MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

The PS3's most dramatic and beautiful racing game. [Issue#172, p.72]

Fans of the previous MotorStorm title or off-road racing in general will definitely enjoy this follow-up. But the easy learning curve and fast-paced action might be enough to keep gamers who don't normally play racing games entertained.

MotorStorm 2: Pacific Rift delivers the sensation and fun of the original, but with far [fewer] problems. Evolution has crafted an even more outrageous experience that boasts all sorts of chaos, speed, huge jumps, amazing track design, solid replay value, great audio, gorgeous scenery, and absurdly fun online matches.

With a greater sense of brutality, speed, and gut-wrenching track design, the franchise is really beginning to take off.

Frantic, fast-paced and undeniably fun, Pacific Rift is a substantial enough improvement to win over doubters of the original, even if some of the track design and vehicle balancing still isn’t perfect.

Eye-pleasing, accessible and entertaining but lacking long-lasting depth. [Dec 2008, p.60]

The core racing experience makes the misstep of celebrating failure rather than making the actual winning of races definable fun. [Dec 2008, p.90]

best motorstorm in the seires. just more dirt with some sand and some nice colours

An improvement over the original thanks to tweaks to the graphics and handling which make it more fun to play. But it's still too reliant on luck over skill and it's nowhere near as good as the Dirt games.

A fun aracade off road racing game. Fell in love with motor storm after apocalypse, so I decided to try the predecessor to it. The racing is solid, responsive and aradey- like which I enjoyed. The tracks that they had was for the most part to me not as interesting as apocalypse (dynamic courses), but it is very open with different routes to the finish ( a major plus); and all routes for the most part having it's own personality. The only thing I don't understand (I stick with single player for racing games) was why were the same tracks (about 16 I think) recycled over and over in the SP campaign? Don't get me wrong the tracks they did have were amazing and I get it, you use different class of vehicles which forces you to use different routes during a single track; but it doesn't make it less stale the third time through the same track. The unlockables were nice, but were just cosmetics, another bummer. Aside from my one MAJOR complaint, I still think this game was fun and adrenaline packed, a great arcade racer; just not as good as apocalypse imo.

Malgré un contenu bien plus conséquent (des circuits très variés) que le premier et de toujours aussi jolis graphismes, Motorstorm 2 échoue encore dans sa gestion lamentable des collisions et leur physique douteuse (c'est ici bien pire que Motorstorm 1 !)... Un petit poteau en bois sur la route : accident ; frôler un concurrent : accident. L'IA hargneuse est systématiquement avantagée et son seul objectif est de vous mettre dans le mur. On se borne donc à l'éviter le plus possible... Pas glop et particulièrement horripilant, ce Motorstorm tape vite sur les nerfs.

The appeal of this game is difficult to comprehend. The only thing I can respect is that there are 8 different vehicles and each one has its distinct advantages and disadvantages according to the terrain. But that's where it ends. Save datas corrupt easily, and some of the textures are simply abysmal. What strikes me most about this pathetic "racing game" (if you can call it that) is how shocking the driving physics (or lack of) are compared to other games in the genre. The understeer is severe, making the game unplayable. Controls are generally unresponsive and unless you use the bike everything handles like a brick. There is little skill in this game, it's all about picking the fastest route for your vehicle because the game's mechanics are so basic there is little room for perfection. All you can do is boost, accelerate, brake and handbrake. Even the most arcade racers manage to implement some sort of skill but Motorstorm is neither skillful nor appealing to either casual gamers or hardcore racing fans like myself. This is mostly due to the fact that the flow of the action and intensity of going fast over rough terrain is broken up by constant crashing. This is brought about by the highly insensitive steering and the amount of clutter in your way on cirtually any path you choose. Most people would probably start off picking a rally car because it's something they feel most familiar with, but unrealistically the rally car has amongst the worst handling even though it should be one of the sharpest vehicles due to its stiff suspension. Overall there's nothing to credit this game for other than its frankly pathetic attempt at making a racing game which involves different types of vehicles over less bland scenery. Soundtrack is deafening and the almost non-existent driving physics coupled with the WORST CONTROLS I'VE EVER COME ACROSS IN A RACING GAME make it unplayable. You really have to have no standards whatsoever to even consider rating this a good game. If you've played a racing game before, no matter how bad it was, you won't find one worse than this.