When the PS3 first appeared on shelves the only game they seemed to be demoing was Motorstorm.  Not surprising, considering how nice it looked and that it was the first game to use the sixaxis motion sensing.

While Motorstorm was, and still is, a great little game, it lacked a variety of tracks and decent multiplayer.  Enter Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, the sequel to set this right.  Pacific Rift has a new trick up it’s sleeve.  Set on a pacific island, the game pits you against the elements, earth (hills and rocks), air (big jumps and more rocks), fire (lava pits) and water (streams and slippery slopes).  It’s a great idea that makes the tracks very different to each other and players will find that they have to come up with new stragegies for each type of course.

As with the first game, Pacific Rift takes you through the races as ‘tickets’ for the festival and unlocking a race brings you a new set of tickets and challenges.  To do this you need to choose from different types of vehicles which all have strengths and weaknesses.  The first game suffered a bit from an unbalanced roster, ATVs and bikes were always easier than heavier vehicles.  The sequel does try to change this by making the paths and obstacles easier for slower vehicles, ideally giving you more of a strategic choice, but you’ll still find Monster Trucks a real pain even though they can go through deep water and heavily matted foliage. 

While this ticket system works during standard races, Eliminator races (last car is out each lap) and Speed events, occasionally I found it annoying being given the task of using a specific vehicle to pass the challenge.  Once tracks are open then you can play them any way you want, but it’s the ticket system that proves to be a real pain in an otherwise enjoyable game.

Another new feature is split screen racing, which works great and doesn’t suffer from slowdown, despite the detail still being high.  Having played both online and split-screen, I find that the local games benefit from being able to see your opponent’s face as they lose (again!).  It’s a great addition that more games should have despite the craze for online gaming.  That’s not to say Online has been forgotten, it’s better than ever and really easy to start a game with decent match-making options.

Graphically, the new Motorstorm looks so much better than the first and is a great game to demo on your PS3.  Lighting effects and those natural conditions are all rendered fantastically with little or no pop-up.  The whole festival atmosphere is captured from the menus to the crowds in the game and there are some great music tracks to race to and unlock to play as a proper festival experience.

Overall only the ruthless ticket system lets Motorstorm Pacific Rift down, otherwise it’s a near perfect arcade racer with a steep learning curve and some wonderful unique tracks.

8/10