Game Review: MotorStorm

I got Motorstorm bundled with my PS3, but never got around to throwing up a review of the game. Motorstorm is a week long "festival" in Arizona's Monument Valley. The game's intro is hilariously over serious with that gruff old man announcer at the beginning, once you get past stuffy old announcer man the festivities begin. The games graphics are not what we saw in that E3 teaser but I suppose it's better to aim high right? One of the first things I noticed about Motorstorm, the sound level is way higher than any PS2 game I have, maybe because the game is on Blu ray....I don't really know. The music is loud and hard very fitting for Motorstorm.
The environment is well designed and the level of detail is not achievable on the PS2, the closest comparison is GT4's Grand Canyon track.
The game offers eight tracks on or offline; The Grizzly, Sidewinder Glutch, Rockhopper, Rain God Mesa, The Tenderizer, Dust Devil, The Mudpool, Coyote Rage. The tracks may not have much variety but they make up for it in design, each course has sections that branch out and offer multiple paths that intertwine and offer different types of terain from mud to rock to loose gravel. Other than that there's not much variety to the environment which makes sense since this "festival" takes place in Arizona's Monument Valley, but I still would've liked to have a bit more variety.
Motorstorm offers seven different types of vehicles; MX bikes, ATV's, Buggies, Rally Cars, Racing Trucks, Mud Pluggers, and Big Rigs. Do you want to go really fast and risk life and limb? Jump on a Bike (the crash sequences are spectacular!) Do you want to bully your way to the finish line and crush the gravel below your feet climb into a Big Rig. Those are the two extremes in the vehicle selection spectrum. L2 & R2 are used for the gas and break and R3 acts as your boost ignitor. If you thought you were going fast before hold down the boost for a few seconds but watch your boost meter or you'll pull a Challenger!
Motorstorm's online game is just as manic as offline and you can bust out your best Anakin Skywalker on a ATV impression with eleven of your friends. I set up a clan event where we had around 6 people racing together and I never experienced any lag. Motorstorm also supports chat via BT or USB headset, it's open mic but sounds infinitly better than CoD4's chat functions.
The servers are divided into US East, Central, West etc.
Some custom features include time of day, track, public or private admittance and vehicle types.
Motorstorm's like poptarts...IT'S CRAZZZY GOOD!

7/10

Bonus: Motorstorm 2 teaser coming atcha!

Free Swim's 8 PS3 titles in '08

2007 was a tough year for those of you who owned a PS3, but it's a new year and things are only gonna get better in 08! To start PS3 sales skyrocketed over this holiday season, and more recently the announcement at CES that Warner Bros. has become Blu Ray exclusive and that M$ execs have openly stated that

"The fate of HD-DVD is not critical to the success of the
Xbox 360, according to
senior Microsoft officials, who have noted that the
company would consider
supporting rival technology Blu-ray if it were
victorious in the high-definition
format war."

I'll be glad to have this pointless format war over so I can get back to buying movies without the hesitation of doubt that many consumers have had these last few years.

Another positive aspect for PS3 owners in 08 is the upcoming tsunami of A titles coming! Here is a list of the 8 titles (get it? 8 for 08 >.<) Free Swim is most looking forward to.

8. SSFIITHDR: FINALLY, we get to trully be World Warriors when Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD remix launches on the PS store! Capcom's flagship fighter gets a 1080p facelift with the help of Udon artists.

7.Gran Turismo 5: Polyphony Digital's Real Driving Simulator is back and if you thought GT4 was visually perfect GT5 will trully have old folks saying "that's a game!?" And online racing will happen this time!

6. GTA IV: Rockstar North is returning to Liberty City, so if you never got into the GTA series on PS2 nows your chance. This game looks sick!

5. Killzone 2: So Killzone 1 wasn't the Halo killer it was touted to be, but Guerilla is working hard to make KZ2 the PS3's exclusive FPS to envy. Fingers crossed.

4. Socom Confrontation: Opta Gonaffle Hafla meng! HD Socom going back to basics Desert Glory, Cross Roads and more in 1080p glory. Slant Six is working on the online only HD remake of the PS2's #1 online frachise. Some new features include customizable facial and physical aspects and additional themed DLable content post release.

3. Street Fighter IV: Capcom is resurecting video games most prolific fighting game. With a new art direction and a stunning new visual style will Street Fighter IV re capture the magic of Street Fighter II? I certainly hope so! HADOKEN!

2. Final Fantasy XIII: Square Enix brings the 13th chapter of it's multi-million dollar RPG frachise back exclusively to the PS3. Shiva transforms into a motorcycle O.o >gulp<

1. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots / MGO: Bust out the Geritol and call your friends on the Jitterbug, Snake is returning for what might be his final mission and he's OLD! Looks like Naomi's Foxdie is kicking in and Snake reunites with Meryl Silverburg and Otacon to save the world once again from the threat of nuclear armageddon. This is a must have title and probably the best reason to own a PS3!

