Pure Preview

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There are several real-world locations to traipse across, each containing multiple courses that we're promised are more taxing, beautiful and vertigo-strewn than the last. And they are pretty; the draw distance is 20 in-game kilometres, but even up close the textures on stones, grass and debris are pleasingly detailed and vibrant. We thought the trees looked a little stuck on in the distance and that dust kicked up by bikes was a bit basic (also causing frame-rate issues), but were assured that the team aims to lock the game at 30 frames-per-second in the months it has left before its autumn launch. It's also worth noting that the AI was running at a hellishly difficult level as it is among the last things to be tuned, so any questions about the learning curve will have to be answered close to release.

Game modes, then, are split into Race, Sprint (described as an "espresso shot"), and Freestyle, with variations of each tossed in as you go. There are around 50 events and 10 tours in total, and you have to get a certain distance through one tour to unlock the next, although apparently this will be fairly kind. There are six characters picked from regions where people do actually do quad-bike racing, with a seventh available to unlock a bit later on. Each of the riders has their own personalities, animations, clothes and signature tricks as well. Your bikes are completely upgradable and customisable, too, allowing you to tweak looks and performance until you've explored all 60,000 possible combinations of equipment (good luck, testers). There are bars with performance sliders on to give you visual feedback on what that new exhaust pipe does, but if all this work under the digital hood seems daunting, the game can quick-build a bike for you.

Disco Dan limbers up.

Elsewhere, Pure has multiplayer support for you and up to 15 friends, and everything you can do offline you can do online. We're told there is also another, secret mode that is "uniquely suited" to Internet action and not available in single-player [getting drunk and MSNing people, perhaps - Ed]. "In terms of downloadable content, we haven't got any plans - that's probably something we'll do in the future," Avent added, as we pulled out our usual sticks. "This is our first game for Black Rock, first game for Disney, first game on PS3, and we wanted it to be fast and it does look good, will sound great, and there are lots and lots of challenges. We're doing a lot of new things. Adding a download engine and committing to doing loads and loads of online content is just a bit of a step too far." Similarly, the team decided not to do a Wii version to avoid splitting the team's focus.

Focus, handily, is what Pure is all about. During our tour of Black Rock Studio, we were lectured extensively about particle this, mapping procedures that, trips to the American deserts, and all sorts. Most of it may have sailed acrobatically over our head waving its arms with expert timing, but the underlying message was clear: we care a lot, and we're paying attention to detail. For our part, if this "off-road trick racing game" is what it looks like, it could give MotorStorm and Baja a muddy run for their money rather than sinking beneath their weight.