Today's selection is...
MotorStorm: Apocalypse on the PS3
Previous days' entries can be read HERE
I had a bit of an adventure just getting set-up to play this game. First I had to find a charge-cable for my 3D glasses (when was the last time you saw mini-USB?), then I had to install a decades-worth of missed updates, and then it turned out that this game hated my console. I’m lucky enough to have a 60GB Fat PS3 with the hardware supported backwards compatibility, and as you can probably understand I’m quite protective of it. So, after the third time this game crashed the system with 3 beeps and a flashing red light, I only had one option: Break out the spare!
It was nice to see my Ice White 40GB Fat Japanese model again. It was the second PS3 I owned. I sold the first to pay for it, and the third, my 60GB, was a gift from a friend-of-a-friend who was moving abroad. Weird thing is, I’m not much of a fan of this machine, either aesthetically (I think it's one of the ugliest consoles ever made) or in terms of it's games; I only have about 30 titles for PS3 whereas the Wii and 360, it's 7th generation brethren, have more than 100 each.
But back to MotorStorm: Apocalypse. This is a game I picked up when I found out my 50” Plasma was 3D compatible. I love 3D in whatever format and was excited to see how the (now pretty obsolete) active shutter technology performed in games - and I wasn’t disappointed. Despite being a little dark, the 3D in MotorStorm: Apocalypse is stunning, helped in no small amount by the beautiful environments and spectacular level of detail for a game of this era. The 3D also adds nice depth to the ‘motion comics’ through which the game’s story is conveyed.
What this story actually is however I’m afraid I have no clue. Something about a guy who’s organising races in an earthquake-struck San Francisco, another guy who’s racing, and a whole bunch of impossibly proportioned girls in skin-tight outfits hanging around mostly as decoration?
The game was released in 2011 and it is very much of that time; The ‘edgy’ and ‘mature’ design (please note those inverted commas) and the dub-step soundtrack do it no favours in this regard; both have aged it quite badly. The grittiness that invaded games around this time is in full effect here and, as stunning as the in-game graphics are, the addition to the story of security forces and disgruntled residents battling one another in the streets while you’re racing drags the tone down and puts it at odds with those cheerful ‘Motion Comic’ sections.
It’s not just people on the streets either, there’s so much rubble and debris, so many abandoned vehicles and buildings, that it's often borderline impossible to tell where the track is going. Exacerbating this is the fact that there are branching routes on every course. This kind of thing is usually a fun and welcome addition to arcade racers, but their inclusion here just makes it even more difficult to know what is a flimsy barrier that can be pushed aside to reveal a new route, and what is a rock-solid, car-breaking obstacle. There are yellow arrowed signs around the track and coloured flares in the road to help you pick a route through all the detritus but they are alarmingly ineffective. With every button on the DualShock 3 given a purpose it’s a shame that ‘Select’ - used to reset your vehicle to the track - got more than its fair share of use in my time with this game.
The problem appears to be finding the balance between the idea of what it would be like racing through the chaos of a city undergoing a natural disaster, and the reality of making these events feel like they are happening to the racer, rather than just around them. There’s some great stuff in the game - the boost system in particular cleverly works the in-game environment into its management. Fire causes faster overheating while driving through water cools the car quickly. Additionally you can cool the engine and boost system by releasing the boost and accelerator buttons while in the air. This gives proceedings a really nice rhythm - when you’re not smashing yourself up on unseen rocks or plummeting from a cliff that you thought was an alternative route.
With all this taken in consideration you would imagine that MotorStorm: Apocalypse is a difficult game. If I’m saying here that you spend a disproportionate amount of time embedded in a wall or ragdolling through the air then this must mean I'm finishing last every race, right? Sadly it appears that Evolution Games knew they had created tracks that were a nightmare to navigate and have the AI vehicles explode themselves, take bizarre routes, and generally perform so terribly that often no matter what befalls the player they will end up crossing the line in the top three. Rubberbanding is one thing, I have no problem with that - indeed it’s expected in this type of game - but without challenge there is no need to even try to learn these labyrinthine race tracks; so I just bumbled from one race to the next, usually winning, rarely challenged, and often completely bored - and all for the want of a minimap.
