Motorstorm - PS3 review

Full Review

One of four racing games at launch, Motorstorm from Sony aims to break the traditional mode by offering a Mad Max meets Colin McRae Rally.

Created exclusively for the PlayStation 3 the gameplay takes place in a fictitious desert environment similar to the Grand Canon in the USA.

Those wanting to get straight into the action will be pleased there isn't a storyline to pay attention to, and all that you have to do is choose your vehicle and get racing.

The game is broken down into plenty of different tracks albeit it seems all in the desert and there are also plenty of vehicle classes to chose, ranging from motorbikes to trucks. Each has its own set of physics, bike are, as you would expect lighter and more agile while the trucks are ideal for slaming other vehicles into a near by rock face.

To take this one step further each race course has three levels suitable for the three different types of vehicle, basically the lighter the vehicle the higher you should go. Of course in game and its so fast and manic that it never really works like that and to begin with you'll spend most of the time struggling to survive rather than worrying about which turn to take.

Surviving seems to be the key goal as the AI of other racers isn't just to win, it's to ram to you into obstacles as you go. On more than one occasion another car has purposely rammed us off the road with skill and planning, something we've rarely seen in video games before.

Controls are basic - accelerate, brake and boost. Boost might help you whiz past the opposition, but use it too much and you explode, likewise go too fast around a corner and the end result is normally being smashed into a thousand pieces. It’s a case of total destruction rather than having to worry about completing the race with a busted gear stick and crashing has no real damage besides slowing you down.

As you would expect from a console that is boasting to be the most powerful games machine we've ever seen in the home, the graphics are stunning and Evolution studios, the developers, have clearly used their inside track with Sony to get the most out of the machine from day one.

The scenery is amazing with the opening intro blurring the lines between gameplay and reality, in-game and it's just as good as cars collide, crash and race each other at breakneck speed. We especially like the mud spray effect on the screen from cars in front of you.

Verdict

With a soundtrack featuring Nirvana this game plays the extreme card to the max. There is no customisation, no pimp my ride feature and no real realism here. What do you get is an out and out racing game that is a little bit different from your average Ridge Racer or rally racing epic.

Under the shell it is just another racing game that we've seen in a thousand different guises before, but if you like racing, not looking for the realism offered by Formula One and have got a PlayStation 3, this should be on your first bunch of games list.

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