Thursday, June 03, 2010

Video game number one hundred and forty seven: Motorstorm Arctic Edge

Video game review number one hundred and forty seven in my 365 Games in 365 Days project is "Motorstorm: Arctic Edge" for the PSP.

Two days in a row now I've sampled different racers on the PSP. I have to say, this one is much better than the last, in all the ways a racer should be. I like the original Motorstorm quite a bit. Playing the sequel on the PS3 was a blast. This one starts out with an opening cinematic that was so beautiful, I actually thought: "Wow, these are the best graphics I've ever seen on a portable game". Of course, it turns out it's just a cinematic, and the in game graphics are much more grainy. Still, it looks pretty damn good...and I liked it a lot better than ModNation.

Arctic Edge starts you out in the snow. Shocker, I know. You begin with a dune buggy, and as you travel along, you unlock other rides. After my first race, I got a stock car of some kind, and by my second race, I had unlocked the bike. There are tons of other cars, trucks and ATVs to unlock, but I'm not far enough in to have opened them up yet.

Like the PS3 versions of this game, Arctic Edge has tracks with a ton of different paths you can take. Most are left or right choices, but some are "high road/low road" sorts of deals. The music in the game is also pretty good (it has a real soundtrack). I'm not 100% positive, but I think I heard a few songs that were also in Rock Band for the PSP.

Overall score? 7/10. I really like this game. Sure, it uses the RB for gas, and I'm not a fan of that...but I'll get used to it. Drifting is great, the tracks are fun...and unlike the PSP racer I played yesterday, it felt like real racing. Will I buy it? Not sure. The only other racing game I've enjoyed for the PSP so far is Burnout, so perhaps my library could use this one. I haven't returned it to Gamefly yet, which is always a good sign. :-)

Trophies? Not on the PSP, sucka.

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