimes upon making a new save, the file will be made corrupt, causing the game to crash then, and every time after trying to load it. The easiest solution to this is to start a new save on any later build and overwrite that save when prompted.

Game Intro

The intro upon starting a new save is broken, likely due to problems with GUIAPT. The only ways around this to avoid being stuck in the junkyard is save via the debug menu, or to edit the save by hand to pass the intro. Manually saving will not pass the intro but will start the player outside of the junkyard after restarting the game.

The intro UI that is always stuck on screen.
The menu path needed to save and restart.

Inable To Progress

Due to an issue likely with the reformatting of the Progression file, the player cannot progress beyond the first rank up. After that, adding wins to the save will not release rivals or add to the license, and the player will be stuck six thousand plus events from the next license.

Leftovers

Likewise to even as far forward as Oct 10, this build also welcomes a few goodies of its own able to be restored.

Pursuit Mode

Able to be summoned at a stoplight using the debug menu, the pursuit mode still crashes but unlike later builds, this time due to missing a pursued vehicle according to the callstack. It's possible this mode is still present in Sept 4 and Aug 31 but unknown due to many game crashes that would prevent accessing it.