If the sleek, shiny motors in Ridge Racer 7 leave you cold, youre probably the sort of person who likes their breakneck action a little dirtier. And for gratuitously filthy thrills, Motorstorm is a mucky masterpiece.
A preposterous off-road speedster set in an expansive desert, Motorstorm puts players behind the wheel of a huge range of rugged racers, from motorbikes and dune buggies to rally cars and hulking big rigs. But while many racing games are quick to offer a variety of vehicles that handle exactly the same, the developers of Motorstorm have spent an inordinate amount of time tuning the physics of every machine, ensuring each one reacts in the same way as it would in the real world and challenging you to figure out the quickest, most efficient route through each of the perilous courses.
An electrifying sense of speed, buckets of grit and a sensational soundtrack from the likes of Nirvana and Kings Of Leon also help make Motorstorm the only PS3 racer worth owning, but a general lack of polish and a poor variety of tracks mean its only a taster of better things to come.