If you have wondered how MotorStorm Apocalypse looks at full resolution, footage of Evolution Studios’ racer captured in 1080p gives a pretty clear answer. The clips put the series’ move into a city tearing itself apart on full display, and they make a good case for the game as one of the better looking PS3 showcases this spring.
Apocalypse is a sharp change of scenery for the franchise. The original MotorStorm sent drivers into the desert canyons of Monument Valley, and Pacific Rift moved the festival to a tropical island. This time the racing takes place in a coastal city being wrecked by earthquakes, with tracks that buckle, collapse and reshape themselves around you. Evolution has pitched it as urban off road racing, and the studio says the tracks change each time you play.
The Demo Runs At Up To 1080p
Anyone who wants to judge the visuals on their own TV can do so already. The demo, which arrived on the PlayStation Store earlier this month, includes one of the game’s races, Mainline: Off the Rails, a Rookie event from the first day of the festival, along with a tougher five lap Veteran race. You get 15 rivals on track and two of the game’s 13 vehicle classes to try, Supercar and Superbike. According to Sony’s PlayStation Blog post about the demo, it supports stereoscopic 3D on a 3D TV and otherwise runs at up to 1080p, which is exactly where footage like this comes from.
The full game is a big package. The single player campaign spans 40 races across three difficulty levels, and each tier follows a different racer’s story through the disaster. New classes such as choppers, superminis and muscle cars join the familiar bikes, buggies and big rigs, and there is vehicle customization along with perks and wagering. Multiplayer covers up to four players in local split screen, two player split screen online, and online races for up to 16 players.
Japan’s Earthquake Upends The Release Schedule
The game’s launch has been anything but smooth. A city falling apart in an earthquake is a sensitive subject right now, and after the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan, Sony postponed the release there and in the UK, where it had been set for March 16. Sony Europe has since confirmed a new UK date of March 31. New Zealand’s launch had already been held back after the Christchurch earthquake in February, and in Australia the game went out on schedule before Sony stopped further shipments and pulled its advertising.
North American players face a longer wait. The April 12 launch there was delayed indefinitely last week, and Sony said at the time that it had no new date to share.
That context makes the footage a strange thing to watch, impressive on a technical level and uncomfortable at the same time. Still, for PS3 owners keen to see what Evolution has squeezed out of the hardware, it is a strong showing for a studio that has used the series to push Sony’s console since its earliest days.