Sony hopes that gamers will chill out with its upcoming PSP/PS2 racer, MotorStorm: Arctic Edge. Much like its PlayStation 3 predecessors, the game challenges you to navigate dangerous terrain while avoiding opponents and plummeting off cliffs, except instead of barreling through a tropical paradise, you'll compete in a plethora of winter-themed courses.
This time, mud, volcanoes and sandy beaches make way for ice patches and avalanches. Arctic Edge features 12 unique and reversible courses with high jumps, snow-capped mountains and treacherous hair-pin turns. You'll have eight vehicle classes to choose from (ATV, Bikes, Rally Cars, Buggies, Big Rigs, Mud Pluggers and the new Snow Machine and Snow Cat classes), each of which contains three cars for a total of 24. All of them handle differently, with the speedier bikes rocketing past the competition and the Big Rigs slowly making their way through the Arctic tundra. In addition, you can customize them with spoilers, wheels, colors, decals, patterns and other cool things, though none of them affect performance; you can take your creations online.
Up to eight players can compete via single player (you versus the computer) or in multiplayer through Ad Hoc and Infrastructure (Internet) play. Similar to past MotorStorm games, you should expect plenty of underhanded tricks from the competition, as opponents ram your vehicle into walls or off the sides of mountains. That said, you're free to fight back with your own tactics, and thanks to the new avalanche feature, you can honk your horn near specific points on a course and literally bury the other players. Keep in mind, of course, that they can do the same.
Naturally, this wouldn't be a MotorStorm game without insane crashes, and thus far, the Arctic Edge team delivered. Drivers fly through windshields in unnatural positions, courtesy of rag doll physics, and vehicles explode, sending pieces of debris flying in all directions. At least with the Photo Mode, you'll be able to immortalize your best wrecks.
Factor in online leaderboards, and Sony should have what it takes to freeze its competition. We'll report more on MotorStorm: Arctic Edge as soon as we get our gloved hands on it.
Reader Comments (0)