Burnout Dominator PSP screens finally screech into view

March has been confirmed as the release date for the next Burnout title on PSP.

Dominator's focus is very much on the driving, therefore avoiding the crash-fest the series had become. As such, the idea is to flirt with danger by taming your uniquely handling racing machine and taking it to its – and the road's – absolute limits while avoiding civilian traffic in the game's mix of urban and rural settings.

Reinforcing the racing spirit is the return of the titular 'burnout' dynamic (that is, keeping the boost on for the entire duration of the gauge) from the game's earlier console iterations, which together with the new Maniac mode – a challenging timed affair, involving the need to perform multiple burnouts, drifting, near-miss encounters, big air and shortcut taking – really focuses things back on driving skill.

That's not to say you shouldn't expect some car battling action, of course – it's at the heart of the series, after all. In fact, an element of this is actively encouraged by the introduction of seconds-saving signature shortcuts for each of the tracks – these are only opened by performing a signature Takedown on the appropriate track, while Domination points are also handed out for taking out rivals in the game's main mode.

If it's human competition you seek, then the promised ad-hoc head-to-head six-player action should keep you busy, and the inclusion of Scoresync functionality (which automatically compares scores and race times between PSPs) further adds to the rivalry.

Infrastructure play is not expected, but online support will apparently take the form of downloadable extra tracks, available post-release.

Finally, EA claims the handling has been optimised for PSP, with the responsiveness of the D-pad being paid particular attention to. Which is exactly what we'll be doing as soon as we get our hands on playable code (click 'Track It!' to be notified the moment more Burnout Dominator news goes live).