To way oversimplify the issue: there are "hidden" transmission types/modes that are faster than the usual options, and I'm writing this so the community/moderators can make an informed decision on whether or not to allow them.

The exact questions that need answering are listed after this post. If you skip over everything to read them, they probably won't make sense, so please read the rest of the post first.

Transmission types

When you go into the control options, you'll find this:

There are two control options available to users: automatic and manual sequential. Most of the currently submitted runs use the latter. However, under the right circumstances, there can be additional options:

This third control option, H pattern (or "gated"), shifts faster than sequential. This wouldn't be a problem if it were available at all times on all platforms, but while this seems to be the case on PC, on console it's hidden unless a supported wheel is connected. This means PC players (and console players that own a supported wheel) have an acceleration advantage over console players that only have a controller.

Braking technique

Slamming the vehicle into reverse and using throttle and brake together leads to a braking advantage over sequential. I'm not sure how difficult this would be to use in practice since it messes with the steering a bit, but as a standalone maneuver it's fairly easy to do.

Launch advantage

I performed limited testing with the DeJong MXR and found that being able to start the race in 2nd gear provided a slight acceleration improvement over starting in gear 1, which sequential is forced to do. This is somewhat vehicle-specific so I'm not sure how widespread the advantage is.

Auto/manual clutch

Whereas Dirt 3 uses a dedicated fourth transmission type, H pattern w/ clutch, to allow the user to intentionally enable manual clutch control, Dirt 2 uses a separate option that's hidden from the user but is still present in the profile. Normally, this is set to auto clutch, which manifests as a small delay between gears and is often accompanied by hitting the rev limiter if using H pattern. When set to manual, use of the clutch is ironically unnecessary since gear changes are instant. Acceleration increases dramatically as a result. This works with sequential too, with equivalent speed to H pattern.

While I lack a suite of wheels to test and haven't yet checked the relevant code, based on the PC game's action maps I believe manual clutch control is enabled on at least one of the supported wheels, the Logitech G25, but is disabled otherwise. (The G27, Driving Force, and MS SideWinder FFB potentially enable it too.) I also believe the clutch control is rebindable in this scenario. The necessary tools for extracting PS3/X360 files are unavailable and I don't want to spend a bunch of time making them just for this, so I can't check their action maps but I know they differ from PC.

The game also has another hidden setting that sets the clutch pedal to be used as a brake instead of a clutch. Judging by this Steam post, I believe this is the default behaviour and would only be changed if one of the above wheels is used. Fortunately, since there's no need to actually press the clutch it doesn't affect runs.

Given these findings and under the assumption that at least the G25 enables the manual clutch, an acceleration advantage is granted to those who have such a wheel.

Recently, a new strat was used by myself and Demo to set times on Burnout License:

1. At the start of the run, using a bike, start an event at a junction where a car's Burning Route is.
2. Use the load option in the save/load menu to return to the junkyard.
3. Switch to a car, then restart and complete the event.

Because the junction was saved, it will start as the Burning Route despite being the bike route and not having the right car. The Burning Route car will unlock and become usable. In this case, we used the GT Concept Burning Route and switched to the Cavalry to unlock the GT Flame.

Now on to the big question: What category/ruleset should this fall under?

There are some things I'd like everyone to consider here. First and foremost, to be absolutely clear, this is a glitch being exploited to set faster times and would violate the current ruleset of all license runs. This is new to us since no glitches were previously known to affect license runs, meaning the rules were set somewhat arbitrarily. Now, if people want, the rules could be changed to allow glitches in these categories provided they can be done entirely offline. After all, the ultimate goal of any speedrun is to reach the goal as fast as possible. However, in earlier discussions on this issue, there were people who wanted glitchless runs to remain the primary category and for glitched runs to be a separate category, or even multiple categories. So this is up for debate, and I'd value any ideas anyone has.

There's also some confusion regarding whether this particular glitch counts as Paradise Cars Only since it uses bikes for the glitch. It seems obvious until you read the rules, which state, "this is the same as the 'Without DLC' subcategory on the original game's leaderboards." Problem is, the original game's rules don't limit it to Paradise Cars; they read, "DLC vehicles, timesavers, and Big Surf Island access are not allowed." Okay, bikes were a free DLC pack included in v1.4, so that means they aren't allowed, right? Well, not quite, because the original game's Full Game rules also disallow DLC vehicles (except island vehicles) even though it requires the use of bikes. My best guess here is it was supposed to mean no paid DLC vehicles, which would mean bikes are allowed in Full Game, and that would extend to the license runs. It's just that there was never any reason to use bikes in a car license run previously, so nobody did, and that led to the Remastered rules reading as though limiting runs to Paradise Cars is the same as the Without DLC rules. Regardless, it's obvious the rules need to be clarified and I'd value feedback on which direction to go with them—should we truly limit runs to PCO or just exclude paid DLC?

Here are some mods which are allowed in runs. They either fix the game or bring it to parity with console versions. The mod loader included in BPR Modder is required for all of them.

• Core Bugfixes (via BPR Modder) - needed for some players to run the game.
• Unfinished stuff - Various fixes, particularly disabling the delay when leaving the junkyard after changing vehicles, which brings it to parity with Xbox One. Other options have no effect on gameplay. Disabling cursor clipping is recommended for windowed mode users.
• Webcam disabler - Forces the game to not use webcams, shortening event finishes. Brings it to parity with console.
• Save/load adder - Re-adds the save/load feature, enabling bike in car event bugs. Brings it to parity with console.
• Saved window position - QoL mod for windowed mode users. No effect on gameplay.
• Fix lost focus bug - QoL mod which (sometimes) stops alt+tab from losing focus and forcing a game restart. No effect on gameplay.
• Exception reporter - Reports details when the game crashes. No effect on gameplay.

Core Bugfixes also corrects the downforce of the Toy 88 and fixes junkyard category selection rollover. The latter is also an option in unfinished stuff (disable this if using with Core Bugfixes). These would impact runs if they were used, thus the disclosure here, but no since current runs would benefit from them they're acceptable.

Other mods may be allowed if they don't affect the run. Contact a moderator if you're uncertain whether one would be allowed.

Greetings, dearest Tesco fanboys! Like you, I can't get enough of this game, so can we get a leaderboard for the full version as well? It doesn't have Tesco branding but don't worry, I'm sure we can find a way to add some :P

If you haven't seen it yet, behold:

I'd like some feedback from runners on this. At the moment, no runs have been done for this category, but there are people planning to run it soon so now's the time to set the rules in stone.

I've thought of three options (if you have more ideas, feel free to share):

1. Restrict the mainland portion of runs to Paradise Cars only and the island portion to BSI Cars only. (In other words, make Full Game runs identical to running Main Game PCO + Big Surf Island BSICO.)
2. Restrict the mainland portion of runs to Paradise Cars, but allow both Paradise and BSI Cars in the island portion. (This is how the original game's Without DLC category works.)
3. Allow Paradise Cars and BSI Cars to be used freely throughout both the mainland and island portions of the run.

What do you think we should do?

Vehicle handling, particularly drifting, is affected by framerate. The higher the framerate, the more the car will slide. In normal cars, it also slows down more during a slide. This isn't the case in drift cars, but I haven't done any real testing on those. TL;DR lower framerates are better.

Below are the results of some testing from the past couple days, performed using a CCXR with full eBay bonuses on Nürburgring GP Circuit. Each test pass simply consists of going around the first corner as fast as possible. The game is recorded, the recording is gone through frame by frame, and the minimum speed (in km/h) the car dropped to is logged. Minimums were chosen because using the average of each test pass would unduly minimize the differences caused by different framerates.

Full disclaimer, it isn't possible to test this with 100% accuracy, but I did my best and spent several hours doing a few hundred passes to try to average out any inconsistencies.

I'm no statistician, but this should be enough to get some idea of what's going on. The most important thing here is the average without outliers (average of the minimum speeds of each test pass), which shows a clear downward trend in speed as the framerate increases. This is also reflected by the minimum without outliers (lowest minimum speed of any test pass), which follows the same trend.

The maximum (highest minimum speed of any test pass) is notable because it actually stays relatively consistent. Unfortunately, I can't show this easily in data, but the reason is that these fastest test passes don't involve drifting. There still seems to be a slight downtrend with higher framerates, but I can't conclusively say that lower framerates are faster—more research is warranted.

Even assuming high framerates can be as fast as low framerates, the data proves their consistency isn't equivalent. Despite me being objectively worse at the game at lower framerates (due to a combination of heightened input latency and motion sickness), the minimum speed at 15 and 30 FPS was significantly higher than at 120 or 240. I attempted to show this in the rightmost column, standard deviation, with mixed success. The low-speed outliers only existing at higher framerates also supports this. (If you're wondering, 0 km/h is a spin—and I was unable to spin the car at lower framerates no matter how hard I tried. Maybe initiating a drift is more difficult?)

Finally, to touch on the sub-30 FPS numbers, these are below console performance and generally considered unplayable. However, I suffered through it to see whether scaling continues beyond 30. Long story short, they appear to have diminishing returns. Despite this, there were some results that were out of line, like the 121 km/h result at 20 FPS, and so out of caution I have to recommend that framerates below 30 FPS be officially banned from use in speedruns to maintain parity with consoles (and also to be fair to people who can't take the abuse of low framerates).

Anyway, that's all for this loveliness. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks @Night_95 for insisting the problem exists.

Edit 2024-03-10: Apparently all cars have a "skid type" and drift cars don't lose speed because they use the drift skid type. They're still less consistent at higher framerates, but the extra sliding might be beneficial if you're going for high scores.

Also, just to be clear, the decrease in consistency scales linearly with framerate. That means going from, say, 30 to 60 FPS is less impactful to your times than going from 120 to 240 FPS, even though it's visually more impactful. That's why I'd still recommend playing at 60 if you can't handle 30. Funnily enough, that also means ultra high framerates like 1000 FPS could make the game literally unplayable.

Over the years, a number of people have asked why Any% and 100% categories don't exist for main game runs, so here's a quick explanation.

Prior to May 2020, Any% and 100% existed. Any% was Burnout License. 100% was Elite License. Simple, right? Not really.

Any%, by definition, ends when the credits roll because that's normally when the game is complete. In this game, though, getting the Burnout License does nothing. No special awards received, most cars locked, all events reset, collectibles not complete, and rivals still roaming.

The real reason the credits roll is that playtesters said the game was too long, and this was the concession: have Atomika set a low goal for the player and roll the credits after that low goal is passed.

So, the Elite License was supposed to be the end of the game. The real "Any%". All events are done, most cars are unlocked, and the gold cars are awarded, but not everything is done. That means it's not 100%. The Criterion Elite License is 100%.

So why not call them Any% and 100%? Consistency, for one. Shorter main game runs are already license runs, why would the longer ones not be? Also, existing runs titled Any% would confuse people if the label was shifted up one rung. So, categories got renamed to what they are now, which is generally less controversial.

Hopefully this clears things up for people. I'll be linking this thread the next time someone asks and yes, I'm only writing this because someone asked again.

Thanks to the site update I realized there could be improvements in some areas, hear me out.

Because some glitches are PC only, a separation needs to exist, but there are no runs at all in the Console category. There are active console runners but I suspect they've been accidentally ostracized by this separation. So why not revise levels to have one category for normal runs and a secondary category for runs that use glitches? Not only would this allow console players to compete directly with PC players, it would also allow PC players to do runs without glitches and remain competitive. All platforms would be effectively identical. Glitch runs would have to be found and moved manually, but there aren't that many so it shouldn't be too much effort (I think the Hurrah Pass respawn is the only one currently, barring the yet-unused LA respawn). Not sure what the categories would be named, restricted/unrestricted, glitchless/glitched? Mods can decide.

There's the small matter of what constitutes a glitch, like how the huge Peninsula Run cut isn't technically an OOB glitch and wall riding/wall bouncing is technically part of the game's physics and not a glitch. Personally, I'd ignore those and use the glitch category for respawns, true OOBs and other glitches exclusive to one platform, but once again it's for the mods to decide. Anything would work as long as the rules are clear.

Also, if it wasn't obvious from the title, this is entirely separate from full game categories. Those play more of a role due to loads and VO skips along with the PC only respawn glitches. I guess it could be switched to LRT and have a similar separation to the above, but that'd mean recalculating times and putting significant effort in, so I won't advocate for it.

Anyway. Thoughts?

I grabbed screenshots of the top 10 on every in-game leaderboard on every platform. Sharing them here for those who want to compare their times.

Google Drive folder (don't know of a better way to host albums, sorry)

• UPDATE—I've dumped the entire PS3 leaderboard as of 2024-04-09. You can find the data here: Google Drive
• UPDATE 2—PS3 leaderboard redumped as of 2025-04-05. Some inaccuracies that were in the older dump have been resolved.

Couple notes—PC is generally best for comparison since people on PS3/360 often have times faster than what's possible via time trials. Only a couple times on PC are like this and they stand out enough that you'll know. The PS3 runs are real despite the times, which are possible because they went online and abused drafting to get better times.

Another thing is that PC has cheated times using trainers and stuff. You'll be able to spot these pretty easily most of the time. If there's some confusion as to whether a time is legit, you can compare to catty7073's times since most (if not all) of their runs are legitimate and they're usually near the top. Alternatively, you can ask me about it here or on Discord, because I was around when ghosts worked and mostly remember which runs were cheated.

Anyway, that's it, hope this helps some runners out there set some targets.

Post your skill game runs in this thread. These have the same requirements as other runs - the platform has to be specified and a video with the time visible is needed. Runs are assumed to be glitchless for now, but I can add the other categories if runs are done in them.

You can find all the leaderboards on this spreadsheet - click me! The forums unfortunately have no good way of displaying the data, so this is the best we're gonna get.

Hey all! I've been spending some time doing up the page for the original game and want to make some changes to BPR's page as well, mostly to address recent site changes which make it even more difficult to navigate ILs than previously.

The plan is to reduce the number of IL categories so that all runs can be displayed on one page, without having to scroll from side to side. There seem to be two ways to accomplish this, though of course you can suggest more:

1. Merge car and bike categories into one leaderboard.
2. Merge the normal and no traffic categories into one leaderboard, replacing them with a variable (or a subcategory?).

The second option is implemented on the original game's page as a variable, so you can check the ILs there for examples. (I'll probably end up changing it at some point, though.)

Both options could technically be implemented at the same time, but right now I'm leaning towards only using the first one since bikes are mostly a dead category. Cars and bikes are split because the game splits them, but can anyone think of a reason to follow that model? Because I honestly feel like they're not even valuable as a variables here.

I'm also planning on adding a damage variable to runs and lifting the ban on modded damage simply because it's so ubiquitous, but we'll see how that pans out.

Anyway, I'm keen to hear ideas and thoughts on this, kinda wish it could be kept as-is but it's nearly impossible to view all the times on the boards at the same time now. Hopefully the sr.c team will take a course in responsive web design and spare us this crap in the future.

Due to speedrun.com's rather inept design and flaws with the existing game rules, some changes have been implemented. Those changes, and the reasons for them, are as follows:

1. There is now a Version field. Due to various server shutdowns and the deletion of updates from official servers, among other issues, the rule requiring runners to be on the latest game version has become untenable. To rectify this, runners may now choose which version of the game they are on. Refer to the the version identification guide if you need help finding your version number.
2. IL categories have been simplified. The Version field replaces per-version categories, while a Traffic field has been added and replaces the traffic/no traffic categories. This means categories no longer go off the screen. An Any Glitch category has also been added for parity with BPR's ILs.
3. A Damage field has been added to ILs due to its ubiquity in Road Rules and known effect on times. Modded damage values are allowed, but 2 and above must be marked as max damage. If you are using a value below 2 which is not listed, there is an option to enter a custom value.
4. Mods for PC which re-enable DLC are allowed. This means the Toys, Legendary Cars and Boost Specials included in the game. This exception has become necessary following the server shutdown.
5. Mods for PC which add console-exclusive DLC are allowed for Road Rules. There is a specific version for this in order to differentiate runs. DO NOT use these mods for full-game categories or other ILs or your run will be rejected.

