Burnout Revenge (PlayStation 2, Xbox)

Burnout Revenge
Developer: Criterion Games Publisher: Electronic Arts Platforms: PlayStation 2, Xbox Released in JP: October 20, 2005 Released in US: September 13, 2005 Released in EU: September 23, 2005 Released in AU: September 26, 2005 Released in KR: October 24, 2005 This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused modes / minigames. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused cinematics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has revisional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

Burnout Revenge is... well, most fans say it's a Burnout 3.5, which sort of makes sense since it's very similar to the previous game. Still, the controls are tighter, the graphics have been cranked up a notch, and it features an entirely new collection of cars. Also, it's one of the few games on the PlayStation 2 to have online multiplayer.

It was later re-released on the Xbox 360, like many EA games of 2005.

Burnout 3: Takedown Leftovers

Given that this game is essentially Burnout 3.5, it's no surprise that some content from that game remains leftover in this game.

Early HUD Graphics

File Name: GLOBAL.TXD\HUD

A leftover leftover! These graphics were used in the pre-E3 builds of Burnout 3.

Red Boost Flames

As in Burnout 3, Data/vdb.bin allows any playable vehicle to have their boost flame color set to either blue (default) or red. This behavior was used in Burnout 3 exclusively by the Dominator vehicles. No vehicle in this game uses red boost flames, leaving the behavior unused, though it would shortly be reworked for the 360 version to give certain vehicles, such as the 360 Revenge Racer, green boost flames instead of the default blue color.

Text

hello world ru paranoid?
BURNOUT3
burnout3-ps2-2004

These strings appear in the game's executable.

In addition, globalXX.bin, where XX varies by the game's region (US for the USA, EN for the UK etc.), is a carbon copy of the same file from Burnout 3. All strings that apply to both games e.g. save/load dialog, display configuration dialog etc. are used, with all strings that can only apply to Burnout 3, like the song list and list of Signature Takedowns from that game going unused.

Unused Graphics

Checkpoint

File Name: GLOBAL.TXD\check

Graphic for a checkpoint. While checkpoints are present in the game, they are invisible. This would have been used if Time Attack had returned from the previous game.

Crown

File Name: GLOBAL.TXD\crown

It's a crown. Probably intended for multiplayer.

Crash Tour

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\b4choiceiconnav\crashTour.tif

A Crash Tour event button. While Crash Tour was also a singleplayer event earlier in development, it was made multiplayer-only at some point, thus making this icon go unused.

Garage

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\b4choiceiconnav\garage.tif

A button that would've taken you to the garage. Quite useless, since selecting an event would automatically take you to the garage anyway.

Rank Icon Dirt

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\b4choiceiconnav\Rank_dirt01.tif

This icon was used as an overlay for the rank icons to give them more of a dirty look, and is used in earlier Development builds.

Track Outline

File Name: FEMAIN.BIN\detroit\Detroit01_L1.tif

Normally the game uses a yellow trailed dot to show the outline of a track, but there's one texture left in that shows the whole outline, along with an early design of Motor City's view from above.

This more closely resembles to how Burnout 3: Takedown would display tracks.

Placeholders

Input Text

File Name: CAFE.BIN\stdctrl\inputText.tif

Placeholder box that says "Input Text" what more is there to say. There are more placeholders of this style found in the Demo builds.

Unused Sounds

"Crashbreaker Unlock Video"

File Name: Movies.xwb & MOVIES.RWS\33

This is a placeholder audio file for a "Crashbreaker unlock video", which is just a text-to-speech voice saying exactly that. This video would likely have played when Crashbreaker events became available. However, such a video does not exist.

Unused Videos

One of the game's trailers can be found on the disc in two identical files named MULTI and PREVEVNT.

Something particularly noteworthy is the appearance of a few elements from Burnout 3, including Crash pickups of which all the Cash pickups and what appears to be the Heartbreaker can be seen. Burnout 3's red and white ramps can also be seen.

Placeholder Movies

There are placeholder movies for completing all challenges for a track. However, in the movies the names of the tracks are of their real life locations and there are no "final build" movies of this kind.

Filename	Track name	Unused video	Filename	Track name	Unused video
ALL_DT_N	Motor City		ALL_FL_N	Sunshine Keys
ALL_HK_N	Central Route		ALL_LA_N	Angel Valley
ALL_NP_N	Lone Peak		ALL_RM_N	Eternal City
ALL_SW_N	White Mountain		ALL_TK_N	Eastern Bay

Early/Unused Text

Buying Cars

According to these strings, it would appear that you were originally meant to unlock cars by purchasing them instead of completing events and challenges. This was also advertised in a flyer for the game in Burnout 3, mentioning that having a Burnout 3 save when starting Revenge would give you a bonus on in-game cash. This method of unlock was instead used for getting the Dominator Assassin in the PS2/Xbox versions of the game.

String ID	String
4C318102	%1 PURCHASED!
90DD1AFD	BUY
BE952B8F	BUY NOW
D9F3052A	BUY THIS CAR FOR $%1
F2E73BB1	CAR PURCHASED!
6F2B500F	YOU NEED TO BUY A %1 CAR TO ENTER THIS EVENT.
FCCFB1E2	YOU NEED TO BUY A CAR FROM %1 TO ENTER THIS EVENT.
8BC88174	YOU NEED TO BUY THE %1 TO ENTER THIS EVENT.

