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Developed by Evolution Studios, MotorStorm delivers visceral off-road racing, plunging players into a frenzied environment awash with grit, mud and petrol, in a game that leaves the standard rules of racing in the dust. Gone are the limits of power restrictions, limited classes, and qualifying rounds. Players simply choose their vehicle from a massive range – including dirt bikes, ATVs, sand rails, rally cars, monster trucks, and everything in between – then hit the track in a no-holds-barred sprint to the finish line. Carving a swathe of destruction through the ever-changing wilderness, players must compete in a gasoline-fuelled, horsepower spectacle where the only rule is to try and stay alive.

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According to Paul Hollywood, Art Director at Evolution Studios, the development of the game has been rather rapid in the past few days. In fact, they've been working so much on the title that they just received the latest build of the game that's currently on the show floor from England last night, so they quickly brought it over to the convention center and set it up. While the build was only about fifty percent complete, it was showing off a ton of effects, such as real time deformation of the track, HDR and motion blurring, tone mapping on the cars and the mud to show the additional layer of dirt that gets caked on vehicles, and depth of field. While Hollywood stated that it's been difficult to get the game up to the level of presentation that was shown at last year's Sony press conference, he thought that what they had was pretty impressive so far.

Once we jumped behind the wheel, it was pretty hard to disagree with him. The game itself will be set in Monument Valley at the MotorStorm Festival, a massive multi-sensory event out in. Think Burning Man meets Coachella meets off-road racing and you get the sense of what the designers are planning for the game. The festival will play as a hub for you in-between races, which will constantly have music playing in the background, akin to a live concert experience. While Hollywood couldn't name any musical acts that will be part of the game, he admitted that a number of rock groups and DJs have been lined up to be part of the soundtrack. He did mention that players will be able to take any CD they own and put it into their PS3s, and the game will "live-ify" the disc, making any music sound as if it's being performed on a mainstage at a concert.

There will be thirty five different vehicles in the game, separated into seven different classes of machine such as dirt bikes, ATVs, buggies, big rigs and other cars. You'll select a car and take them onto any one of twelve tracks, each of which will have multiple routes that you can take. Some of the cars, like the motorcycles, may be able to take a higher route that is technically difficult, but potentially a large shortcut around the track. Hollywood also alluded to the possibility that there will be downloadable tracks and cars that Evolution Studios will offer after the game has been launched.

The thing we noticed once we got in was that the game is incredibly fun to play and easy to get used to. The X button was used for acceleration, while the square button was used as a brake or to go in reverse. The L2 and R2 buttons could be used to look behind you or to the sides, which was necessary to avoid contact at high speeds or see who might be challenging you. The R1 button provided you with a nitro boost, which propelled you down the track at breakneck speed. While you had four of these boosts at the start of the race, Hollywood cautioned that the computer driven opponents did as well, so you really had to time when you were going to use a boost and when you weren't.

This was particularly true, as not only were the computer opponents intelligent enough to know when they were trailing in a race and when they should try to make their move, they were also crafty enough to figure out the best time to attempt to disable their competition. In fact, there was one particular car that decided to single out my buggy and literally rammed me into a cliff wall three times, fully flipping my vehicle over and popping its wheels off. While I did respawn, and the number of lives were infinite for the demo, Hollywood alluded to the fact that there would be a certain amount given to each player and that it'd be tuned as they developed the game.

The implementation of Havok for the physics really was impressive as other competitors took out fellow drivers -- at one point, three drivers teamed up to drive the big rig into concrete barriers, at which point it exploded into a shower of sparks and car parts. Even the rogue wheels of this truck sank into some of the ruts of the dirt where previous cars had driven before firmly coming to rest in the mud. Even better were some of the celebrations and curses that were hurled at cars. Some drivers flipped off other racers, while some shook their fist. One guy on an ATV grabbed his crotch as he taunted a wreck that he passed. Obviously not one for the kids, but a lot of amusement for the adults.

MotorStorm is still planned for the launch, and we'll have more info whenever it's released.

quote Gamespot.com

Publisher: SCEE
Developer: Evolution Studios
Platform: PS3


Of course MotorStorm didn't look like
this, but it was a lot of fun.