There you have it, Free Swims top 8 of '08, agree, disagree? Sound off, drop a comment and share your thoughts!

Game Review: Gran Turismo 4

After the long wait I picked up Gran Turismo 4, got home poped it in the ol' PS2! As with each previous installment in Polyphony Digital's franchise the intro movie gets the player psyched to start racing with a rockin tune and some amazing video showcasing the wide spectrum of cars in the game.
The menu interface is laid out like a map with 3D icons for different points of interest similar to GT2 and GT3.
Lets start at Home. New to home is you're game diary which comes in handy to help you remember what the last thing you were doing because this isn't a game you'll finish in a week, or a month. Also new to home is photo mode which allows you to place cameras at differnt locations throughout a track during a replay and snap some sweet shots of your car and view them in the photo mode. The images are photo realistic and be saved to a usb storage device.
Another familiar area in GT4 is the License Center, like previous GT's you'll need to pass the tests to earn the A,B,IA,IB and Super license. One thing gone from GT3 is the Rally license.
The GT4 map has many new areas like the Driving Missions area. This is similar to the license center and has 34 missions in total to test your skills with predetermined auto's.
The Driving Park offers a cople tracks to help players familiarize themselves with how a newly acquired car handles.
The Jukebox is where you can preview the music from GT4 and customize what you'll be listening to during the races. There's like 60 something songs in there, everything from classical music to techno.
The Power and Speed area gives the virtual greese monkees two tracks to see how much power we can tweek out of our rides one track is the Las Vegas Drag Strip.
GT4 holds the gold trophy for the most tracks in any racing game I've ever played! The tracks are catagorized by,
Original Courses:
High Speed Ring
Mid Field
Grand Valley Speedway
Grand Valley East
Grand Valley West
Deep Forest Raceway
Trial Mountain
El Capitan - this is a new track located at Yosemite National Park
Autumn Ring
Autumn Ring Mini
Apricot Hill Raceway

City Courses:
Seoul Central- this is a new track located in Korea
Tokyo R246
Hong Kong - this is a new track
Clubman Stage Route 5
Special Stage Route 5
New York - this is a new track that runs thu times square
Seattle Circuit
Cote d' Azur
Opera Paris - this is a new track
George V Paris - this is a new track
Citta di Aria
Costa di Amalfi

World Circuits:
Tsukuba Circuit
Tsukuba Circuit - wet
Fugi Speedway - 80's
Fugi Speedway - 90's
Fugi Speedway - 2005
Fugi Speedway - 2005GT
Twin Ring Motegi - Super Speedway
Twin Ring Motegi - Road Course
Twin Ring Motegi - East Short Course
Twin Ring Motegi - West Short Course
Infineon Raceway - Sports Car
Infineon Raceway - Stock Car
Suzuka Circuit - East
Suzuka Circuit - West
Mazda Raceway Leguna Seca
Nurburgring Nordschleife
Circuit de la Sarth I & II

Dirt & Snow
Swiss Alps
Cathedral Rocks Trail I & II
Tahiti Maze
Grand Canyon
Ice Arena
Chamonix

Congrats if you made it thru that list! Now double it, because you can choose to race on most of them in reverse also!!!
Returning from it's hiatus in GT3 is the the Used Car Showroom, GT4 has 2 and a Historic Showroom as well.
GT4 seems a bit overwhelming at first with all the places on the map but it is well organized and won't take too long to get familiar with all GT4 has to offer. The events are also categorized under Begginer, Professional, and Extreme events, most will recognize the series regulars like the Sunday Cup or the Clubman Cup.
I'm glad to see that if you have GT3 save data you can transfer your A & B license and up to 100,000 credits, one time only! So be sure you check your GT3 save data to see that you have the maximum amount of transferable credits. Because these games are a labor of love and not being able to transfer even a little something from the previous one would feel like a slap in the face.
GT4 boasts around 700 cars that triples the car count of GT3! This is trully a car enthusiasts playground! I have seen articles from Road and Track and Import tuner on GT4. I have even heard that certain dealerships have the game in the waiting area for people to play while they wait for their repairs to be done. For those with high end AV equipment you can trully appreciate the beauty of GT4 with 480p and 1080i HD video and Dolby Prologic II audio.
Gran Turismo is more than just another racing game, it's a car aficionado's wet dream. The fact that GT4 has such a vast spectrum of automobiles from the GT-ONE Race Car (TS020)to the 1915 Ford: Model T Tourer , shows that Kazunori and his team at Polyphony Digital look at automobiles as peices of artwork in motion not a greasy machine that gets people from point A to point B.
With all that GT4 offers regrettibly it does have one HUGE rusty dent....the one thing that could've made GT4 trully the "drive of your life"....Online play! Yes GT4 is gorgeous, yes GT4 has alot of tracks, yes GT has a huge selection of cars to choose from BUT it all seems painfully repetative. Like I mentioned earlier the Gran Turismo titles cater to hardcore racing game fans and are attractive to the casual gamer but this is the forth time around collecting cars from races that can be as short as 5 minutes to as long as over an hour. The payoff would've been taking that Aston Martin DB7 Vantage and racing your friend from Japan in his Deso Sard Supra and sharing the replay with other online.

