Reviews// MotorStorm (PAL PS3)

There is a range of different vehicles at your disposal in Motor Storm, ranging from motorcycles, through ATVs (or quads), buggies, rally cars, mud pluggers, and racing trucks right up to big rigs. Each vehicle has its advantages: motorcycles are very nippy and can ride through gaps and on ridges, which larger vehicles can't. Quads share some of these advantages. Buggies and mud pluggers offer a good balance of characteristics - buggies are faster, but their suspension can be unpredictable; pluggers are slower, but more predictable. Rally cars are lightning fast, but hate the mud and loose gravel that are in abundance in Evolution's vision of the Monument Valley floor.

The final vehicle, the big rig is a massive, super-hyper-turbo-mega-charged version of a lorry. These things thunder along, incredibly fast and impervious to most things that they hit, including other racers. Their main weaknesses are their lack of manoeuvrability and their tendency to fall over, due to their high centres of gravity, though it must be said that these weaknesses are in far greater evidence when you are driving a big rig than when the computer is at the wheel.

Controlling the vehicles, can be done using Sixaxis' tilt control method, and while that works well, and is responsive and accurate, it is also pretty sensitive. None of us could get our head round it sufficiently to enable us to win in those all-important first impression-forming races. I flipped over to the familiarity of joystick control, immediately started winning races, and never looked back. The fact that I am in inveterate joypad waver when playing driving games makes me suspect it's not for me anyhow.

Control is sometimes an issue, the rough or undulating desert terrain combines with some pretty bouncy suspension to provoke unexpected and unwelcome results. Occasionally these results can combine with other aspects of the game – which I’ll elucidate later - to leave you feeling cheated.

Initially MS is the kind of game you've probably played a million times already: a straightforward rally-style arcade racing game. It is only as the game progresses that its particular charm (and incredible memory game element) become apparent. There are no pick-ups, no car tune-ups, no currency to be earned, no kudos or style points to win.

The only thing in addition to the brakes, forward and reverse gears and the handbrake is the boost. Press it and you accelerate as if on nitrous, but the gauge begins to fill while your finger (more likely thumb, since it's the [X] button that activates it) is on the button. If the gauge gets to the top, your car explodes dramatically, and you lose time. Release the button and the gauge begins to drop... slowly! Judicious use of boost is key to success in the game. At the very least, you'll need it to make it to the other side of many of the jumps that litter the tracks. But jumps should only be used to get over things, time in the air is slower than time spent with the wheels on the floor and the accelerator (right trigger) depressed.