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> Results: Burnout Dominator
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The ESRB Says
Violence: GamerDad forced other cars to crash and exploded our own cars in an effort to take out rivals. Burnout Dominator combines skill-based and ultra-dangerous racing with nice graphics and physics in a package that is challenging and entertaining, but ultimately feels repetitive and lacking something extra to set it apart. The basic goal of the game is to drive as dangerously as possible in order to gain 'boost'. Fill up the 'boost bar' and earn a Supercharge. Use the Supercharge up in a single shot to earn a 'Burnout' - which gives you even more points for reckless driving, so you can earn 'Burnout chains' which will quickly rack up the points. The game is solid and looks great (the draw-distance is amazing for the speeds you travel in supercharge mode), and the core 'World Tour' mode is just loads of fun - but it already feels old before your first 'Trophy' or 'Dominator Challenge'. Basically it feels like the first few races are your tutorial - how to drift, earn a burnout, do a near-miss, take-down opponents, and so on. Then you get a Maniac Mode race (this is a new addition to the series) that combines those skills and adds little else. There are also some variants of race challenges, but not much else. There is a definite skill component, but it plays more like an arcade racer. This means that unlocking new cars is more about getting at more content than the cars themselves - this is not like Test Drive Unlimited where you are constantly balancing technical factors between different models of cars in the various series. This is an all-out danger-fest that has some great moments, but feels awkward when running what seems like a tutorial mode again after a dozen or so hours of serious challenges.  
Burnout series games are inherently about driving as dangerously as possible to rack up points. There is a considerable amount of skill required to do this, since driving through oncoming traffic without it becoming just a series of cinematic crash sequences takes some practice. But however realistic the game looks, once you are driving through your first maniac mode you will know that this is really just an arcade-mode racer. The level of violence here greatly outstrips the aforementioned Test Drive Unlimited - whereas that was about challenging your own abilities, this is actually closer in feeling to MACH: Modified Air Combat Heroes where you can compensate for skill shortcomings with some well-timed violence. This is not realistic in the way it feels or plays - just in the way it just looks. Based on the focus on violence and reckless driving I'm sticking with the 10+ rating, but many younger kids could handle this quite easily.
Other Platforms: PS2: Looks great, solid game throughout. No online multiplayer. PSP: Solid game, looks excellent, pretty much identical to the PS2 version - only ad-hoc multiplayer. Comments? Chat about it in our forums! Format For Printing | Tell A Friend | Digg | Slashdot | del.icio.us | Buy This Game Home > Review Archive > Video Games > Results: Burnout Dominator |
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