Stuck in the Muck
MotorStorm is everything off-road racers should be. And nearly everything they shouldn't.
Published: March 13, 2007
Gran Turismo purports itself to be the "Real Driving Simulator." MotorStorm, by contrast is the Real Asshole Driving Simulator. Every single racer in this virtual off-road wonderland is a complete prick, and they flaunt it. Apparently the rave/race/festival in Utah's Monument Valley attracts the dregs of racing society, guys whose digital daddies never game them a hug. At first, it's sort of amusing, kinda like that dude in a Corvette with a bad comb-over that's clearly going through a mid-life crisis or the dude that puts a five foot lift and monster truck tires on his truck because he's got a very small... stature.
But MotorStorm toward the offline end game plays like The Real World, where you're stuck in a house with all of them, and they just collectively like to fuck with you. Not because it actually benefits them in any way, since they'll come out ahead of you even after they've been dealt the harshest of physical punishments, but just because they enjoy effing up your roll. It's how they roll. Asshole-style.
For a game that was supposed to herald the end of the PS3 post-launch drought, MotorStorm is painfully broken. Not technically broken, mind you, but the more you play, the more you realize how much the game just doesn't really care if you're there. I would venture that developer Evolution Studios doesn't care if you're playing it, but then I know they're hoping for good sales. And they'll get 'em, of course; no pissy review from some fairly unknown web site is going to change that, but it's clear that this was not a game that was designed with regard to one's blood pressure, nor their desire to get a fully polished game for $60.
Oh, it's pretty alright, and that's something that's nearly worth the money in system-selling oohs and ahhs alone. MotorStorm is easily one of the most visually impressive games I've ever seen. I don't mean on PS3, I don't mean when it comes to next-gen, I just mean period. The lighting is so damn perfect that the game approaches moments of honest-to-goodness photo-realism based on little more than the fact that that shade of amber is exactly what you'd see glinting off desert shale or iron-infused sandstone at that time of day. It's scary how good this game is, if only because -- and this is important now -- it's a first-gen PlayStation 3 game, despite what others might say.
From bump- or normal-mapped surfaces that give the illusion of weather-worn rock faces to vehicles that explode into a bazillion chunks of debris and chassis and spare tires (tires they'll never use, mind) when they meet with the aforementioned rocks to a mostly-solid framerate that gives only when there is a ton of destruction happening when the aforementioned vehicles hit the aforementioned rocks and explode into the aforementioned bazillion chunks, all of it feels intrinsically next-gen to the point where people can probably take comfort in buying the game just to show off their shiny new PS3. The first time someone actually takes in the billowing tapestries hanging over the main first area of The Tenderizer course, it will put into their heads the idea that this system is worth paying for, no matter the cost.
But then if they do that, they'll probably have to play the game, and for the first half of it or so, digesting the soundtrack that almost feels like a character in and of itself thanks to a superb collection of tunes with highlights such as Nirvana and Curve and Lunatic Calm (among others), playing through the octet of off-road offerings, sampling the carefully sculpted vehicle-specific routes the myriad autos can take on the very same course, it all feels like the kind of game you want to invite people over just to experience.
But MotorStorm toward the offline end game plays like The Real World, where you're stuck in a house with all of them, and they just collectively like to fuck with you. Not because it actually benefits them in any way, since they'll come out ahead of you even after they've been dealt the harshest of physical punishments, but just because they enjoy effing up your roll. It's how they roll. Asshole-style.
For a game that was supposed to herald the end of the PS3 post-launch drought, MotorStorm is painfully broken. Not technically broken, mind you, but the more you play, the more you realize how much the game just doesn't really care if you're there. I would venture that developer Evolution Studios doesn't care if you're playing it, but then I know they're hoping for good sales. And they'll get 'em, of course; no pissy review from some fairly unknown web site is going to change that, but it's clear that this was not a game that was designed with regard to one's blood pressure, nor their desire to get a fully polished game for $60.
Oh, it's pretty alright, and that's something that's nearly worth the money in system-selling oohs and ahhs alone. MotorStorm is easily one of the most visually impressive games I've ever seen. I don't mean on PS3, I don't mean when it comes to next-gen, I just mean period. The lighting is so damn perfect that the game approaches moments of honest-to-goodness photo-realism based on little more than the fact that that shade of amber is exactly what you'd see glinting off desert shale or iron-infused sandstone at that time of day. It's scary how good this game is, if only because -- and this is important now -- it's a first-gen PlayStation 3 game, despite what others might say.
From bump- or normal-mapped surfaces that give the illusion of weather-worn rock faces to vehicles that explode into a bazillion chunks of debris and chassis and spare tires (tires they'll never use, mind) when they meet with the aforementioned rocks to a mostly-solid framerate that gives only when there is a ton of destruction happening when the aforementioned vehicles hit the aforementioned rocks and explode into the aforementioned bazillion chunks, all of it feels intrinsically next-gen to the point where people can probably take comfort in buying the game just to show off their shiny new PS3. The first time someone actually takes in the billowing tapestries hanging over the main first area of The Tenderizer course, it will put into their heads the idea that this system is worth paying for, no matter the cost.
But then if they do that, they'll probably have to play the game, and for the first half of it or so, digesting the soundtrack that almost feels like a character in and of itself thanks to a superb collection of tunes with highlights such as Nirvana and Curve and Lunatic Calm (among others), playing through the octet of off-road offerings, sampling the carefully sculpted vehicle-specific routes the myriad autos can take on the very same course, it all feels like the kind of game you want to invite people over just to experience.
