“Burnout: Dominator”
Electronic Arts
Sony PSP
There’s nothing quite like blazing in a fine automobile around sharp turns and past oncoming traffic.
But, for those not wishing to wind up upside-down in a ditch in a flaming wreck, there’s “Burnout: Dominator.”
The PSP has no shortage of racing games, traditionally a video game staple due to the simplicity of the design. However, Criterion has set the bar quite high for some time now with its Burnout franchise.
The latest installment eschews the carnage-heavy focus of its predecessor, “Burnout Legends.” Conspicuously absent from this outing is the popular Crash mode that had players attempt to cause the most devastating car accidents possible.
Instead, the focus is on speed and speed alone. Racing events in the game now challenge players to focus on the mechanics in this high-speed racer.
Hitting the pedal to the metal is the order of the day, with players being rewarded for never letting up on the gas (or the nitrous).
Managing to burn off one’s boost without crashing horrifically results in massive point multipliers that are crucial for snagging those gold medals.
Visually, the game is an impressive piece of work that lacks the garish white lines resulting from texture-tearing that occasionally made tracks look like crude jigsaw puzzles in the last iteration. Most importantly, these visual improvements don’t come at the cost of a smooth frame rate, an element critical for any racing game.
A slickly-updated interface now details such minutiae as how far gamers have drifted their cars.
The new Maniac mode pits players against a clock to try and drive as recklessly as possible to rack up points.
The overall experience is improved with such niceties as hidden shortcuts (revealed by crashing opponents into them, of course) and unlockable cars peppered throughout. While the game plays quickly, the replay value of trying to win every gold medal is made all the more rewarding by the goal-oriented gameplay. As in life, sometimes there’s more to success than getting first place.
But, like most EA games, Dominator is plagued by EA Trax ““ a painful top-40 mishmash of musical mediocrity. Fortunately, it can be turned off via the menu.
Then again, having to listen to the chorus of Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” in English, Japanese, Mandarin and Spanish might be just the thing to get players to drive into the path of oncoming traffic.