An explosive mud-fest sure to please racing fans of all stripes

User Rating: 8.5 | MotorStorm PS3
Motorstorm is a fantastically entertaining racer with great music, beautiful visuals, and heart-pumping racing action. The game conveys an immersive sense of speed and competition is fierce as AI opponents constantly try to ram you off the road. Luckily, the crashes are fantastically over-the-top and never fail to entertain. In some ways, the game plays like a boxing match between yourself and your opponents as you struggle to reach the finish line. All in all, it's great fun, but it's directed more towards a casual audience, so hardcore racing fans shouldn't expect something ultra-deep from a gameplay standpoint.

However, there is good variety in terms of the vehicle set and how they play--driving a firetruck and a race car through the same track will necessitate different strategies and different routes. The main weakness of the game is the lack of enough race courses. As such, repetition begins to sink in relatively early. The game tries to compensate for its poverty of tracks by placing you on the same course with different vehicle sets, but it's not enough to hide this glaring flaw. But even with its content shortage, Motorstorm is a great game that features a lot of exciting racing action. If face-planting people into mud puddles with your front bumper and exploding in a four-wheeler crash sounds like your cup of tea, Motorstorm delivers it.