MotorStorm - PS3

Do you remember that time you went dirt bike racing in Monument Valley, dropped off a cliff and squashed the sarnies your Mum made you? No? Fair enough. That's probably because you haven't played Evolution Studios' Motorstorm on the PlayStation 3 yet. We'll let you off.

The races, in case you were wondering, are fictitious, so don't start planning your holiday there just yet. The good news is that Monument Valley isn't fictitious, and it serves as the stunning backdrop to MotorStorm, rendered in all its HD glory. In fact, it's so pretty, it's almost like going on holiday there.

You'll be called on to race buggies, bikes, trucks, quads and mashed-up cars, as you grapple with speed, dust and death in the desert. That's right, death. Racing along cliff edges at high speeds can be a dangerous business. Not to worry, though. If you do crash and burn, you'll get to see it replayed in spectacular, bone-crunching slow motion. It almost makes it worth the game's cost on its own.

Each lap of the track you do serves to mash it up. The damage is persistent, so no two laps will ever be quite the same. As you conquer each race, you'll unlock new vehicles for the tracks, so your next attempt at the track will require you to take a fresh route to optimise your performance.

Like Fight Night for the 360, MotorStorm is the PS3 launch title you'll show your friends to justify your wallet-draining new piece of hardware.