Can you say Mud?
Anyone remember the E3 05? Well let me re-fresh your memory. This was the conference that started all the hype over MotorStorm. Sony showed extremely high-quality rendered video sequences, that wowed gamers all around the world. What it also did was make gamers sceptical as to the source of the material shown, with most people suspecting the footage to be pre-rendered as opposed to real-time in-game footage.
As expected by most, the jaw dropping videos were pre-rendered and the visuals in the final game were a watered down version of what was shown at E3 05. This doesn’t mean to say the graphics are flat as they are anything but. From the time you watch the intro scene you will be immersed in the MotorStorm experience. In my personal opinion MotorStorm was the first game to hint at the PS3’s potential in terms of graphics.
There are a few things that set this game apart from the rest, in terms of visuals. The first is MUD, MUD and more MUD. Yes this game is all about the mud, you cant get away from it, and you properly wont want to either as its brilliantly done. As you accelerate along the track, mud splashes up onto your screen, and slowly slides of the bottom, this makes for great affect as you get to appreciate what Motorstorm is all about. It also adds to the realism when played through the first person perspective. The mud effects don’t stop there pepz, no I’m just getting started. Track deformentation is were its at, and just adds to the whole thing as its there for the whole race and Motorstorm sets the benchmark for all games to follow.
Another visually stunning aspect of this game is its crashes. The crashes that take place rival those of Burnout, the game even slows down and zooms in to the point of interest when a crash happens, and you really get to check out all the detail, I mean I saw tyres, springs, derby, shattered metal, everything bar the kitchen sink when I crashed. Speaking of crashes, the physics of the crashes are as real as ever. Tap a bike with a big rig and well you know what’s gonna happen, it aint gonna be pretty for the poor chap on the bike. Yep that poor bloke or women for that matter is gonna turn superman for a while. Yes when riding a Bike or ATV its possible for your human to go flying of there vehicle, and this is were the fun begins, as you get to see what happens to the guy. When he’s falling to the ground, he actually will try to protect himself by putting his arms out but most of the time they’re pretty much dead and hapless. These types of crashes make for some LOL moments, and this is were the game shines as its all about the fun factor.
Rocking Motors
The sound of the game dose not live up to the standards set by the visuals. While solid enough for a game of this kind, there’s just a lack of something. Ya see the sound track only consist of rock-music so if that’s your kettle of fish well then your happy as Larry, but if Rock is not your cup of tea well then I suggest you turn on your radio or I-pod as rock is all that’s here. This is a game that would have suited the idea of in-game XMB, as this would allow you to import your own sounds.
Now in-terms of in-game sound, there’s a lot more variety. First of all each class of vehicle has its own motor sounds, and each crash has its unique sounds, based on the vehicles involved and the location of the impact. But most crashes seem to involve and explosion noise, which is unnecessary at times, when you consider its only a bike on bike crash.
FUN Anyone?:
At any one time in a race you can pause and admire the length of detail the devs have gone to, to make this game so imersive. You have the power to rotate and zoom in and out with the camera when you have paused the game. This can be used to catch those Kodak moments when your rider is getting ran over by a big rig, or even better using photography tricks to make it look like your rider is doing a handstand on the cliffs.
Two other things that come to mind for this game when speaking of fun, is the gimmicky motion control, that you have to option of turning on and off. This form of control is very hard to master but fun to learn. The other thing is, that if you are riding a Bike or ATV you have the evil power of nudging, punching, pushing or any other form of violence and knock of another opponent of there Bike or ATV, When successful, you will get a feeling of happiness.
Gentleman start your engines:
There is essentially only 1 mode to play here. This mode is divided up by tickets that consist up to 4 races. And to unlock future races, you will need to qualify in the races that are open to you. To qualify you need to finish it the top 3, but if your anything like me, you’ll be going for the gold every time your on the starting grid. This is what makes up the main mode you will spend most time on. There’s also a time trial mode, that allows you to show the world your top times. However racing against numbers doesn’t quite get the blood racing as it does against cars, trucks, and bikes. Disappointingly there’s no split screen multiplayer mode. I mean what’s a next gen racer doing with no offline multiplayer, come on throw me a frikin bone here.
That’s enough of the off-track mumbo jumbo, lets get to the starting grid. The main element of Motorstorm gameplay is the mixed nature of the vehicle classes and the defined variety in the tracks. There’s an element of strategy when it comes to the simple choice of which vehicle to go with. First of all you will want to take in the track you will be spinning mud on, and then go from there. The vehicle that you chose will greatly affect your chances of victory, as particular rides are better then others on different surfaces. For example, a Big Rig and a Mud Plunger love the sight of heavy wet mud, were as the Bikes and ATV’s will shy away from the mud and look for the dusty sand sections of the track. The AI will pick up on this as well, so don’t think its gonna be a walk in the park as the AI is as ruthless as your next door neighbours dog doped on pea. They also know when to use there boost, however they haven’t picked up on the fact that you can blow yourself up by over dossing on boost and fly your way over the finish line.
