MotorStorm Comments by Tom Bramwell

The people in the thread who dis the SSX and Burnout series have no Arcade in their souls. Fact.

As far as the comments about the next gen being only about graphics, and HD being useless:

When I played GTA 3, which was a milestone in gaming, back in 2001, it was enough to have me purchase a PS2 for, but after playing it for a while, I remember commenting that it's a game that would seriously benefit from running at a higher resolution. This was to help with the GAMEPLAY, as I sometimes found it difficult to make out objects in the distance approaching quickly as there is so much detail and speed in GTA 3, with it being based in inner-city streets.

I expecct that this, and many other benefits will become apparent over the next few years. The move from interlace to progressive scan - again I can't be more glad that this is happening in the living room with games. If you don't care about this, then the retro consoles and the Wii cater for you perfectly.

We've been upping resolution from 640 x 480 on our PCs for years - now it's happening on consoles. OK, of course the companies are going to use it as a marketing gimmick. The answer to that is to ignore this and look for the diffence between being informed, and being sold hype.

Of course there's a big improvement when a game is running at 1280 x 720, over it running at 640 x 480 interlaced. As long as the gameplay is still smooth, it's a massive improvement. It's just that it's never explained in this manner AT ALL, by the hypemongers, so anyone that doesn't really know what HD is, might just think that their paying for a gimmick.

As far as the next gen only being about graphics - again, I don't agree.

As a gamer, I see the next generation of consoles as giving devs no excuse for not implementing certain features in games, such as multiplayer online, and voice chat.

There might have been excuses in the past, over processing power, storage and broadband penetration, but they're gone now. If the gameplay would be enhanced by having online multiplayer, and the devs leave it out on the PS3 or X360 - then I won't buy the game. Especially not at the full price which is now back to N64 levels (one of the reasons I never wanted one). I'll be happy to continue playing some of the great games of the past and present consoles that line my shelves and in some cases are still unfinished as I avoid using cheats.

From the next gen I expect to see integrated online services and social interaction in games. I know plenty of people who like to play the odd game, but many aren't bothered about or aren't skilled in playing some of my all time favourites, such as OutRun, Virtua Fighter, Daytona, Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter 'II and Mortal Kombat 3.

I want the next generation to address this by allowing me to compete with a wider audience. This site has brought all of us together to read about and discuss gaming - it's also great that a service like Xbox live lets us challenge each other.

So, that's what my next gen is about. I'd like to have my next gen console running on a large prog scan display with a camera pointing at me, or us, if friends/family are round.

I'd like to spend my time challenging and chatting with others who love and play my all time favourite games. I'd like to be able to video message my friends and family that use the service.

I'd also like to be able to preview almost every game available in the form of a playable demo. I'd like to be able to purchase certain games on the service and download them straight away.

I'd buy a Wii tomorrow if online multiplayer versions of Mario Kart, F-Zero, Sonic 2, Daytona USA, Nights and Virtua Fighter appeared. I'd like to be able to chat to fellow players of the games. I wouldn't mind the graphics being as basic as the originals, but without interlace, and in the games that would benefit from high res displays - the games would be great looking.

That's the next gen. The motion sensing will also help an awful lot, but only once it has been established and perfected. I'm not into rush-job incomplete games, so I'll wait or get an X360.

reminds me of Wild, Wild Racing, which was a launch title for the PS2.

No rumble,so your just looking at crashes instead of feeling them. yuck

I really don't think HD is that bad of an evolution in console gaming, since PC has had the benefits of a higher resolution for years.
The only thing that really bugs me about all this HD stuff, is that when a game on your PC stutters like crazy or has V-Sync problem, you just lower the resolution, disable some graphical details or upgrade your pc.

With something like the XBox 360 however, 75% of the game on there have either a horrendous framerate or headache inducing V-Sync tearing. Yet there is not a single thing you can do to increase performance.

How's the online?

This review seems superuninformative to me. I gather the two following things from it:

- it's bastard-hard and extremely unforgiving
- if you're not seriously into racing, don't bother

Are these accurate surmises?

no

How's the online?

EG played the Japaneese import (which they'e now shown on the top of the review) which has no multiplayer whatsoever including online, which is a feature (and night racing) which is going to be the EU and US versions.

I wonder if EG is going to review Formula 1 Championship Japaneese import as well because Liverpool Studio's left out online for the EU and US versions as well which might impact impressions of the game overall.

This review seems superuninformative to me. I gather the two following things from it:

- it's bastard-hard and extremely unforgiving
- if you're not seriously into racing, don't bother

Are these accurate surmises?

Nearly, basically;

-The game has rubberband Ai to keeping the game chaotic and interesting making the racing of the Mario Kart esque.

-If you're more into Driving simulaters like Forza and Grant Turismo than Arcady racers like Burnout and Need For Speed steer clear of this game.

But yeah reading the overall Review it seems more hollow than your average EG review, must still be recovering from the New Year parties or something.

I think they probably just didn't want to put too much effort into an import review for a relatively (compared to games like FF) unimportant game.

Or maybe you're right, they have hangovers. :P

Did you not see the word relative in my post? Or do you just not understand it?

Oh god, you're as bad as rotj, have you got a better suggestion fountain of knowledge.

It would have been really helpful (essential even) to see some screens from how the game looks when actually driving. All of these screenshots are from outside the car and apparently during a replay.

edit -- I see there are a few SONY licenced shots from just behind the car and one inside the car when you look at all the screenshots.

"I really don't think HD is that bad of an evolution in console gaming, since PC has had the benefits of a higher resolution for years."

HD is only useful if you need to have lots of information on a single screen. High res PC monitors are first and foremost meant for PC use like web browsing and creating documents. PC games are using high res graphics mainly because low res graphics look terrible on a high res screen. And of course there are lots of PC game types (e.g. RTS, adventure) that require lots of information/details to be on screen at once. Console games in general don't fall in that category, so unless you really have to play your games on a huge tv set, HD is worthless.

Game developers aren't even able to generate photo realistic low res graphics. Using the available resources of 'next-gen' consoles primarily to increase the resolution of the non-photo realistic graphics is stupid.

CitizenGeek: PS3 was definitely rushed. The Spring date was never more than a distraction to keep people from buying a 360 (not really necessary IMO as there's still the PS2).

les, you're a buffoon

go back to digg.com

Played a bit of this today - cracking game, gets pretty challenging quite quickly and had that elusive "one more go" feeling - or at least it did when I had to hand the controller to one of the other people playing the game at the time... :)

Made me want to get a PS3... just a little bit.

Best review i have ever seen of a driving game, Describing the inner workings and mechanical immersion, gameplay to visuals and the feeling of a this game so briliantly. Whitch saves me a lot of money being the nonmatrialistic dreamer as i am , accumulating wealth slover than certain companies predict. What is making review so good excatly?. Becouse this game includes new level of mechanical details and trought that level design, whitch translates to this "different feel in gameplay" and these ere perfectly described in the review. With no confusion manifested in to my "hoping to make a right desision about should i care about motor storm just yet" when reading the review and not about the nontrivial matters whitch plague todays reviews so often. I might not know about ssx comparison becouse i never got in to that game so deeply but 10/10 points for the review for doing your job perfectly from my perspective :).