There are a lot of ways people can get games early, knowing people at the actual game companies is only one way.
Gamespot is usually better about stating differances between systems:
Burnout 3 has online support for up to eight players on both the PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, though when it comes to actually putting all the players into one race, your maximum limit is six contestants. Most of the game's modes--from single race, to a variety of crash modes, to team road rage--are available for play online. The game has an extensive set of leaderboards that will rank you in a variety of categories, and you're able to restrict races to specific ranks or series of cars when creating a game just to keep things fair. The best thing that can be said about the online support in Burnout 3 is that it works very, very well. If one player has a particularly laggy connection, you might see that car skip around the course a bit, but for the most part, the game handles all six drivers--as well as a full complement of traffic to dodge--amazingly. Notably, the slow-motion portion of crash aftertouch is removed when you're playing online, which gives online play a slightly different feel.
Both the PS2 and Xbox versions of the game support voice chat and have "quickmatch" options to get you into a race quickly. Xbox Live owners might be puzzled by some of the EA-specific modifications that the publisher has made to the standard Xbox Live feature set, but what really matters is that you can find a game and get into a game with very little trouble. The game is playable with players from around the world, though those with NTSC copies of the game won't be able to play against PAL users due to the speed and timing changes inherent in making a game for both standards. Just like in the world tour mode, you'll earn points for your online performance, and these go toward unlockable cars.
...Burnout 3 has a pretty incredible physics model working behind the scenes that makes the darkly humorous crashes worth watching every single time. Both games have support for 16:9 displays, and the Xbox version pulls ahead by also offering 480p support. Both versions look awesome on their respective platforms, but when you compare the two, the Xbox version wins the fight easily.
Make no mistake. Burnout 3's audio is great. Actually, the sounds of driving, from the roar of your engine, to the rush of wind as you pass oncoming traffic, to the loud thunks of your car shifting gears, to the bass-heavy whoosh that kicks in when you hit your boost, are incredible. However, these sounds are counterbalanced by a few negatives. The game is missing a few key noises that would have added to the sense of realism. For instance, you really don't hear much when you scrape your car against a guard rail. It would seem that the obvious shower of sparks would be accompanied by some sort of grinding noise. But the real culprits are the game's announcer and soundtrack. Burnout 3's soundtrack is treated like a radio station called Crash FM. The DJ, a knucklehead alt-rock jock called Striker, is merely annoying to begin with, but when you hear him repeat the same handful of phrases time and time again, you'll do the right thing and turn him off in the game's options menu.
The soundtrack is full of a bunch of populist indie rock and pop-punk that might be doing well on the radio these days, but the tempo and style of the music doesn't necessarily mesh with very-high-speed driving. On the Xbox, you'll fortunately be able to use the custom soundtrack feature to fix this to your liking. On the PS2, you're out of luck unless you want to just turn the music down entirely. Considering how awesome the sounds of driving are in the game, this actually isn't a bad choice. Finally, the Xbox version supports Dolby Digital 5.1, while the PlayStation 2 only supports Pro Logic II. The end result is that bass effects--such as the sound of boosting--are much clearer and deeper on the Xbox.
...It's also worth mentioning that the loading times in Burnout 3 are a little longer than you'd probably like them to be. The Xbox is much faster than the noticeably poky PlayStation 2 version, but you'll still be waiting a bit longer than you'd like, regardless of which version you're playing. That's mostly because you won't want to be waiting at all before your next race or crash.
