Operation Burnout Forums: s-j - Viewing Profile

As it's Christmas we thought it would be fun to share with you a couple of secrets. So this news story is almost like a mini-podcast - consider this to be one of the fabled 'missing' podcasts - likes we ones that never made it to air, the ones the lawyers just would not let us release, the ones that 'EA MADE US DO.', or other Crash TV related in-jokes.

We had a really good time with Burnout Paradise once development of the main game was complete. We were very interested in the whole concept of downloadable content, and we knew that we wanted to approach it very differently and push it as far as we could. A downloadable Island was started almost immediately after the main game was built. This Island was built around the concept of a Docks/Shipyard area. As we finished the game, Stunt Run was THE game mode that we were all playing. We also felt that, along with Ranked Racing, Stunt Run would be the most popular game mode online.

Since creating Burnout Revenge, we had created some powerful telemetry tools. These allowed us to get accurate daily information as to how players were faring with Paradise. We got to see, each and every day stuff like where players crashed, what cars they drove, and which events and modes were the most played. We also receive daily and weekly information from the format holders as to how many Achievements are unlocked each day. At the time of release, Trophies were a twinkle in Sony's eye, but that's for another story.

This data told us something powerful very early on. More people were playing the 'Freeburn Challenges' that anything else. So we made the tough decision to stop work on the Island and go back to square one. This would take longer but be better for players in the long term. Thus 'Big Surf Island' was designed - an Island built for eight players doing Challenges together.

We did have ambitious plans for a series of Islands. One was going to be purely off-road based. Hence we created the 'Dust Storm' dune buggy in anticipation for that. Our original dreams for Paradise were to create a series of Islands, all connected to Paradise City and each would focus on a different style of racing game. One Island was going to be completely circuit based - and be all marked up like a modern Formula One circuit!

During this period, Criterion evolved from being a traditional game developer that released a game disc every couple of years to being a live network enabled developer. Not only were were connecting to our players, we were actively responding to and adding to the game in ways that had never been tried before. As we were breaking new ground, it made sense to explore this as much as possible.

Here are some other ideas that were genuinely discussed as potential for DLC (downloadable content)

1. Planes. A lot of Burnout fans already know about this - as we showed flying around in a live podcast. It was really cool to be able to see Paradise City from the air. It did not happen because of the way the game world was built. The city was never meant to be seen from such viewpoints. Think of it like a film set, a very big film set - meant to be seen from certain camera angles and not others.

2. Helicopters! Completely true. We wanted to have both Aerial Challenges and allow flying and driving players to work together. Players would be able to jump into containers swinging below hovering choppers. Even better, those hoops in the Airfield would have been able to be picked up by a heli and flown. That Freeburn Challenge involving jumping through a hoop would have been much more fun if a chopper was carrying it!

3. The Moon! Again, completely true. Someone on the team said that 'players want the moon on a stick when it comes to DLC' We thought that was funny and thought we'd do it. The actual surface of the real Moon was modelled and it was drive-able. Lunar Challenges would have been totally unexpected - as would have been zero gravity Takedowns and Challenges.

The idea was that we would have built a rocket pad on Big Surf. If you reached a certain Rank, or completed a number of specific challenges, you could drive there, press a button and the rocket would launch. Destination - Moon! (Now that would have beaten downloadable car liveries any day!)

4. Motorcycles Versus Cars - This one was always a moot point. Whilst we would love to do it (some of us are die-hard 'Road Rash' 3DO fans) - we thought it best to keep them separate. Mixing Burnout with Road Rash - or Burnout VERSUS Road Rash as we saw it would have led to pandemonium. A bit like dogs and cats living together. Although we remain 'ready to be believed' - it's clear that Cars could easily Takedown Bikes but Bikes can't really Takedown a Car - even with a length of chain...

5. Time Travel - Not many know about this, but it was discussed. On a certain day, a time portal would have opened on the Island. When you jumped through, you would have found yourself on Big Surf, at another point in history. Maybe the Wild West...you could have done some Challenges and then jumped back. (At this point, even some hardened members of The Burnout Team thought this was 'going a bit too far.')

6. Underground - This was once hinted at on our forum. The idea that you could drive down under the city - leading to fast underground tunnels and open areas for Challenges.

7. Boats - This was never prototyped but was discussed. If we had built a series of Islands we would have wanted the player to be able to race to them - in Cars, Planes or even Boats. Hence a few jetties were built into Big Surf. This never went further than a quick discussion. Most likely left on the table for being far too sane. But 'Burnout on the Water' would have been a lot of fun indeed. We all know that boats can jump because we saw it in the film "Live And Let Die.'

So there you go, the first Volume of Secrets from the Burnout Archives revealed.

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