Motorstorm: Apocalypse

[Billy Idol]

Yeeeeeeeeeeees!!!
News of the day:

http://thegamingliberty.com/index.php/2010/02/21/motorstorm-3-domain-name-registered-by-sony-europe/

Motorstorm is my favorite racing franchise...MS2 was sensational!
Good to hear that they are considering MS3!!!
(I got a little worried because I heard that the sales numbers of MS2 were a bit low)

 

[Danalys]

I don't think none story driven games should come out so quickly after one another. The concept gets burnt out too fast otherwise. It's too easy for people to think I'll just pick up the next one rather than the present one, or to think I'll get the last version at a budget price instead. Same problem with Skate you run out of features to add to the main concept by the third iteration. The differentiation doesn't justify the cost. Same thing happened to Wipeout and many fighting game series in my opinion.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

SO, what will it bee this time ? Deserts?
I want the frigid arctic zones in HD on my PS3 !

 

[stofcri]

I don't think none story driven games should come out so quickly after one another. The concept gets burnt out too fast otherwise. It's too easy for people to think I'll just pick up the next one rather than the present one, or to think I'll get the last version at a budget price instead. Same problem with Skate you run out of features to add to the main concept by the third iteration. The differentiation doesn't justify the cost. Same thing happened to Wipeout and many fighting game series in my opinion.

MS2 has been released in october 2008, and I think MS3 will be released in october 2010,it's not too soon...

 

[Billy Idol]

SO, what will it bee this time ? Deserts?
I want the frigid arctic zones in HD on my PS3 !

Yeah, good question - artic zones would be great stuff (with UC2 like snow deformation )!

They could also include some cool Island like tracks with ridiclous gradients and stuff.


I hope that they up the graphics in MS3. The should include much more track deformation (I think it got downgraded in MS2 compared to MS1) and they should work on the destructable environment stuff - this was cool, but rather rare.

They should keep theri perfect lightning - created some of the best looking stuff I have seen in a racing game, just due to the suberb and exaggerated lightning!

If you ask me, they could also downstrip the local MP stuff if they need it to increase for instance texture resolution- I don't mind split screen at all....especially 4 player split screen. I have to admit that I already used the 2 player split screen mode in MS2.


All in all, it seems to be a save buy for me....

 

[nightshade]

The only thing I want from Motorstorm's visuals are better Textures.
Pacific Rift was a beautiful looking game & the island level with its foliage & water were the best.....but most of the textures were downright awful !

 

[JPT]

I think MS2 got crushed by other titles at that time. I bought it because I liked #1, but it never got real playtime between R2 and LBP that came out in the same time frame.

Anybody been on the Motorstorm Carrier in Home? I am not a big home fan, but I liked the Carrier space.

 

[Mr. Domino]

There are rumors floating around that indicate an urban environment.

 

[patsu]

I think MS2 got crushed by other titles at that time. I bought it because I liked #1, but it never got real playtime between R2 and LBP that came out in the same time frame.

Anybody been on the Motorstorm Carrier in Home? I am not a big home fan, but I liked the Carrier space.

What's in the Carrier space ? I was in the experimental/temporary MotorStorm space. Is it the same thing ?

There are rumors floating around that indicate an urban environment.

Sony is downplaying MS3 rumor:
http://www.vg247.com/2010/02/22/sce...should-not-be-interpreted-as-an-announcement/

“It’s not uncommon for us to secure the URLs containing the names of our successful IP, and those actions should not be interpreted as an announcement of a new title in a franchise,” a rep from Sony told us today.

 

[JPT]

What's in the Carrier space ? I was in the experimental/temporary

Well the story goes that a rich rockstar bought an old aircraft carrier and donated it to the Motorstorm people that has rigged it up to be the party place for the Motorstorm people

Its a big dancefloors, dj place where you can spin some discs, a chillout lounge with some arcade games etc.
So no its not the same as the old one, I liked this one for some reason.
There is also a mini quest/game in there that rewards you with some home items.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Urban environments won't suit MS at all ! Its all about mud on the windshield racing! I am hoping they will stay with nature this time too. I won't mind if they take me thru some Tomb Raider like ruins in between the tracks, but we need natural environments, not urban.

 

[patsu]

With Modnation Racer and GT5 coming out this year, I hope MotorStorm 3 is more than just MS 2 in a different environment.

I'm kinda out of idea for MS3 though.

 

[_phil_]

free roaming and massively online?

