There are several racing games here at the German Games Convention in Leipzig, but one of the titles to have the most eye-catching set-up is MotorStorm: Pacific Rift -- which also happens to be an eye-catching game. Pacific Rift is nestled on the show floor in a flurry of wood chips and dirt, with a race-themed area where gamers can sit on massive car tires while playing. The look and feel of the whole affair is fantastic, but the experience is even better because Pacific Rift is looking great. While Evolution Studios' next off-road racer could still use some optimization and tweaking, Pacific Rift looks to improve on the original MotorStorm in a number of ways.
The sixteen tracks of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift are divided into four different elemental themes, which is possible because of the new island locale that the MotorStorm event takes place on. The air zone features tracks high up in the mountain with lots of big jumps, while the fire zone tracks are laid out near pools of lava that come from the island's resident volcano. On the other hand, the water zone tracks obviously run along larger bodies of water while the earth zone tracks are muddy and rough -- similar to the courses in the original MotorStorm.
The AI system in Pacific Rift has been completely retooled and will present much fairer yet still very challenging races. There are several new modes to enjoy, as well as split-screen races that were previously unavailable in the first MotorStorm title. Pacific Rift also boasts Trophies, custom soundtracks (in case you don't like the 40 tunes that come with the game) and a Photon Mode for freezing the best moments in a race so you can capture the image and share it with friends. Lastly, gamers will be happy to know that downloadable content is already being considered so that Pacific Rift has continued support post-launch via the PlayStation Network.
But the most important thing of course is how the game plays and I was more than happy to get my hands on the show floor build to test it out. Selecting the one-player option puts you in one of the fire zone tracks, where a steamy, lava-strewn shoreline is the setting for the race. Picking a bike, I quickly found that Pacific Rift controls nicely and still has a great sense of weight and motion when making jumps or heading around turns. I've always been a fan of arcade racers and MotorStorm is no exception.
Selecting the two-player option puts both racers into one of the air zone courses which sports an absolutely ridiculous jump that will definitely satisfy. Just like the original game, the races are filled with a variety of different vehicle types, including bikes, buggies, big rigs, cars and even monster trucks. There are, as always, pros and cons to each class, but I'm still fond of bikes due to the speed and maneuverability you get. All you have to do is sacrifice your safety!
The version we played was marked as an 80 percent complete Beta build. If things are still looking solid with a whole twenty percent left to go, I'd say I'm totally ready for what Pacific Rift is bringing to the table.
8) ;-)
:cry:
:aargh2:
