MotorStorm: Pacific Rift (PS3)

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The vehicle you race in makes a big difference to how the game plays

We preferred the mix of speed, handling and weight the rally cars provided in MotorStorm and the same is true in Pacific Rift. Everyone will have their own preference though, and it'll likely come down to your style - aggressive drivers can barge with heavier vehicles (bike riders can only punch) while smaller vehicles can access routes the juggernauts can't get to. Each vehicle has an ideal route through each track which you'll need to work out and perfect, but the general rule is that higher ground is less likely to be muddy and water logged.

Pacific Rift's Festival mode will take a long time to beat, but if you want to try your hand at something else Evolution Studios has included a neat Time Attack mode complete with downloadable ghosts, developer times to beat and online leaderboards. There's also a free-play option if you want a more personalised race and single-system multiplayer for up to four players - something that works very well and only suffers from a slight degrade in visual quality.

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Online multilayer is something that Evolution Studios managed to include in the original MotorStorm, but it felt like a tacked on feature, comparing rather poorly to the best online racers on the market. Pacific Rift promises to be an altogether better experience, although we've been unable to test how the 16-player online racing works (look for an update soon). Assuming this is relatively lag free, the ranked and unranked races should keep fans occupied for some time.

We were rather unsure about MotorStorm: Pacific Rift's visuals on the two occasions we'd seen it earlier in the year. Something about it just didn't pop like we wanted it to. It's really not until you sit back and take in the bigger picture, something we've now been able to do, that you see just how impressive the game looks. It's not as instantly spectacular as Disney's Pure, but it's grander. Pure had impressive draw distances, but while playing Pacific Rift you get the feeling that you're driving about on a massive island, rather than a single, albeit, large track. It is of course an illusion as you can't freely move about wherever you wish, but the sense of scale is truly immense.

Racing is brutal and some of the tracks are brilliantly designed

It's not perfect, however, with a slightly patchy frame rate and some iffy textures being the biggest offenders. Still, this is one of the best looking games on the PS3 and will frequently blow you away with the detail in the environments. The game runs at an incredible speed too, providing an adrenaline rush that is worth the admission fee alone. It's just a shame that the speed often mixes very badly with the tough driving model. When you're flying through a track it feels like a stunning version of Nintendo's Excite Truck, but too many tight corners on certain tracks dampen the fun somewhat. MotorStorm featured an impressive soundtrack that got the blood pumping and Pacific Rift doesn't let the series down here either. You'll get a great festival atmosphere that really makes the most of a good surround sound set-up.

PlayStation has had some hugely impressive racing franchises over the years and Pacific Rift shows that MotorStorm is on its way to join the greats. We're still not completely sold on what we believe is an overly harsh handling model that frequently restricts the amount of fun the average gamer can have, but it's not an insurmountable problem. Once you're in the groove you'll find some incredible tracks to scream around at high speed and the online play should provide plenty of longevity. Some might see Pacific Rift as a safe follow-up, but with a brand new location, more tracks and more features, it's more or less exactly what fans wanted.

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