T-Bone Takedown

These strings refer to the T-Bone Takedown, which is performed by slamming head-on into the side of an opponent to take them down. While it it's possible to do a T-Bone takedown ingame, it's only referred simply as "Takedown!".

String ID	String
08AE428B	T-BONE
A066F69F	T-BONE TAKEDOWNS
B1E0403D	T-BONE TAKEDOWNS
CECDC015	T-BONED

Production

There's an unused blank string in the press start screen with the name $Production (DE8A05EF). It's a leftover from earlier builds, and can be seen being used in the Demo build.

Demo	Unused	Restored

Rank Names

The executable contains the original names for all 11 ranks in the game. It can be seen in-game only when using nulled strings. They are all prefixed with FE and have no spaces, but just for readability, they've been fixed for this table below.
Some rank names such as RECKLESS and DANGEROUS still remain in the final game, but were repurposed for a different rank.

	Early		Final
1	MOSTLY HARMLESS	1	HARMLESS
2	LEARNER	2	UNSAFE
3	AMATEUR	3	RECKLESS
4	TROUBLEMAKER	4	OFFENSIVE
5	RECKLESS	5	FEARLESS
6	ANGRY	6	DANGEROUS
7	DANGEROUS	7	INSANE
8	DEADLY	8	MANIAC
9	BRUTAL	9	ASSASSIN
10	REVENGE	10	DOMINATOR
11	ULTIMATE REVENGE	11	ELITE

"Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas"

FEMAIN.BIN\news contains the first three paragraphs of Why Smart People Defend Bad Ideas, an essay written by Scott Berkun.

We all know someone that’s intelligent, but who occasionally defends obviously bad ideas. Why does this happen? How can smart people take up positions that defy any reasonable logic? Having spent many years working with smart people I’ve catalogued many of the ways this happens, and I have advice on what to do about it. I feel qualified to write this essay as I’m a recovering smart person myself and I’ve defended several very bad ideas. So if nothing else this essay serves as a kind of personal therapy session. However, I fully suspect you’ll get more than just entertainment value (“Look, Scott is stupider than we thought!”) out of what I have to say on this topic.Success at defending bad ideasThe monty python argument sketchI’m not proud to admit that I have a degree in Logic and Computation from Carnegie Mellon University. Majoring in logic is not the kind of thing that makes people want to talk to you at parties, or read your essays. But one thing I did learn after years of studying advanced logic theory is that proficiency in argument can easily be used to overpower others, even when you are dead wrong. If you learn a few tricks of logic and debate, you can refute the obvious, and defend the ridiculous. If the people you’re arguing with aren’t as comfortable in the tactics of argument, or aren’t as arrogant as you are, they may even give in and agree with you. The problem with smart people is that they like to be right and sometimes will defend ideas to the death rather than admit they’re wrong. This is bad. Worse, if they got away with it when they were young (say, because they were smarter than their parents, their friends, and their parent’s friends) they’ve probably built an ego around being right, and will therefore defend their perfect record of invented righteousness to the death. Smart people often fall into the trap of preferring to be right even if it’s based in delusion, or results in them, or their loved ones, becoming miserable. (Somewhere in your town there is a row of graves at the cemetery, called smartypants lane, filled with people who were buried at poorly attended funerals, whose headstones say “Well, at least I was right.”)

Traffic Check

• While the feature and Traffic Attack gamemode are healthly and untouched, some car damage-related stuff were changed. In the demo, when you checked a traffic vehicle, body parts would fall off, such as doors, hood, ect. In the final version, they remain attached to the vehicle, but they still deform. This was most likely done to prevent further physics simulation for such objects and/or slowdowns. However, in regular crashes and in Crash mode, the body parts will literaly fly everywhere.
• Traffic Check was added later in development, as in the intro movie when you boot up the game, the player wrecks by hitting a same way small-sized vehicle.

Regional Differences

Online Mode

The Online option was removed from the Japanese release of Burnout Revenge.

European/American	Japanese

Different Text

Car Select Menu

The line that shows the strength of a car's Crashbreaker is different between the North American and European releases. The word "Colour" has also been re-spelled as "Color" for the American release.

European	American

Crash Courses

Crash Junctions are named Crash Intersections in the North American release.

European	American

Platform Differences

Despite being pretty much the same game all around, there are a few very minor differences still spotted between the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions.

Loading Screen

The initial loading bar is white in the PlayStation 2 release and pink in the Xbox release. The people at Criterion must've had a field day with the loading bar color, because in the pre-release Demo builds they had at least three other colors used for the loading bar.

PlayStation 2	Xbox

Car Select Menu

The Xbox version only lists one car at a time in the Car Select menu, unlike PlayStation 2, where you can see the name of one car in each direction of the list. Another thing to note is that the Xbox version doesn't have button text in all capital letters.

PlayStation 2	Xbox

White Mountain Clouds

The clouds that are located in White Mountain have a way higher level of intensity on Xbox. This was likely an oversight, since in the later Xbox 360 release, the cloud intensity was reduced back to the amount that's used on PlayStation 2.

PlayStation 2	Xbox