MotorStorm: Massive Hands-On Preview

It's simply the best game on PlayStation 3, and we've been playing a recent build like mad to deliver you this detailed hands-on preview ahead of its offline Japan release next month and full launch next year.

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But track isn't the only thing to pay attention to. The other dynamic is the boost feature, common in many racing games and an invaluable tool in MotorStorm. After ten seconds at the start of the race, your boost is ready for use. It fills up automatically, at about half the rate it depletes during use. If you use the boost for too long in once go, your engine overheats, an alarm beeps and your vehicle BLOWS UP - you die, and respawn in the same way you do after a crash.

At first it might seem the boost is overgenerous, in that you don't need to 'earn' it with powerslides as you do in Ridge Racer. But in the tough levels, it must be used wisely; correct execution at the right parts of the track will mean you have a chance of winning, but the AI opposition also gets very proficient at using its boost as well, so there are no guarantees of success. The boost component adds yet more depth to the experience.

"There's something about the lighting in MotorStorm that's pornographically attractive."

While races are often incredibly tough to win, practice makes perfect. Using the right paths and driving lines to catch up and overtake is a matter of skill and discipline, and your positioning is based on your driver, not the car, so you can blow up and explode over the finish line, hoping that the explosion throws your driver over the other cars and steals you the win at the last possible second. Clearly, this is the most awesome thing ever.

So the game plays like a dream, to be quite honest. But another big part of the enjoyment is the immersive, tangible world you race in, and that's thanks not just to the physical laws of the track, but the outstanding visual quality too.

There's no question: all the neat touches they had in the questionable E3 2005 target trailer are pretty much present and respectable in some form or another in the real, final game. It's unbelievable and an absolute told-you-so victory for PS3, with some of the lushest, best-lit visuals we have seen to date. And it's the only such told-you-so on the PS3 right now.

In this version, framerate is not locked and when the game wants to be, for example during vehicle selection (set atop a massive rock) with camera pointed upwards at the sky and rotating around the car, it's 60fps. In-game, you're not going to get 60fps, but for the first time, when we talk about motion blur we're not talking about compensation.

No matter how close passing objects or scenery are, motion blur is flawless in its execution - much, much better than we witnessed in something like Project Gotham 3, where the motion-blur compensation for framerate looked shaky. Whether that was a software or hardware performance issue, with MotorStorm - and we never thought we'd say it this - high quality, film-like motion blur at 30fps almost seems better than bleeding edge 60fps without it. We're going to hell for saying that - but this effect just looks lovely.

"It's the only 'told-you-so' on the PS3 right now."

The slowdown issue is very mild compared to the TGS demo, dictated by the level of physics and on-screen intensity at any one time; if there's just one other vehicle in view and you drop the ball for the rest of the pack to come flooding onto the screen from behind, it shows. Thus, viewpoint change is currently almost a gameplay mechanic in itself, since the game handles on-screen overload with slowdown, and going to bumper-cam frees up some power and speeds things up again. But given the progress of what we've played since the September build, this is not going to be an issue when the game is on shelves.

The HDR lighting in MotorStorm is also sexy; tilt the camera towards the blue sky with the driver still in view, and he appears dark; point it down towards the radiant orange ground to feel its warmth and the driver is bright and vibrant. OK, so many new-generation games are pulling off HDR admirably, but there's something about it in MotorStorm that looks pornographically attractive.

Perhaps it's the harmony of it all and how convincing all the effects are in together. Bump-mapped surfaces and water look really nice, flags wave and metal reflects, terrain deforms, mud splashes everywhere (including 'on your TV screen'), and the dusty particle effects all look fantastic. Additionally, a real feeling of scale suggests that proper thought has also been put into how best to use a HD screen.

During replays or the pause screen you can move the camera around freely, and really have a detailed look to appreciate things. You can even take the camera underneath the vehicle and see the splashes of mud and grass up close, and despite a bit of clipping - to be expected when this much cam freedom is allowed up-close - putting this sort of detail at the mercy of user investigation shows how confident Evolution is with the engine it has running on the hardware.

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Video Coverage
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DescriptionDur.SizeDetails
Newly Added
MotorStorm
Latest Trailer, HD Quality   		1:20 45MB DF, HD, 16:9
1280x720p30
8Mbps
MotorStorm
Latest Trailer, SD		 1:20 9MB DF, SD, 16:9
640x360p30
2Mbps
Previous Videos
MotorStorm
GC2006 Trailer, HD Quality   		1:08 50MB DF, HD, 16:9
1280x720p30
7.0Mbps
MotorStorm
HD In-Game Engine Trailer (HD quality)   		1:08 57MB DF, SD, 16:9
1280x720p30
8Mbps
MotorStorm
E3 2005 Trailer SD		 1.31m 34MB DF, SD, 60
640x480
3.5Mbps
MotorStorm
E3 2005 Trailer SD		 1.31m 20MB DF, SD, 30
640x480
2Mbps
MotorStorm
E3 2005 Trailer ED, CAM with DFA alternative, this cam version is worth a download due to extra detail captured better than in feeds. Also doesn't have the ludicrous Vsync issue that plagued Sony's 2005 live feed. Not that it matters anymore.		 1.24m 29MB CAM, ED, 60
720x576
3Mbps