Tripping the Rift
MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is coming. We take another peek at a couple close-to-final demo builds of the game.
Published: September 11, 2008
We've seen plenty of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, Evolution Studios' follow-up to the original launch window off-road racer, but until now, we weren't exactly sure how the finished product was going to look. Though the game certainly looked like it would deliver on the basic new additions to the series like interactive vegetation and destructible environments, the game itself didn't quite look as sexy as the muddy, brown environments of the first game.
Well, at about 80% done (the same number as was presented at both E3 and the German Games Convention, from which both of the builds we were sent originally appeared), the game is finally starting to look like we'd hoped. After the stunning (and entirely pre-rendered) video of the first game fell a little flat visually, and after seeing the fantastic new trailer that premiered earlier this year for Pacific Rift, we were a little guarded. Rest assured that our uneasiness was ill-founded; MotorStorm: Pacific Rift looks good.
So good, in fact, that we actually had to let the attract mode video roll through a few times before we jumped in, partly because it seemed to show new environments (though the office was split on whether or not it was all-new footage), and partly because the first time we went soaring off a massive jump on the jungle-packed Cascade Falls, took in the massive vista with thick, fluffy clouds and intertwining tracks below, and then landed right into the thick of it a few seconds later, we were sold. Other tracks, like the new-ish Wildfire that took place over lava floes that would heat up the cars as they jumped over them and featured little tents that would mist down cars to cool them, made for plenty of fun.
Graphics aside, most of the game seems to be trucking along precisely as we've seen it thus far. We already gushed over how the new monster trucks, the old bikes and the buggies handled, but the return of the rally car made for some insanely speedy (and utterly out-of-control) runs around familiar tracks. We talked about how the AI racers would happily use those that vegetation and destruction elements to make it harder for vehicles that were, say, lighter or didn't quite handle as well, and we've extolled the virtues of having 16 new tracks, smoother online play and four distinct environments to race through.
Honestly, there's not a whole lot we can talk about at this point without getting our hands on a near-finished build of the full game. Considering the good folks over at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have started to talk to the press over there and show off more of the game, we're going to guess that their American counterparts will do the same in time. As soon as that happens, we'll be sure to update you with some fancy new details. Until then, enjoy some new screens and of course all that sexy, sexy video from weeks past.
Well, at about 80% done (the same number as was presented at both E3 and the German Games Convention, from which both of the builds we were sent originally appeared), the game is finally starting to look like we'd hoped. After the stunning (and entirely pre-rendered) video of the first game fell a little flat visually, and after seeing the fantastic new trailer that premiered earlier this year for Pacific Rift, we were a little guarded. Rest assured that our uneasiness was ill-founded; MotorStorm: Pacific Rift looks good.
So good, in fact, that we actually had to let the attract mode video roll through a few times before we jumped in, partly because it seemed to show new environments (though the office was split on whether or not it was all-new footage), and partly because the first time we went soaring off a massive jump on the jungle-packed Cascade Falls, took in the massive vista with thick, fluffy clouds and intertwining tracks below, and then landed right into the thick of it a few seconds later, we were sold. Other tracks, like the new-ish Wildfire that took place over lava floes that would heat up the cars as they jumped over them and featured little tents that would mist down cars to cool them, made for plenty of fun.
Graphics aside, most of the game seems to be trucking along precisely as we've seen it thus far. We already gushed over how the new monster trucks, the old bikes and the buggies handled, but the return of the rally car made for some insanely speedy (and utterly out-of-control) runs around familiar tracks. We talked about how the AI racers would happily use those that vegetation and destruction elements to make it harder for vehicles that were, say, lighter or didn't quite handle as well, and we've extolled the virtues of having 16 new tracks, smoother online play and four distinct environments to race through.
Honestly, there's not a whole lot we can talk about at this point without getting our hands on a near-finished build of the full game. Considering the good folks over at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe have started to talk to the press over there and show off more of the game, we're going to guess that their American counterparts will do the same in time. As soon as that happens, we'll be sure to update you with some fancy new details. Until then, enjoy some new screens and of course all that sexy, sexy video from weeks past.