What We Know:
Well first off, we know it doesn't look nearly as good as the trailer from E3 2005 would have had you believe. Not much of a surprise there. Secondly, and more importantly, it was playable in the Sony booth--which is more than we can say for Killzone for the PlayStation 3. A typical MotorStorm race is a filthy affair, with multiple vehicle types such as trucks, buggies, and motorcycles battling it out for muddy supremacy. Lap after lap the track will evolve, or rather devolve--bridges will be destroyed, muddy grooves will be worn into the ground, and so on--and you'll need to change your path accordingly. It looks like muddy good fun, and we can't wait to see more.

What We Don't Know:
If the overall drab sense of speed will carry over from the E3 demo into the final product. We're not expecting an F1 game here, of course, but at some points, MotorStorm felt a little too stuck in the mud for its own good.

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MotorStorm's Mud Pool
We party in the desert with new levels from Sony's chaotic offroad racer.
by Chris Roper
December 8, 2006 - Easily one of our most anticipated post-launch PlayStation 3 games, MotorStorm looks to infuse offroad racing with a tall order of chaos and a plentiful helping of carnage. While many people have gotten a taste of the game either at in-store kiosks or via the downloadable PlayStation Store demo, no one has yet gotten to see more than one or two of the title's tracks and environments - until yesterday, that is.

If you've seen both the in-store and downloadable demos, you'll know that the PlayStation Store version is newer and showcases a much tighter framerate. The build we played yesterday is even tighter, only shying away from its rock-steady pacing once during our rather extended look at the game, and we're confident that was simply a pre-release fluke. Indeed, the game is running great at this point and it's looking a tad bit cleaner as well. Some particle effects are a little smoother and many of its post-processing effects, like the motion blur, are a little more refined. The game also appears to move a little quicker - not enough to mistake it for the next Burnout, but worries of a slow racing experience are certainly a thing of the past.


The game is centered around the MotorStorm festival, which sounded to us to be something similar to Burning Man, only with a heavy emphasis on offroad racing. The game's running background video shows thousands of party-goers camped out in the middle of nowhere dancing to music and watching racers perform donuts around bonfires.

The progression of the game is directly related to this festival setup. Events are tied to tickets, with each ticket allowing you to enter anywhere from one to four races. Completing one ticket will open the next. It's fairly linear, though as you'll normally have multiple races to choose from, you're able to take them on in any order you want.

The game's events are based around both a specific location and class of vehicles. Some events are essentially set up as challenges, where you might need to hop on a bike while everyone else is in big rigs, forcing you to race defensively. Others will be open to any class of vehicle and it's your choice as to what sort of wheels you'll bring to the race.

While the Raingod Mesa track featured in the demo only very slightly hints at this, the tracks are designed around multiple pathways designed for use with certain vehicle classes. For example, racing down in the trenches is great for bigger vehicles as you won't need to navigate through tight turns and over treacherous jumps as often, though you'll be tire-deep in mud. Bikes and ATVs are better suited for racing up high, though you'll need better control over your steering column. The different event types will ensure that you mix things up over the course of the game though, so you'll want to change your routes according to your current vehicle class.


During our time with the game we were able to check out a handful of new tracks. The Grizzly is a wide-open course with tons of space to weave in and out of other rides. It seems like a rather introductory course, one that will let you get used to the controls without punishing you too much for making mistakes. Coyote Rage has relatively quick laps, running only about a minute or so, that run through tight crevices in the area's rocks. You need to make plentiful use of your brakes here to slide in and out of turns to keep your speed up.

The Mud Pool is easily the dirtiest track we tried with what must be thousands of gallons of slippery mud lining the bottom of the course. The environment does a nice job of showcasing MotorStorm's deformable terrain, with tires cutting through the crusty top layers of dirt to reveal the slick and wet mud below. Bikes and such will want to stick to the higher and drier ground, carefully hopping back and forth over the lower section.

The last track that we got to try out is entitled Rockhopper and ranks as our favorite track so far. Seemingly the longest course of the day, you take your vehicle from rock to rock via either tight bridges or short but wildly-angled ramps. It's a bone-dry course, so you don't have to worry about navigating the muddy wakes of other vehicles, but you do need to be ultra-careful about taking a ramp at the wrong angle and plummeting to your fiery death.

While MotorStorm is set for release in Japan sometime this month, it's February or March release in the US will see the addition of online play. Specific details about how this will work are still under wraps, but we're told there will be ranked play complete with leaderboards, tournaments and support for at least eight players, maybe more depending on how well the net code holds up in the end.

Every time we've gotten a chance to see MotorStorm we've been more and more impressed, and that was still the case this time out. The game is really damn fun at this point, providing for some of the most chaotic racing we've seen in some time. We can't wait to get our hands on its final form in a couple months