Burnout 3: Takedown (PS2, Apr-June 2004 Beta JPN Demo)

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Published on April 26, 2022 9:05:06 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZgDb_ui_14

Game:

Burnout 3: Takedown (2004)

Duration: 43:26

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This is an overview of Burnout 3: Takedown's Japanese demo, built around June for tradeshows at the time but contains earlier unused assets that weren't stripped out. Please refer to timestamps and video chapters to go to a point of interest.

So it's been a hot minute, hasn't it? I kind of went on an unplanned hiatus despite some really cool betas being released over the last year and a half. Admittedly, a bit of the downtime was planned while I upgraded my system but then I had other things I had to focus my attention on. Not to mention my channel kind of grew by quite a bit during that time, which I really wasn't expecting. Thanks, by the way!

Anyway, onto stuff that's relevant here. This build is technically from late June as per the executable, but assets are dated from early June in the filesystem. The dates aren't really correct, and are more than likely from April instead, as what little data remained on the PAL demo disc appears to be 1:1 with the NTSC-J version. Actually, the later demo with a near fully playable USA map has earlier filesystem dates for the car models from April, but has an incremented version number within the model data itself. That being said, there may have been under-the-hood tweaks in this version that may have gone amiss, and thus I've marked this as being from between April to June, just to be safe.

So, differences? Gameplay-wise, it's Burnout 3. But not quite. The physics are definitely off -- Much easier to destabilise your car during racing. Opponents too, as they can be rolled over on occasion when grinding them into walls. Boost economy is different, too. It seems much more biased towards gains from combat than outright dangerous driving, which is kind of how it is anyway, but here it's much more substantial. Vehicle deformation is turned up to 11, too. It's per model, and not every car has deformation (Bus, B-Team Van) or are totally bugged (Longnose Cab), but it becomes dangerously close to pseudo-softbody. I dare say it's a tad more satisfying crashing a car into a truck and seeing it get totally cubed, though it does tend reveal how the deformation system works a little too well, so the "magic" is a little bit lost. The deformation wasn't carried into Road Rage to signal car health though, keeping Burnout 2's version and it looks really weak in comparison. Speaking of Road Rage, I think car health is universal, totalling after the same number of wrecks rather than weight bias and other factors, which kind of sucks because it's much easier to wreck with the aforementioned physics difference.

So, is it different to the PAL/NTSC versions of the demo? No, but yes. Gameplay is 1:1 with the rest, but the loading screens have been localised. I didn't translate them for the video (though I should have), but the tips talk about how Impact Time works in contrast to the English version talking about Boost mechanics. Oh, and the promo screen namedropping Downtown as Chicago (which I mean it kind of is, really). But it's what's on the disc that's interesting; assets that went unused for the demo were never removed from the disc. That's kind of insane, as demo discs are usually stripped clean. This demo comes with at least five cars in each class, but a handful are also missing. No Specials, and some variants aren't on the disc yet. More interestingly are some of the older designs, such as the Tuned Compact's Z3M-like bodyshape, or the 4WD Heavy Duty actually living up to its name.

The minor graphical corruption during Road Rage is an emulation error.
Links:
Crash Audio Stream:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXh76-4h-f0
TCRF; General coverage on several beta builds, not just this one:
https://tcrf.net/Proto:Burnout_3:_Takedown/Promotional_Disc
The build on Hidden Palace:
Burnout 3: Takedown (Jun 21, 2004 demo)
(you'll have to search for it on hiddenpalace.org, as the link breaks here)

Timestamps:
0:00 - 1:30 Start
1:31 - 3:50 Main Demo
3:51 - 9:19 Menus I: Crash Nav, Records
9:20 - 12:32 Road Rage
12:33 - 12:50 Broken Crash Mode
12:51 - 16:49 Split Screen Mode
16:51 - 17:58 Menus II: Crash Setup, Online
17:59 - 22:57 Beta Cars I: Compact
22:58 - 27:10 Beta Cars II: Muscle
27:11 - 29:18 Beta Cars III: Coupe
29:19 - 31:59 Beta Cars IV: Sports
32:00 - 33:37 Beta Cars V: Super
33:38 - 36:12 Beta Cars VI: Heavyweight
36:13 - 37:09 Audio Pre-Amble
37:10 - 38:32 General Crash Audio
38:33 - 43:25 Impact Time Audio

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