While there’s not many tracks in terms of numbers there’s enough substantial difference between them that will keep you interested. Each track has there own characteristics, that will suit the different vehicle classes. And as the game goes on, it gets harder, and you are forced to pick vehicles that are not suited to the track surface. And it really does make a huge difference, and it really does make you think about your racing line, as you do have to take full advantage of your preferred surface.
Fellow petrol heads:
When I actually had this game I didn’t play much online as I was tied up in 40 player death matches on resistance. But from what I remember, it did take a fairly long time to find a match. On track it was typical Motorstorm action. But I cant really comment on the online component, as I didn’t play it enough. I have noticed that there is a whole lot of downloadable content on the PS store though which cant be a bad thing.
E3 05, Perhaps not:
The overall impression I have of Motorstorm is that it lacks depth. With really only 1 mode to play and no split screen, your left wanting more, and you would expect more from a next gen racer. One way to sum it up would be comparing it to Paris Hilton. Its got all the looks but no substance.
Lets go for another lap:
Its been officially confirmed by Evolution Studios that there will infact be a Motorstorm 2, so heres a few pointers on what needs to be done for a successful sequel.
-Multiplayer/split screen is a must
-More modes, this will fix its depth problem.
-More tracks
-Hopefully in-game XMB will be out by the time this is out, so in-game music is on the cards
-Rumble
The PlayStation 3 may not have been the strongest generation for Sony, but there were still some diamonds in the rough that deserve a revisit as PS5 remasters.
Even if they could just remaster and put on PSVR2, some would still look great as VR titles and could do a whole lot to bolster the headset w these exclusives! I'd imagine the investment of reworking these titles into VR would be way less than building new games from the ground up, and they could be amazing experiences, and VR often makes flat games feel fresh again. The Resistance and Killzone games are particularly what I want to see!!
I played killzone 3 in 3d and it really changed the game per being immersive.
In vr, that would be even more awesome.
Funny you mention that... my son wanted to play some PS3 games in 3d on my PS tv and he was blown away by how good KZ3 was. It really was a great addition to the game. Im surprised there have not been more 3d games from that era being ported to the PSVR/VR2.
resistance 1-3, killzone 1-3, uncharted 1-3, uncharted golden abyss, folklore, socom 4 , motorstorm, twisted metal, MAG, heavenly sword
Killzone 2+3
Sly Thieves in Time
Crack in Time
God of War Ascension
Motorstorm
Modnation racer
Infamous 1+2
Killzone trilogy in VR would be amazing bonus points if they offer shadow fall.
There was a psvr1 Killzone project that supermassive was working on at one stage which wasn't up to scratch and Sony brand it back in house I was hoping we would see that on psvr2 eventually.
Personally I'd love to see some more love or acknowledgement of psvr2 from Sony in general it was a expensive headset and Sony barely acknowledge it's existence
The amount of work needed to remaster these games wouldn't be beneficial on a financial and business sense.. MGS4 would probably be the best bet as it would need the least amount of work!
The time is perfect for a resistance fall of man game campaign coop multiplayer
The resistance series is str8 trash to me. Socom 3 I would welcome. Or killzone MP.
Resistance was ok but Warhawk and Starhawk was better and kept me coming back for almost a decade of fun and petty revenge on the loud mouth unskilled players 🤣
Edit I loved capture the flag dropping the pot on the flag carrier was extremely satisfying as well as transforming your plane in bot form and stumping them to death 😱
Digital Foundry : Evolution Studios' Motorstorm is one of the first, finest and most fondly remembered of launch titles for PlayStation 3. It's a release designed to answer the question posed by each new console generation: what makes a game 'next-gen'? With its robust physics engine and massive tracks, Motorstorm serves up a bold affirmative answer to this question, delivering an experience that could never have existed on prior console hardware. At the same time, the path to release was fraught with challenges that almost serve as a microcosm of the PlayStation 3 release situation itself. It was a success, however, with a trilogy of PS3 releases, plus PSP, Vita and even PS2 off-shoots.
After Driveclub and Onrush, the dev team will now contribute to and assist with the development of the upcoming NFS.
I would give anything to have a full compilation of the series remastered to play on PS5 with full DS support. Feeling the deformation of the tracks as you race in pacific rift or the snow laden tracks in arctic edge... that would be sweet.
Yes MotorStorm World Tour for PS5 damn it Sony make it. The Desert, Pacific Islands, The Arctic and City races.
Motorstorm Pacific rift was awesome! I think MotorStorm: Apocalypse was what killed the franchise due to its change of direction...
