Motorstorm is one of the flagship games that Sony were counting on when the Playstation 3 launched in late March, but now that we have it and have played it, what do we think? Does it live up to all the hype and are the graphics as good as they were made out to be?

One of the most spectacular things about Motorstorm are the crashes, it seems to me that the developer has studied hours of footage of car’s crashing and exploding such is the detail when the inevitable happens in-game and when you combine the crash you are about to have with the 15 second speed boost you are given when you fall behind in a race then the wreckage just increases.

The courses in which this all takes part are set in the desert, these themselves are spectacular with eroded valleys, towering mountains and puddles of mud, it is a sight to behold when you are racing through this environment and your vehicle interacts with it, such as unsettling the dust and splashing through the water, it just looks stunning and a lot of though has went into this, it is also good to see your vehicle getting muddier as the race goes on as it makes the whole experience feel more authentic, of course it isn’t exactly easy to race through this environment and you are not aided in anyway by the various obstacles such as the rocks and large chasms which are looming just waiting for you to lose your concentration.    

Motorstorm’s main mode is based around The Motorstorm Festival, each event (which are called tickets) is spread across four difficulty levels with each one having up to four races, only three are available to begin with though, which means that you will have to unlock the rest by finishing in the top three to earn respect points.

Something that makes Motorstorm stand out from the crowd is the amount of vehicles that there are to choose from with a choice of Bikes, ATV’s, Buggies, Rally Cars, Racing Trucks, Mudpluggers and Big Rigs, however the types you are able to use is restricted in each of the ticket events, each vehicle has a terrain it is more suited to than the others and although you can use the other vehicles on a non preferred terrain you just make life that little bit more difficult for yourself.

The most unique aspect of the game is how you control the vehicle, you see steering is controlled by Sony’s new sixaxis controller, tip it left to turn left and right to turn (you guessed it) right, it is so simple to use and works extremely well, so well in fact that you will forget you are doing it after a while such is the natural feel to it.

Something Microsoft have been doing well for a while now is multiplayer over Xbox Live, so how does Sony’s Playstation Network compare when playing Motorstorm online? The answer is well, from the games that we have played on PSN we have experienced very little lag and we have to say were impressed overall, there are also plenty of options for the host when setting up games such as number of laps, time of day and which vehicles you would like to restrict users to and if you would like to turn off the speed boost meaning that people who fall behind cannot catch up, funnily enough in most of the games we played this had been turned off by the host.

Graphically Motorstorm is stunning, it really is the perfect game to show off you console, from the muddy cars to the computer controlled opponents trying to ram each other off the road, it is also accompanied well by the realistic sound of the vehicles and the upbeat sound track, the only flaws that we would point out would be the lack of a replay option (apart from the AI controlled one at the end of a race) and the load times, which can be particularly annoying, overall though this game cannot be faulted and really is as perfect a launch title as you could have hoped for.

If you have a Playstation 3 and don’t own this game then you should get your wallet out and head to the game shop now, it really is a must own title for everyone, the action is fast paced and explosive and it makes perfect use of your new sixaxis controller, so what are you waiting for? the game shop awaits.