Luckily enough, time constraints yesterday prevented me from getting to all of the games that I had wanted to get to inside of the Sony booth. Going up the stairs of the media section this morning, I went looking for Genji 2, and lo and behold, saw playable demos of Motorstorm where Genji had once stood. On top of that, I had the opportunity to speak with Evolution Studios developer Simon Benson about the game, and Evolution's vision in making this title.
Getting to the game itself, it can best be described as a rally 'versus' game. Benson mentioned in particular his company's history developing rally games, and how they've always wanted to create a game with multiple vehicles in play. Motorstorm is that game.
For the purpose of the demo, you are limited to a single track and a single vehicle; the buggy previously seen in demonstrations.
The game plays smoothly, with no sign of frame drops and full motion blur in effect at all times. Blur intensity is determined by the speed at which you are traveling and/or whether you are being tossed around. And you do get tossed around! Besides falling/rolling off ledges and crashing into other vehicles, motion blur is especially noticeable when 'boost' is active. Simon also confirmed that high dynamic range lighting effects are present (such was readily apparent), and that the game would be targeting a resolution of 720p.
The star of the game is the physics and vehicle modeling, however.
Each vehicle present in the game is fully destructible, with the form of their 'break up' determined entirely in game by physics. It's amazingly satisfying to run a motorcycle off the road and see it's tires come off and fly around in a realistic fashion. Larger vehicles have more to lose of course, and one of the most impressive moments of the game was chasing after a big-rig truck and seeing it's driver side door swing open and shut realistically according to the direction in which it was turning. The struts on your car also compress and expand, depending on the terrain, all in a completely realistic manner.
And of course, the mud.
As seen previously in leaked demonstrations, the vehicle - all vehicles in fact - leave ruts in the track that remain throughout the entire race. As sections of track become increasingly chopped up, traction decreases when driving over these areas and they can turn into something of a hazard. Larger vehicles - though less manueverable - are less effected by these ruts. Of course this was something I was told rather than able to experience, as again only the buggy was playable.
The mud itself cakes itself upon the vehcles depending on how much is kicked up in their immediate surroundings. The vehicles start out spotless, but as the race progresses, can become more or less brown in coloration. Another great consideration, the mud actually seems to appear wet or dry, depending on how recently it has been kicked up onto the vehicle. I asked Simon about this and he confirmed that Evoution has provided for wet/dry dirt appearance on the vehicle, but I do not recall if he confirmed that the wet mud itself would actually take on the appearance of dried mud while on the vehicle; unfortunately I was playing when I asked, and thus my video recording did not pick up the answer for review.
Some other interesting points are that he mentioned Evolution is presently using Cell's SPEs for physics, collisions, and AI, among other things... The AI comment stood out for me in particular, since I have spoken to a number of developers at the show (those features upcoming) and Simon was the first to mention AI on the SPEs.
It's hard to tell whether the AI is 'good' or not - afterall the objective of the other vehicles is simple enough. But it was refreshing to see that the other vehicles actually fight with each other as well. In fact when playing I came upon a car that had spun out after colliding with another vehicle, and was forced to correct in order to avoid it as it moved back towards the center of the track.
Myself, I am not a big fan of rally games - but for those that are Motorstorm truly looks to bring things to the next level.