 

[RenegadeRocks]

No please ! No open world stuff in MS ! Let at least one franchise stay arcadey, the way it is meant to be.
Tie in the races with something better than just the festival, though, as the feeling of progression is not well done in MS. Otherwise, stay true to the arcadey super fast gameplay , please !

 

[patsu]

I am having trouble imagining an open world MotorStorm. How do you race if there is no constrained course ?

If they are going massively online, I hope they keep the 4 player split screen feature. Then again, what does massively online racing mean to me ?

 

[rabidrabbit]

I am having trouble imagining an open world MotorStorm. How do you race if there is no constrained course ?

If they are going massively online, I hope they keep the 4 player split screen feature. Then again, what does massively online racing mean to me ?

Burnout Paradise is a good example of an open world racing game.
I like more a clearly defined track rather than an open world. I actually try to avoid racing in Burnout, and rather just hunt trophies, decals and such... liked the old Burnouts better.
Motorstorm 3 could be similar, an open island where races would be started in specified points of the map, and the route to goal would be free to choose.

 

[Billy Idol]

free roaming and massively online?

Noooooooooooooooooo!!
Please not!

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Burnout Paradise is a good example of an open world racing game.
I like more a clearly defined track rather than an open world. I actually try to avoid racing in Burnout, and rather just hunt trophies, decals and such... liked the old Burnouts better.
Motorstorm 3 could be similar, an open island where races would be started in specified points of the map, and the route to goal would be free to choose.

See, the same thing happened to me with Burnout. I enjoyed looking for Billboards and stunts in the open world and finding hidden tracks and stuff, but I never had fun racing in Paradise city. It was a good exploration game, and quite an amusing one at that, but as a racing game , it had completely lost its soul. I would get lost in the city trying to take down an opponent. I would take him down, and then realise that I am speeding off in the wrong direction ! The whole joy would just vanish immediately. It would have been so much better if they would put up barriers when the race starts and remove them when the race ends. That way they can keep the open world design along with the core Burnout"speed+Takedowns" gameplay intact.

MS should stay true to its gameplay mechanic. Everything else they implement will be just add-ons to present the game better and provide better rewards to the player. If they keep the soul of racing intact, they may go for any kind of approach to the world, I wouldn't mind.

 

[nightshade]

It would have been so much better if they would put up barriers when the race starts and remove them when the race ends. That way they can keep the open world design along with the core Burnout"speed+Takedowns" gameplay intact

That's exactly what the NFS games [post Underground] did & see how much of a success the two Underground games,Most Wanted & Carbon were. I believe as an open world "racing game" those 4 NFS games (specially most Wanted) have a better design than Paradise.

 

[Billy Idol]

Wait, wut? That's still one of the most impressive looking racers of all time, by a mile.



I'm willing to bet that pretty much none of those people played the final game then? Presumably based their opinions on that very first demo, which probably did the game no favors.

Motorstorm 2 is a marvel to look at, and a great technological showpiece. It holds up extremely well so far - only a little while I recommended it to london-boy as a game you can still play after God of War 3 without being disappointed by the graphics!

I agree Arwin, MS2 actually looked really great overall especially the lighting and the water.

What I want improved in MS3, and I have extensively played MS2 and MS1and even bought all extensions (for the record: MS1&2 are my favorite racers this gen!):

-track deformation was nearly completely abscent, compared to MS1, where some tracks consisted of deformed tracks after the race

-the amount of particle effects ("smoke") was dramatically dialed back compared to MS1...maybe to circumvent the problems with pixelated particles they had in MS1?

-lot of textures where meh at most...this was not a problem while actually driving, as the motion blur helped quite a bit...but when driving slow (i.e. crashing) you could clearly see the deficiencies!

-I hate that when starting the race, you get this fancy close ups...revealing the ultra low res ground textures: they should have add a trick, that in this close ups you get high res textures...or just don't go to close

-There is one setting, which looked basically green in brown - not very pleasing from artistically point of view

-For instance in this setting, you got some hefty aliasing issues

-a fundamental problem that the tracks looked senstational at late afternoon/evening but not so good at other day times...this is mostly due to the lightning not being so dominant at those day times..exaggerating some of the deficiencies...

-animation when falling in deep water/lava is a joke...looks like a forgotten placeholder

-I also had the feeling that the overall number of cars on track in your sight at a given moment was dialed back compared to MS1, but this was just a feeling...

-there was rather limited use of the "destroy something on track" feature