Previews// Motorstorm Pacific Rift

It turns out that the Buggy is only the right vehicle for Raingod Spire if you choose your route very carefully, keeping to the high (and dry) ground, and choosing your landings with the utmost care. Fortunately, although I was in the wrong car, taking the wrong route on a new track, I was racing Tim.

Now, for clarity - Tim does not like it when I imply that I am better at racing games than him. He likes to concentrate instead on Super Mario Kart which he roundly “pwns” me at, and the first few times I tried to play Ridge Racer 7, which I played having forgotten my preferred PoV. So, when I took a couple of tumbles and bad landings, Tim was taking even more. I struggled around the first two laps in a shameful fifth place, while Tim failed to finish. Next time, I selected the right car, and took a better route - and the winning began, and with it the loving of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift.

The handling feels improved over the first game - though this may just be the particular combination of tracks and vehicles. But the suspension feels as shock-absorbing as ever, but the rebounds feel less random.

As I said, the single-player game in the preview pits you on a motorcycle against a range of other vehicles around a track that has water, mud, forest sections and a steeply banked hairpin bend. It makes for a wonderfully challenging lap.

Not only do you have to learn the best route, and avoid the trees - you also have to keep clear of the opposition, because they will take you out. Not by subtly nudging you off course, but by slamming into you side on. The resulting rag-doll crashes are as entertaining to watch as they are annoying to be part of. But choose your route carefully, get high on the banked turn to stay out of trouble, and most importantly, don't mistake the barriers for jumps, and victory is possible.

There's precious little in this early preview of Motorstorm: Pacfic Rift - but there's just enough to have us salivating like tethered dogs in a butchers. We want more, we want it soon.