Mark hits the dirt…

By far and away the most infamous of the PlayStation 3’s launch lineup, Evolution Studios’ Motorstorm has more to prove than most on March 23rd. When Sony first unveiled it almost two years ago in video form, Motorstorm literally dropped jaws with its gorgeously gritty dirt-based visuals, raucous rock soundtrack and foot-to-the-floor sense of speed.

But as more details on the rolling demo emerged, it turned out that the video hadn’t been made on Sony’s next-gen hardware at all, but on a PC – which, somewhat misleadingly, was designed merely to provide an idea of the what to expect from the finished product.

Now however, the final version of Motorstorm is nearly upon us – and despite those early crossed wires, is looking likely to justify every bit of controversy it’s caused this past 20-odd months.

Graphical showcase

Motorstorm certainly looks the part. The very highest definition of high-def next-gen visuals, it’s every bit the graphical showcase soon-to-be PS3 owners will expect to see from the hardware.

It’s also about the brownest game we’ve ever seen – but oddly enough, that’s a good thing. Dirt-based racers have been around for several gaming generations, but never conveyed the hazardous and harsh natural ruggedness of Motorstorm’s multi-layered terrain. Dust sprays liberally about with every swerve, jump and perilous cliff face shortcut taken; trucks, buggies and bikes careering across each other’s paths, looking for the best racing line and frequently crashing slow-mo Burnout style in a hail of parts, oil and air bound riders replete with flailing ragdoll animation.

So Motorstorm is one stunning-looking racer; and the singleplayer premise seems equally arresting. Acting as a career mode of sorts, the Festival option sees players descending on a veritable celebration of offroad culture and partaking in a total of 21 events, called Tickets in the game.

The beauty of Motorstorm’s Festival Mode is that it promises to showcase the game’s varied and unpredictable gameplay with a steady and accessible learning curve. Each Ticket presents four races, all offering different vehicle restrictions, with bikes and buggies and quads often partaking side-by-side in a frenetic race to the finish line.

All will handle significantly differently, with the undulating offroad terrain designed to give gamers as much a test against the course and its elements as against some increasingly aggressive – even at times supposedly hostile – opponent driver intelligence, which can spell massive damage for your surprisingly easy-to-wreck vehicle of choice.

pick-up-and-play

Luckily, despite some potentially harsh A.I, Motorstorm promises to be as forgiving as the most pick-up-and-play arcade racers. After crashing you’ll soon be put back on the track, fully respawned and able to use the maximum amount of boosts available – a mechanic borrowed from the Burnout games, but every bit as essential in Motorstorm’s long-lasting courses and adrenaline-fuelled mud medley. And with a diverse control setup – gamers will have the choice of tight analogue control or the more sensitive, harder-to-master SIXAXIS tilt-sensitive steering – this is shaping up to be the defining racer of the PlayStation 3’s launch lineup.

If that’s not appealing enough, then the promise of online play should be positively mouth-watering. It’s been held back from the currently available Japanese version especially for the Western release, so Sony is clearly confident Motorstorm will be something a little bit special online too. Should it turn out to be, then Evolution Studios’ once controversial racer may end up making headlines for all the right reasons. Thankfully we’ve now less than a month of waiting to find out.

Preview by: Mark Scott
Preview Published: 01.03.07