The weight of a racing truck means it's better around corners, but take it out on a track with jumps and you could be penalised. While the buggy is fast and nimble, it flips easily and will always come off second-best in a shunt, so wouldn't always be your first choice in a race against other cars. Indeed, the difference between how the cars handle is one of MotorStorm RC's highlights and tackling the same race in different vehicles can dramatically change the outcome. Of course, there's more than just one kind of car in the game: racing trucks, rally cars, dune buggies and more all feature. Get it right, however, and the feeling of sliding around a banked curve at full whack is incredibly satisfying. Driving full throttle isn't always the best option and clipping a raised apex could flip your buggy on its lid. They can be twitchy and unpredictable on rough surfaces, forcing you to play the game in a different way than you would a traditional racer. What's neat is that the cars don't feel like the heavyweights in previous MotorStorms, but more like the feather-light radio-controlled cars many of us messed around with when we were kids. Play Handling is sharp and responsive, and the balance of control and challenge is just right whether you're driving a big rig or lightweight buggy. One benefit of playing on a larger screen, however, is that it's easier to make out obstacles, so you're less likely to clip a corner and flip out. There's not a huge amount of contrast between the different locales and on occasion there's a touch of noticeable slow-down when a lot of cars slam into each other around the same corner. Visually, MotorStorm RC is no slouch, but it doesn't look quite so good on a big screen as it does on the Vita. Aside from name and general themes though, tracks in MotorStorm RC share little with their big brothers the lush jungles of Pacific Rift are more garden shrubbery in RC, and Arctic Edge's icy blizzards are more a light dusting of the white stuff. The structure of MotorStorm RC will be familiar to series veterans and there's still an over-arching Festival of Speed theme, broken into four areas – Monument Valley, Pacific Rift, Arctic Edge and Apocalypse. It's not fancy and in all honesty it isn't the game to show off the PS3 in terms of visual grunt, but as a stripped-back racer it delivers a fun, compelling arcade experience with the kind of confidence you'd expect from a team that been making MotorStorm games since the launch of the console. The gas-guzzlers and explosive, behind-the-wheel action the series has worn like a badge of honour have gone, replaced by radio-controlled cars and circuits most of us could squeeze into our back yards. Rather than lazily port a bastard child of games gone by, developer Evolution has started from the ground up and created a game that is interesting on two counts: firstly, it's snackable gaming at its finest, serving up minute-long thrill rides one after the other.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |