MotorStorm: Pacific Rift: PS3 Ability, New Details, Multiplayer

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

The original was a solid effort and off-road racing fans everywhere suddenly had a very good reason to own a PlayStation 3. And now, those same fans are all anxiously anticipating the arrival of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, and from what we've seen so far, it's looking like a very worthy sequel.

PSU spoke with Evolution Studios' Creative Director Paul Hollywood to get some more inside details on the game, and Hollywood offered some insight into the PS3 itself as well. These days, more and more developers are starting to tap into the massive potential of Sony's platform, and that will certainly benefit the gamer. And as Hollywood says, it's not just about the graphical ability; it's about the entire hardware package:

"One of the beauties of the PS3 is that you can do so much processing in parallel. Setting it up to do that requires careful planning of course, but it means you can really make it do some special things. What gamers will tend to notice most will be the graphical advances, but the power of the console goes deeper than that. The audio, the AI, the effects, all these things, and many more, have really come on for this game."

But beyond the technical stuff, MotorStorm fans simply want to know about the upgrades and improvements that we should expect to see in Pacific Rift. There's going to be a bevy of them - it's shaping up to be an entirely new experience! - so you needn't worry.

"The Island is obviously a big new aspect; it means we can have races in much more varied types of environments than before," said Hollywood. "Weve also added the monster truck as a new vehicle class, which presents the player with an entirely new aspect to the racing. If youre driving one, you can have as much fun just driving over your competitors as you can using its immense power. If youre racing against one instead, well youd better have a good exit strategy."

He then moved on to talk about the updated multiplayer features as well (something very necessary in this day and age), and one of the biggest additions will be the inclusion of splitscreen multiplayer. They also plan to make the online play "more robust and with more features," so avid Network users should he happy with that statement. We'll bring you more on MotorStorm: Pacific Rift when it becomes available, and in the meantime, just cross your fingers for a fantastic off-roader when it drops in October.

Related Game(s): MotorStorm: Pacific Rift

6/12/2008 Ben Dutka