We've added to our Japanese import piece our review of the PAL game's online mode. The single player game is prety much the same from what we can see but the Japanese game didn't ship with an online mode. Here's how it all works online...
Imagine the carnage of online mud-splashing racing with a colossal 16 players all scrambling round ramp-filled canyon tracks it a frenzied attempt to finish ahead of the pack.
Motorstorm is a great mud-mashing racer in single player, but one of the most attractive features of is the game is the 16-player online racing mode, which has been added to the European version of the game.
We dived online to check it out with fellow testers across the country and give Sony's servers a hammering. On arrival to the online mode, you're presented with two familiar options - you can either join of create a game.
Setting up a game gives you a fair few options - you select the type of cars that can be used, turn 'catch-up' on or off, select the time of day and the usual stuff. Then you dive into the lobby, which is definitely the most disappointing part of the whole online mode. All players names are listed, along with their current status (finishing race, preparing etc), and their rank. That's it.
There's no scoreboard to give players a sense of competition, you can't see what options the host is changing, there's no course map to show you what type of course you're playing next - nothing. When compared with something like PGR 3's online lobby, which shows you all of this and more, it's clear that Motorstorm suffers from a lack of information.
You also can't choose your car while waiting in the lobby for the game to start. This is done after the host has activated the race. This puts you under a 30-second time limit to choose your car, which is bad because the each car can take a while to load in. This means you can't browse through the vehicle and ponder your thoughts. You just take whatever comes up first. And you can't make your selection based on what type of course you're playing because, of course, you don't know.
These are just the finer points on of online gaming though - the difference between good and elite. So Motorstorm's online mode lacks these finer details but, gameplay wise, it works brilliantly.
Playing online is mental - you're all bashing into each other as a nearly a dozen cars, bikes and trucks all try to plough over narrow bridges and along small paths. It's carnage as racers split off down different routes, and five-car pile-ups occur when the course rejoins later. This is what we expect from PS3 and we've got it.
It would be even better if there were a points system, but there unfortunately isn't. That keeps track of your wins and losses, and you get no reward for coming in second or third - placing anything other than first counts as a loss. Harsh.
Motorstorm's online mode gives the impression it was rushed in at the last moment. It works well in-game but its functionality is minimal. It's a great laugh, just don't be expecting all the online menus and interfaces to be as smooth as a 360 Live title. Remember though, it's early days for PS3 online.
Japanese import review: When you win a race in Motorstorm, you know you've exercised some pretty admirable restraint. At first, you'll think, "Ooh! Look! Mad crashes, pretty explosions, open desert! I'm going to drive like a twat!" After a while, though, you'll realise that joyriding gets you nowhere. It's all about not crashing - it's the anti-Burnout.
You begin with a selection of three tickets, which act as passes to kerrazy dirt racing festivals in the American desertside. Each ticket gives you access to a series of races, and most races limit your vehicle selection options to the types allowed by the festivals' organisers - some races pit seven bikes against eight trucks, others offer a choice between rally cars and big rigs, and so on.
Win a festival to unlock a new one, and repeat. With the number of available tracks and vehicles increasing all the time, it's a simple format that's perfectly tuned to keep you playing.
A lot's been made of Motorstorm's visuals, in light of how they compare (or rather, can't compare) with the original E3 demo footage. Play the final product, though, and the whole debate becomes irrelevant. Motorstorm is here and it's a spectacularly good-looking game.
Effects are everywhere: dust, mud, smoke, water, flora and fauna. Little birdies fluttering about desert shrubs. Vehicles that change throughout the course of a race: from clean-cut metal shimmering in the noontime sun to dusty, door-less wrecks powersliding through the mud to a broken finish. Motorstorm is the kind of game that isn't merely fun to play - it's also fun to watch.
To get the most out of Motorstorm's attention to detail, we recommend playing from the game's in-car/in-truck perspective. Largely because most of the vehicles here are oversized off-road monsters, the first-person view is pitched slightly higher than in most other racing games, rendering it both perfectly playable and involving to a butterflies-in-the-stomach degree.
Unfortunately, Motorstorm's bikes don't offer a first-person viewpoint - instead, they have a completely useless close-up third-person alternative. Shame.
Motorstorm's frame-rate is generally rock-solid, only momentarily dropping in 'To The Max!' instances of fifteen-truck pile-ups and such. And even then, you'll be grateful for the breather. In practice, the solid frame-rate assists Motorstorm's gameplay. The sensation of speed here is phenomenal, especially when turboing through narrow and winding gullies.
The default control setup assigns a turbo feature to the X button, leaving the analogue L2 and R2 triggers for braking and accelerating. The SixAxis' motion sensor is also supported, which in effect transforms the controller into a wireless steering wheel (or handlebars). It's novel but we still opt for the analogue stick because it feels more precise. Either way, its inclusion is bound to please some and it's better to have a choice than it is to have... none.
