by Linford Butler

4.10.08

"Chaotic battles to the finish line between motorcross bikes, ATVs, buggies, rally cars, trucks, trucks, mudpluggers and big rigs - with never the same lap twice."

Until MotorStorm came along, with it's amazing off-road format, the racing genre was running a little dry. Yes, we had Gran Turismo and the latest Ridge Racer - but they were all a little bit samey. Get to the finish line in this time, beat this trial - yawn. And then it all changed...

MotorStorm took racing to the next level of gaming excellence. Set at a fictional festival - the MotorStorm festival - in the middle of the Arizona desert, the game brought to our screens breathtakingly brutal multi-vehicle racing. Needless to say, it was instantly popular with racing fans worldwide.

I soon saw why for myself. MotorStorm was fantastic in nearly every way; graphically, gameplay-wise and online. MotorStorm's success was also down to it's highly original gameplay format, without which it would be just another racing game.

MotorStorm played fluidly, and the gameplay was solid and well-done. The freedom the player was allowed was amazing - you didn't have to stick to just one route each course. This made the game surprisingly varied. Also, the idea of being able to knock other racers off their vehicles was a brilliant - and fun - addition to an already excellent game.

Graphically, MotorStorm was absolutely breathtaking. The textures and lighting were spot on, and the frame rate was smooth. The game itself ran at a solid 720p high-def, or 420i in standard def - whichever resolution you used, however, MotorStorm was brilliant. These fantastic, photorealistic graphics game the game a realy immersive quality.

Multiplayer was the only let-down, however. Don't get me wrong, the online mode was almost identical to the single-player, but the lack of an offline multiplayer was one serious weakness that made MotorStorm slightly short-lived. However, the gaming world has been promised that this problem will be corrected in the upcoming sequel, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. At release, MotorStorm gave a new lease of life to the racing genre. But how does it hold up against the giants of racing now, more than a year on?

The graphics are still fantastic compared to games being released now - and better, in some cases. The landscapes are also some of the best I've ever seen. The gameplay is still solid, too, although can seem a little rusty after a while of not playing it.

Multiplayer is lacking compared to that of today's standards. The online mode is still there, but the existence of slow-downloading updates, complicated lobbies and mediocre online play is what lets MotorStorm down now. The online might have been solid then, but we've come along in great leaps and bounds - it just feels so old fashioned.


MotorStorm, then, is still a good buy - and especially for the twenty quid it's up for at ChipsWorld.co.uk. However, if you want a game which will live up to the multiplayer standards of late-2008/early-2009, wait for Pacific Rift to release on the 28th of this month.

"Rev the engine and toss the rule book in the dirt. Brace yourself and enter the storm."

Linford

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- Linford Butler