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Motorstorm: Pacific RiftRace in amazing scenic environments that capture some of America's most recognizable desert landmarks - Wide-open plains, harrowing cliff edges, and tight canyon sections
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Average User Rating: 80% (87 Reviews) | |
| 5 / 5 | Until Motorstorm 2's Tropical Thrills, This Is The Best Racer On PS3.
Stevie G "Stevie G" (Manchester, England) - 15 March 2008 The recently released trailer for Motorstorm 2 made me go back and play the original again. Its easy to forget how much of an impact this game has. Visually the game is incredibly detailed, but the actual racing feels realistic. Career modes are shunned in favour of pure racing. These are unlocked after completing the previous event. This does create a few sticking points, escpecially around the Level 4 difficulty mark. Every race is a tense affair, where a slight mistake on the final lap could cost the race. There are a limted amount of tracks, but they take a long time to master. Also the different vehicle classes open them up in completely new ways. Various downloadable packs are available on the PlayStation store, increasing the game longevity, including vehicles and tracks. A time attack download is also available for free, with an ability to post your best times online. Its obvious what needs improving in the sequel, particularly depth and variety. But for pure racing thrills, and an early glimpse of what the PS3 is capable of, Motorstorm is essential. ... Read Full Review » |
| 4 / 5 | Love it / Hate it
Bob "Wessex Lad" (England) - 7 July 2007 Ok the graphics are amazing and sound track is excellent. The feel and environment of the game are bril. The gameplay; sometimes I'm puching the air with excitement at having won a thrilling race, other times I want to kick my PS3 across the room and break stuff after having a hard fought race victory snatched from me at the final corner. The game is no simulator, its pure arcade. When playing computer opponents the racers are all attached to an elastic band which means the racers in the front go slower and the racers behind go faster; catchup. This can make entertaining duels, on the other hand it gives the computer license to cheat big time, especially on the later races. Whether you win or loose a race is usually down to your position on this 'elastic band' in the final 10 seconds of the race. On line the game is great (once you get into a game- the lobby area is weak), but you will be racing against people who play the game 24/7 and are thus very very hard to beat. A better ranking system or ladder would have been nice.... Read Full Review » |
| 4 / 5 | Put a smile back on your face
Touring Mars (London, UK) - 29 March 2007 After playing the free demo available from the Playstation Network, I was instantly sold on the idea of buying the full game, and I'm very happy with my purchase. This game is a thrill ride, as much fun as a racing game can possibly be, and it looks superb aswell. It's certainly not perfect, but it's a damn good place to start any PS3 games collection. The game contains several different types of off-road vehicle, ranging from dirt-bikes, quad bikes, Rally Cars, trucks and Big Rigs, with better models gradually becoming available as you complete the various levels. The tracks themselves are all based in the US desert (Monument Valley) and I (mistakenly) believed that this would mean that they were all pretty much the same... in actual fact, the tracks are wildly varied, and each one has a number of alternative routes you can take, depending on what type of vehicle you have chosen (Different vehicles suit different types of terrain). If you are in a car, for example, you will want to stick to the high ground and avoid the muddy tracks below where all the trucks and Big Rigs are (since you will be slowed down by the mud, and rammed by the trucks!) It's one thing planning to take a specific route, however... it's quite another actually being able to follow it, since your opponents (either AI or especially online) will try to scupper you, either by ramming you right off the track, or by forcing you to crash into an obstacle or another driver. Being able to stick to your route and complete each course quickly in any given vehicle demands skill and concentration, which is made particularly tough when everything around you is pure mayhem! The plus points of the game are that the gameplay is so much fun. The vehicle-handling is very realistic and the courses are both challenging and rewarding. The graphics are out of this world too. The ambience (lighting effects) ranges from full daylight to twilight, and the attention to detail of the tracks is awesome. Being a next-gen game, damage and obstacles etc. are simulated as opposed to simply animated, so everything behaves as if it were real, including the mud spraying up over the bonnet as you plough through a muddy patch. Online play is superb fun as well, and updates are being made available to bring the online play component up to scratch. For example, during this first week, they have already updated a much-wanted 'Buddy List', so you can see if any of your PS3 Network chums are online and if so, which race they are a part of so you can join them. The music is also interesting, and they use an effect called 'Live-Fi' which uses reverb and some audience effects to make it sound like the music is being played at a festival, which adds a very nice touch to the overall ambience of the game. Another plus point of the game is that you