Some of these will likely be controversial, mainly the ones regarding mods, but I feel like the leaderboards need to become more accessible to the people who actually do runs. The process of making IL categories visible again ended up being the perfect opportunity to do that.

The traffic and damage fields will probably be brought over to BPR's ILs at some point. Luckily the rest isn't applicable at all, keeps it simple.

The game version is now required to be submitted with runs. This guide is meant to help identify which version of the game you are using.

If you have not installed any updates, your version can be identified here:

• Burnout Paradise (PS3/Xbox 360, disc): 1.0
• Burnout Paradise (Xbox 360, download): 1.0
• Burnout Paradise (PS3, download): 1.4
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (all platforms, disc): 1.6/PC 1.0
• Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box (PC, download): 1.7/PC 1.1
• Burnout Paradise (Xbox One, backward compatibility): 1.9

If you are still having trouble determining which version of the game you are using, there are several ways to find out. The three easiest require no inputs and can be found below.

Method 1: Loading screen

Method 2: Videos

Method 3: Title screen

If your game is version 1.6-1.8, you can determine the exact version by how large the category list is, even if the DLC vehicles are unavailable:

If your game version is 1.4-1.5, you can determine the exact version by checking for trophies. Version 1.5 is PS3 exclusive; if you are on Xbox 360, you have version 1.4.

Versions 1.1 and 1.2 no longer exist and will likely never be found, so you don't need to be concerned with these versions. If you believe you have one of these, join the Discord and ping me.

A couple people have asked recently about how the rules apply to different glitches and mods. This is meant to clarify that.

Starting today, a new IL category has been added, tentatively named "Glitched". In short, this new category allows any and all glitches, regardless of how they affect gameplay. Please note this category does not allow mods, only the glitches available in the game.

Outside the Glitched category, the rules are simple: no mods or glitches that affect gameplay are allowed. The one exception is runs without traffic, which have a designated category. Following changes in 12/2021, any damage may be used provided the type of damage (or value, if modded) is provided.

When it comes to mods or glitches that don't affect gameplay, i.e. visual mods, they are allowed. These rules are not meant to stop you from using a neon purple car.

If you have any questions, please reply to this post or, even better, ping me on the Burnout Discord, available at the link in the sidebar.

Hey everyone! After a good week of redoing things, the categories have been overhauled with a license-based structure, new names and clearer rules. You can see the exact changes by comparing the BP and BPR pages, and recommendations on further changes are always welcome.

With that done and new players starting to speedrun, now's a great time to create some new categories! A BSI "All Collectibles" category has already been added and I'll be doing a run soon; ILs have also been split into traffic/no traffic. We'd like to hear more of your suggestions - what's a category/ILs you think would be a great fit?

There's been a lot of talk in the Discord lately about 1.0 being cheating, so here's an "official" post asking for input on a new system that would satisfy everyone equally. I haven't thought about the main categories yet, so we'll stick to ILs for now.

First thing we need to do is actually understand what's wrong. The game has three major versions: 1.0 - Initial release 1.6 - ==The Ultimate Box. Nerfed vehicles to be more "noob-friendly". Made events easier. The PC game is this version. 1.9 - Current version. Allows online play, which enables lots of glitches. Added the Street Rod (best car for road rules by far). Increased the Cavalry's and SI-7's acceleration significantly.

With this in mind, we'll take the Cavalry Burning Route as an example. Say there are 3 runs - a 48s, 38s, and 45s. They were all near-perfect runs taking the same route, on the same platform, so how are they so different? Easy: the car is different, because of the game version.

In this situation, there are three options: make three cross-platform categories for each version and remove the PC/console categories, ban 1.0 and 1.6 from consoles and keep PC separate, or leave it and let people bicker in their disappointment.

Personally, I'd lean towards the first option. It would look something like this on each IL: 1.0-1.5 1.6-1.8 (PC) 1.9 Bikes

If possible, 1.9 would be added to all road rules but only the Cavalry and SI-7 Burning Routes. Not sure if speedrun.com allows for that kind of thing though.

Any thoughts? Ideas? Comments?