Course design is a highlight of the show. Most tracks make for lap times in the region of three minutes. They're long. They're also very broad. And there are multiple paths through each course. You get the feeling that you haven't merely landed on a circuit that exists suspended somewhere in the game universe, and that you really are in the middle of a vast desert without boundaries.
Of course, there are boundaries but Motorstorm hides them in a thoroughly convincing way. Racing in fields of as many as fifteen competitors just enhances the game's Cannonball Run flavour. And yet Burt Reynolds, we can assure you, is nowhere to be seen. So that's good.
One of Motorstorm's big successes is that it demands of you things that other racers don't even bother to ask. You'll have to learn every nook and cranny of the terrain before you can drive around courses with confidence.
Occasionally, the topography (look it up, it's in the dictionary - honest) can be a source of frustration - when you clip a boulder that sends your motor spiralling to oblivion and the finish line is one corner away, for example. But you can't really complain. You did hit that rock. Motorstorm is not unfair but it may try your patience at times. Just stick with it.
Clever use of the turbo is also demanded. It can be used at any time but comes with a caveat of potential overheating: the turbo increases your vehicle's engine temperature, so it's vital that you stop boosting before your motor explodes.
When you mess up and it does explode, though, Motorstorm treats you to a satisfyingly punchy explosion routine. Not that you'll care much for it at the time.
But there are plenty of things to smile about. The range of vehicles: legendary rally motors such as the Lancia Delta (masquerading as the Italia Gagliano, which we thought was a kind of linguini) race roll-cage to body with fire engines and classic motorbikes that are worthy of Steve McQueen. Motorstorm's audio selection, too, makes us grin with approval.
It's an unusual-yet-somehow-appropriate mash-up of things like Primal Scream's most deeply American cuts (Dolls and The 99th Floor), Kings of Leon, and Spiritualized (Rugby's finest). Someone at Sony Europe has pretty fine taste in music.
The only thing about Motorstorm that makes us really frown, it being the Japanese version and all, is its lack of multiplayer. There's no split-screen, no online multiplayer. Nowt.
Still, while we wait for those options to turn up in the final UK release, we're more than happy to get dirty alone. Motorstorm is, along with Ridge Racer 7, one of the definitive first-generation PS3 racers.
Although it'll frustrate your pants off from time to time, Motorstorm ultimately is an absurdly enjoyable driving game. Now just give us the online UK version and we'll bump the score up even higher.
Uppers
- Probably the prettiest racer you've ever seen - Spectacular crashes - Solid physics - Wide variety of courses and vehicles; long life - Great online
Downers
- Lack of info for online races - Not as smooth online as XBL
I thought been the first to post on this article, i might exploit it, and post a simple but frank message...MGS Portable Ops - Whens your review of it coming, lol.
I knew this was going to be good, regardless of any controversey surrounding it and all the other games shown at E3. For a petrol head like me this will be the perfect launch game......if I ever get a PS3.
its a lot of fun i have the japanese version(trading it in when the usa version is released)and is great to play. it looks really nice too and i play it a lot more than i thought i would.
is this game really that crazy and frantic? most of the videos ive seen is when the racer is just goin in a straight line across the desert with the odd corner, nothin much goin on. dunno whether to get it at launch..
I played this last night in HMV for a good half an hour on their new PS3 demo unit. First impression...not blown away! I am by no means an expert on this title but from my first play this is what I thought..
It is a decent game and fun to play, I would definitely like to play it again. The problem for me was that there was no feeling of "wow, this is the PS3"... The graphics were not as impressive as I expected, there were a lot of vehicles and it is crisp, I am pretty confident that the 360 could handle it easily enough though. The sensation of speed was good in parts, not quite burnourt levels of crazy speed, but it's a different beast.
The gameplay itself is helped by a good physics engine, driving through objects and bouncing around the track all look and feel as you would like them too. The cars all blow up nicely etc.
While these effects are good, there is one major issue with them though...if your are seeing much of yourself blowing up, chances are you are coming last. You get punished for sloppy driving but the whole look and feel of the game seems to encourage it. You figure this out quickly and find yourself driving a lot more carefully.
I found myself going with the most straightforward route through the track lap after lap. I came first in each of the races as a result. It left me feeling conflicted, one one hand I had won, as first place is the only position that counts but on the other hand, I was missing all the crashing and big jumps and general fun the game seems to present.
I have to say when you drive to win in this game it becomes a bit dull and loses some of its edge. It becomes more like a standard rally game with a bit more going on in the background.
Overall, it is by no means a bad game, well worth checking out but ultimately doesn't offer up much in the way of innovative gameplay. As a game that is trying to sell a new console it is a let down as it is no killer app. As a standalone release it is a good title and I am sure online would be fun.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
- Probably the prettiest racer you've ever seen
one of the only games on PS3 that looks worth the cash