I had a bit of an adventure just getting set-up to play this game. First I had to find a charge-cable for my 3D glasses (when was the last time you saw mini-USB?), then I had to install a decades-worth of missed updates, and then it turned out that this game hated my console. I’m lucky enough to have a 60GB Fat PS3 with the hardware supported backwards compatibility, and as you can probably understand I’m quite protective of it. So, after the third time this game crashed the system with 3 beeps and a flashing red light, I only had one option: Break out the spare!
It was nice to see my Ice White 40GB Fat Japanese model again. It was the second PS3 I owned. I sold the first to pay for it, and the third, my 60GB, was a gift from a friend-of-a-friend who was moving abroad. Weird thing is, I’m not much of a fan of this machine, either aesthetically (I think it's one of the ugliest consoles ever made) or in terms of it's games; I only have about 30 titles for PS3 whereas the Wii and 360, it's 7th generation brethren, have more than 100 each.
But back to MotorStorm: Apocalypse. This is a game I picked up when I found out my 50” Plasma was 3D compatible. I love 3D in whatever format and was excited to see how the (now pretty obsolete) active shutter technology performed in games - and I wasn’t disappointed. Despite being a little dark, the 3D in MotorStorm: Apocalypse is stunning, helped in no small amount by the beautiful environments and spectacular level of detail for a game of this era. The 3D also adds nice depth to the ‘motion comics’ through which the game’s story is conveyed.
What this story actually is however I’m afraid I have no clue. Something about a guy who’s organising races in an earthquake-struck San Francisco, another guy who’s racing, and a whole bunch of impossibly proportioned girls in skin-tight outfits hanging around mostly as decoration?
The game was released in 2011 and it is very much of that time; The ‘edgy’ and ‘mature’ design (please note those inverted commas) and the dub-step soundtrack do it no favours in this regard; both have aged it quite badly. The grittiness that invaded games around this time is in full effect here and, as stunning as the in-game graphics are, the addition to the story of security forces and disgruntled residents battling one another in the streets while you’re racing drags the tone down and puts it at odds with those cheerful ‘Motion Comic’ sections.
It’s not just people on the streets either, there’s so much rubble and debris, so many abandoned vehicles and buildings, that it's often borderline impossible to tell where the track is going. Exacerbating this is the fact that there are branching routes on every course. This kind of thing is usually a fun and welcome addition to arcade racers, but their inclusion here just makes it even more difficult to know what is a flimsy barrier that can be pushed aside to reveal a new route, and what is a rock-solid, car-breaking obstacle. There are yellow arrowed signs around the track and coloured flares in the road to help you pick a route through all the detritus but they are alarmingly ineffective. With every button on the DualShock 3 given a purpose it’s a shame that ‘Select’ - used to reset your vehicle to the track - got more than its fair share of use in my time with this game.
The problem appears to be finding the balance between the idea of what it would be like racing through the chaos of a city undergoing a natural disaster, and the reality of making these events feel like they are happening to the racer, rather than just around them. There’s some great stuff in the game - the boost system in particular cleverly works the in-game environment into its management. Fire causes faster overheating while driving through water cools the car quickly. Additionally you can cool the engine and boost system by releasing the boost and accelerator buttons while in the air. This gives proceedings a really nice rhythm - when you’re not smashing yourself up on unseen rocks or plummeting from a cliff that you thought was an alternative route.
With all this taken in consideration you would imagine that MotorStorm: Apocalypse is a difficult game. If I’m saying here that you spend a disproportionate amount of time embedded in a wall or ragdolling through the air then this must mean I'm finishing last every race, right? Sadly it appears that Evolution Games knew they had created tracks that were a nightmare to navigate and have the AI vehicles explode themselves, take bizarre routes, and generally perform so terribly that often no matter what befalls the player they will end up crossing the line in the top three. Rubberbanding is one thing, I have no problem with that - indeed it’s expected in this type of game - but without challenge there is no need to even try to learn these labyrinthine race tracks; so I just bumbled from one race to the next, usually winning, rarely challenged, and often completely bored - and all for the want of a minimap.
MotorStorm: Apocalypse - If you thought ‘Stay at home’ was a frustrating way to spend the apocalypse then you should try this.
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