are always still in with a chance of winning (or atleast 'qualifying' by finishing in the top three) in a race even if your vehicle gets destroyed (which it probably will atleast once in a race!) Your vehicle respawns quickly and although you will lose a few positions, you're not left way behind the whole pack. A few wipeouts in quick succession, however, and you might want to consider a restart! In online play, you can elect to dispense with this 'catch up' mode, making it harder to redeem yourself after a wipeout, and rewarding players who can survive unscathed. The downsides of the game are that there is currently no 2-player mode. Very disappointing if you want to chill out with a mate and smash each other over cliffs on a Saturday night. The online play is not perfect yet either. Sometimes you will wait for several minutes on a host starting a race, only to discover that the race doesn't start. You also can't invite specific players to race (as far as I know yet), which is a shame. You can easily create/host your own race (specifying what track, which types of vehicle) etc., but it would also be good to be able to specify which skill levels were allowed as well, and be able to boot players from your hosted race if you wanted - I don't think you can do this at present. Also, the loading times of the cars is mildly annoying. Even though it's only a few seconds, it seems like an age - although given the graphical quality of the game as a whole, this is indeed a very minor gripe. All in all, this game is a great buy. As a long-time racing gamer myself, I realised that it's been a very long time since I played a racing game with a silly grin on my face. I wasn't really interested in this game at all until I played the demo, but now that I have it, I can but recommend it to you. ... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | Absolutely amazing.
James Thomas - 9 March 2007 Having not followed the ps3 launch titles much due to owning a 360,I stumbled across this being played on the Stuff magazine stand at the autosport show earlier this year. Now being a 360 owner I have always been damn proud to show off its capabilities with gears of war especially. But this,this I have to say totally gobsmacked me graphically,and the artificial intelligence of the computer opponents was absolute 1st class not only toward the human players but each other also.Total chaos at its utmost best,if you only get one game upon purchase of a PS3 (which going by its price will be most people!) then it must surely be this. Hands down!.... Read Full Review » |
| 4 / 5 | Going down a storm!
fooxman "fooxman" - 19 April 2007 Motorstorm was the reason I bought my PS3, I got it home, set everything up, put the disc in and just sat back and looked at how gorgeous everything looked. From the intro movie to when you actually start playing everything looks right (almost real) and adds to the excellent experience that is Motorstorm. The first few races you do consist mainly of driving round not quite believing how detailed everything looks, and of course pausing a lot so that you can swing the camera around and admire the mud spraying up as your chosen vehicle romps through the desert! Ok, first thing's first, the mud, it's awesome, it glistens in the sun, sprays up when you drive through it, it splashes/hits the screen and covers your car... Not to mention the fact that you leave permanent tracks (at least for that race) on the course when you drive through it. Now that's out the way, the rest. The vehicles you get to drive in the game range from super-fast rally cars to slow big-rigs. Having practically lived the Burnout series Motorstorm initially caused me a lot of problems, there's a boost button, but you have to wait and use it tactically rather than just "wasting" it as with the Burnout games, this proved frustrating on many occasion as the AI opponents you race seem to have boosting down to a fine art and always seem to boost longer and faster than you. The only other thing of note is the start of each race, there have been very few times I've actually stayed up with the pack at the beginning of a race and find this odd, there's obviously a trick to getting a good start, but unless you fluke this you'll be miles back. Once you do get a few races into Motorstorm, the point of the game seems to come into focus and you learn how to drive the vehicle you have for that race in the correct way (big rigs love mud where-as bikes need to stay high and dry) and the whole game seems to make sense, it really does compel you to play it. That said, you will inevitably get to a race that leaves you pulling your hair out! As there's no option to select which car you have for which race (save for one course - The Grizzly) you really do have to learn the correct route round the track, which, if you miss a shortcut the first few tries, can become exhausting until you finally spot where you're supposed to be going. There are a few minor niggles with the game, most of which are forgivable however, choosing a car before each race can become a chore, as you can't scroll through them using the text, you have to wait for each to load in turn, which on occasion, has taken a fair few seconds for some of the larger/more detailed car models. That said, I can't praise Motorstorm enough, it has convinced me that there's massive potential that people still need to tap into on the PS3 before we even see half of what it can do, in the mean-time, Motorstorm will keep me going. ... Read Full Review » |
RRP
£49.99
Release Date
23 March 2007
Price Range
£14.99 - £34.69