Pacific rift is the best (IMO) but apocalypse wasnt what killed it. At least it was still somewhat of a MS game. The RC one is really a departure from the norm. None of which were bad as they were all fun in their own ways.
RC was a blast to play on Vita.
Apocalypse had unfortunate timing due to the 3/11 earthquake in Japan. I never got around to playing that one.
Evolution had some harsh experiences. I had Driveclub from launch and the server issues weren't that bad and certainly didn't prevent you from enjoying the game.
Agree Apocalypse didn't kill it, it's just racing games in general just became less popular nearing the end of the PS360 generation as it was flooded with medicore racers and the extremely niche but enjoyable ones like Motorstorm, Blur, Spilt Second, and Forza Horizon (still going strong, but actual sales have been decent fro a racer, and often expanded by console bundles and now GamePass)
But since the PS4/XBO generation had a lack of arcade racers, it's a prime time for games like this to come back.
I've said for the longest, the additional income of PS+ Premium should be used for, Remastering, Remaking, or recreating sequels / spinoffs of classic PS franchises to launch into the service. Many PS3 games fit this mold of looking good enough that a quick remaster to 4K@60 with better texture maps would give them near PS4 quality.
Remasters: A game like Motorstorm look good enough where it can simply be remastered in 4K @ 60fps, and have better textures for mud, mountains/rock structures, and vehicles and it would hold up WELL.
Remakes: Games like Legend of Dragoon, Warhawk (could be a simple remaster also), and so many others could get remakes like FF7.
Recreates: Shorter sequels/prequels/spin-offs to other classic PS IPs like how Infamous First Light / Blood Festival (BF was a highly underrated vampire game) and Uncharted Lost Legacy. Give spin-offs to things like Heavenly Sword, The Order 1886 (1786 or 1986), Puppeteer, Tokyo Jungle, and more.
This is also why Sone NEEDS to get PS3 emulation up and running. It gets rid of all the PS3 server farms and replaces it with software that can work on EVERY future PS console with updated coding.
At bare minimum emulation could double the resolution and framerates of all PS3 games making many of them 1440p@60fps without any real work, and a few 4k@60fps.
As for full-on remakes again updating to 4K@60fps with completely revamped textures, and an option for 1440p@60fps with global illumination can make these games shine with a new lease on life.
Also I'm still waiting on my DriveClub 1440p@60fps update 😭
Apocalypse was actually pretty good i don't think that's what killed the series. PR was the best though.
I was late to PS3 and Pacific Rift was the first game I picked up on it... huge miss to not have one on PS4, hope it gets some love on PS5 (as well as Ridge Racer and Wipeout).
Never really got into it myself I remember getting it with ps3 and being a bit underwhelmed I preferred the RC version they did for vita 🙌🏻🤣
Going from ps2 to ps3 was not underwhelming when I first played motorstorm, it was like nothing we'd ever seen before ?
Each to their own didn’t like it myself. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;I didn’t say going from ps2/3 was underwhelming just the launch game motorstorm, bit different but hey ho.
PS3 was a slow burner for me it’s my least favourite Sony console, maybe as I had my 360 as my main at that point but yeah wasn’t impressed with first couple of years to be honest but that’s just me. Once uncharted MGS4 GT5 Last of us GTA4/5 dropped sure but launch games weren’t all that imo. Resistance was alright wasn’t as big a change as ps4 or even now ps5 for me. PS3 took out rumble and basically went HD it’s wasn’t exactly a revolutionary start. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;
MotorStorm debuted on PlayStation 3 15 years ago today (in Europe), and remains one of the format's best alternative racing games.
Ahhh motorstorm....i still have the reveal trailer back in my mind from e3 2006 or 5 i think...ps3 never manage to par the gameplay trailer back then but the game especially the first one for me was AWESOME....I m sure that ps5 is capable to give us now this kind of fidelity....for me motorstorm and daytona usa 2 in arcades still is my favorites arcade racer ever....
Pacific Rift still looks good graphically speaking.
I also thought Artic Edge(PSP) was solid.
Bought the 60gb PS3 with motorstorm and my first 720p/1080i TV on the release day, great memories. Oh the mud!
Real shame this franchise fell by the wayside. With todays tech it would/could be such a great open world arcade racer.
I got the 80gb Motorstorm bundle. Still have it. I still play Apocalypse on my 3D display.
The first Motorstorm was good, but Pacific Rift blew it out of the water IMO. Still one of my favourite arcade racing games of all time. I also really liked Apocalypse, despite the Supercars and Superbikes being OP compared with the other vehicle classes.
Mororatoem 1 was excellent the visuals and everything had a really good vibe about it. If they remade that with a festival type open world... If only
The content keeps coming on the PSN and the only complaint I have is that it should of been offline too (like gazza said). I also think it should of got a 8.5 XD