Here's the premise: the MotorStorm outfit, having done dust-bowls and jungles, has packed bags and shipped out, their destination an anonymous and fictional West Coast city that's in throes of a natural catastrophe – and what better place to kick-start another MotorStorm festival? Set over a three day period, MotorStorm Apocalypse's backdrop is rapidly disintegrating. On the first day it'll be all tower blocks and freeways, but come the festival's climax it'll be a mounting pile of rubble – and the final race will be a mad dash for the MotorStorm freight ship as the city consumes itself.
If that all sounds vaguely familiar then you're not alone. Disney and Black Rock's Split/Second was a recent and largely successful attempt to take destructive driving to the next level, and alongside Bizarre's brilliant Blur it's signified something of a small trend as the racing genre tries to come up with an answer for its decline in popularity.
"We spoke to the guys in the States about it, we spoke to people in Japan – but the answer's kind of obvious," says MotorStorm Apocalypse's game director Matt Southern. "There's a sense that other genres are over-delivering, particularly the cinematic kind of experience – the Uncharted 2s and the Modern Warfares of the world – they're not just good, they're mind-blowingly awesome. We see a lot of racers that are good or great – and we've been fairly lucky with high review scores and decent sales – but then you're seeing shooters doing 10 million plus. People want to be really excited – and in the last 12-18 months you've seen a few guys realise the same thing."
