When the PS3 finally hit store shelves in Australia, there were only two key exclusives to justify your purchase in front of gloating Xbox 360 owners: Motorstorm and Resistance: Fall of Man. With both titles finally receiving well deserved sequels two years later, I’ve taken a look at Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, to see whether it still has what it takes to stay above the pack, or if its day in the sun has past.

Leaving the rugged outback behind in a cloud of dust, Pacific Rift brings the off-road racing festival to a remote tropical getaway. With pristine waters and dense vegetation just waiting to be torn to shreds beneath three inches of rubber, it certainly makes for a refreshing change from the many shades of brown of Monument Valley. This unspoilt paradise also makes for some far more interesting track design pitting riders up against the elements of fire, air, water and earth.

Track design is divided amongst the four elements. Earth-based tracks are your standard Motorstorm fare, full of mud, dirt and unforgiving terrain. Air-themed tracks typically involve big jumps and precarious mountain top races. Fire has you racing around volcano peaks, with lava and flames at the ready to spoil your day. Lastly, as you’d expect, water-based tracks are graced by rivers and streams, some deeper than others. Far beyond a visual treat, water and fire each serve an integral part of Pacific Rift, Water will slow your vehicle down, but can be used to cool your engine and lower your boost meter faster, allowing you an almost free passage of boost. Fire on the other hand is nothing but bad news. Touching or even coming into close proximity with fire will drastically increase your boost gauge, increasing the likelihood of a blown engine. Obviously nature comes in to play and you can extinguish those flames with a bit of water, so it can be worth the effort to seek out a nearby puddle. It’s a bit of added risk and reward to keep things interesting.

Graphically, Motorstorm is a treat for the eyes, sporting lush environments that’ll make you think twice about disturbing the tranquil paradise before you plough your gas guzzler right on through. It’s not a huge improvement over the original, but it simply looks so much more beautiful with more than dirt on screen. The overall presentation is a lot more refined. Accessing menus has been greatly streamlined and better integrated. Perhaps best of all, you no longer need to set through painful load screen after load screen just to scroll through the different vehicle types. The vehicles themselves look great, but crashes in game still come across as largely under whelming. Unlucky bikers ragdoll across the screen like lifeless Sackboys and vehicles still have the habit of crumpling into a twisted steel mass off the smallest prang. It just feels ridiculous more than impressive. Vehicles come apart so easily I swear I saw ‘Made in China’ etched into one crumpled chassis. In the graphical stakes it’s less of an issue, but the physics engine has a significant effect on gameplay. It keeps things interesting, but it fast becomes frustrating when a seemingly minor crash ruins your race all because the physics engine has a mind of its own.

While it might be due more to a change in hardware than the game itself, I must comment that Motorstorm feels so much more gratifying with a Dual Shock 3 to back up the rough, undulating terrain. It simply makes the whole experience more visceral and involving.


The multi-class based racing that forms the core of Motorstorm’s gameplay is back in full force. The usual contenders return, from bikes to big rigs, and a new Monster Truck racing class has been thrown into the mix for good measure. Like any good monster truck, it has the ability to crush any puny vehicle beneath its wheels, but that comes at the expense of an overly top heavy vehicle, making it tricky to manoeuvre across narrow paths. Vehicle selection is diverse, each presenting a new way to tackle the terrain that keeps gameplay varied, forcing you to try each track in a different way. As you progress through the festival you unlock different vehicles within each class, but these simply serve as skins and maintain the same statistics across the vehicle class. There is no real variation between a muscle car and a rally car for example. The new vehicle designs look great but they all handle exactly the same. This means that once you have unlocked every vehicle class, which happens very early on keep in mind, you really have experienced all the game has to offer in this department. The lack of variation is a little disheartening, but at least it keeps things fair and balanced across the board.

With its over the top track design, diversity of vehicles and high speed thrills, has all the makings of a great arcade racer, but the issues that I had with the original Motorstorm still remain true in Pacific Rift. With multiple vehicle classes, each with their own specialised racing style, and numerous paths around each track, victory fast becomes embedded in learning the track itself. In early races, victory can feel as if it relies almost entirely upon luck to guide you around the circuit.

There are a significantly greater number of shortcuts and the optimum route for your vehicle class is rarely easily defined this time around. Pacific Rift is a little more forgiving than the original Motorstorm. The wrong route doesn’t always result in instant fail but tends to result in a more time consuming path. Taking the wrong turn can still lead you to a route that is unpassable for your vehicle type. When the wrong turn sends you flying into a pit of lava or off the side of a cliff it just gets to be damn frustrating. The rubber-band A.I. alleviates this frustration, meaning victory is never too far out of reach from the odd mistake, but when you are up against the clock or are required to keep your crashes to a minimum I found myself often quitting out of frustration. The floaty nature of the handling doesn’t lend itself well to making sharp changes, so often you just need to travel with the flow of the level before you learn the track. The new checkpoint-based Speed races in particular suffer because of this. Only one checkpoint appears at a time, so you are often required to make sharp changes but without the ability to do so. I must digress that the unpredictable nature of Motorstorm and the necessity to learn each track is ultimately part of the appeal, especially for fans of the first instalment, but is sure to result in more than a couple thrown controllers. When you get it right the game is exhilarating, but get it wrong and the controller might just end up planted straight through the TV.

So is Motorstorm still a standout franchise for the Playstation 3? Well, Pacific Rift is undoubtedly superior to its predecessor. It corrects many of the original’s faults and builds on its strengths, but doesn’t alter any of the shortcomings that I find inherent with the core nature of the gameplay. Pacific Rift is a whole lot of fun, just be patient and prepare to spend time learning the tracks. Motorstorm: Pacific Rift is yet another high quality arcade racer vying for hard earned dollars this holiday season, up against the likes of Pure and Midnight Club LA. If you liked your first taste of off-road racing in the original, you will love what Pacific Rift brings to the table: a meatier, more expansive experience and a better game in everyway.