9/10

Game Review: Gran Turismo 3 A-spec

Polyphony Digital is going to take you on "The ride of your life" with Gran Turismo 3 A spec, and what a beautiful ride it is!

Unlike GT2, GT3 has both the arcade and simulation mode on one disk (DVD vs CD). The arcade mode offers the usual asortment of features such as Single race, Time Trial, Free Run, and 2 player battle. New to the series is i-link battle where you can connect up to 6 PS2's and set up a LAN, you just need 6 copies of GT3 and 6 TV's....

Now lets look under the hood of what makes the Gran Turismo series so fantastic, the Simulation Mode! All racing enthuisasts begin at home with 18k credits to buy their first car, sorry there's no way to transfer any of your save data from GT2. Your garage can hold 200 cars, but that's ok since there's only about 190 cars in GT3. Game Status can be checked in Home as well.

The GT3 map is a bit cleaner looking than GT2, besides Home, Go Race, License Center, and Machine Test GT3 expands on GT2's Car Wash. GT Auto is where you bring your ride to get cleaned and new to the series is oil changes. Yes you have to keep an eye on your oil, like in real life once 3k miles goes by it's time to bring that ride in for an oil change. If you ignore your oil your car will lose HP and torque and could cost you a race by tenths of a second, so change your oil! The Wheel Shop in GT2 is now incorporated in GT Auto so go get those chrone rims there. Another change on the map is the Car Dealership, all the manufacturers are in the one location instead of North (N. Euro), South(America), East(Asia) and West(S. Euro) Cities. GT3 takes the Tune Shop out of Home and makes it's own location on the map.

Lets go to the dealership and buy a car!

*= In GT2 not in GT3 += New manufacturer

Japan Manufactuers:

Daihatsu

Honda

Mazda

Mitsubishi

Nissan

Subaru

Suzuki

Tommy Kaira

Toyota

U.S. Manufacturers:

Acura

Chevy

Chrysler

Dodge

Ford

+Panoz

Shelby

*Vector

*Plymouth

U.K. Manufacturers:

Aston Martin

Jaguar

Lister

Lotus

TVR

*MG

German Manufacturers:

Audi

BMW

Mercedes Benz

Opel

Ruf (Porsche)

Volkswagon

*Mini

+Belgium Manufacturers:

+Gillet

French Manufacturers:

Citroen

Peugeot

Renault

*Venturi

Italian Manufacturers:

Alpha Romeo

Fiat

Lancia

+Pagani

+Australian Manufacturers:

+Tickford

Now that you have a car lets GO RACE!

This section is set up similarly to GT2, there are three leagues,one Rally Event and Endurance Races. Many of the races, challenges, Cups and Championships are going to be familiar to those who played GT 1 and 2. But GT 3 adds in plenty of new to keep the experience fresh.

The Sunday Cup, Clubman Cup, FF/FR/MR/ 4WD challenges, K-Cup (formerly Compact Car World), Race of NA/Turbo Sports, Spider & Roadster (formerly Convertible Car World), 80's Sports Car Cup, Gran Turismo All Stars, and The Gran Turismo World Championship races all return from GT2 and show up in Beginner, Amatuer & Professional league.

Add to that car specific races such as, Tourist Trophy, Legend of the Silver Arrow, Altezza Race, Vitz Race, Type R meeting, Evolution Meeting, Beetle Cup, Race of the Red Emblem, Elise Trophy, Clio Trophy, and the TVR Challenge.

Then there's the Stars & Stripes Grand Championship (formerly US Nationals), Japanese/American/Euro Champion Races, German Touring Car Championship, All Japan GT Championship, Dream Car Championship, British GT Car Cup, Italian Avante Garde, Polyphony Digital Cup, Like the Wind and the Formula GT Championship.

Polyphony Digital has you kissing your social life goodbye, but we're not done yet! If you somehow complete all there is in the three leagues you can throw some dirt tires on your cars and take the challenge of Rally Events like, Tahiti Maze, Smokey Mountain, Alps, and the Super Special Route 5 wet which really showcases the power of the PS2.

The Endurance races await only the hardcore racing fans, but the rewards are worth it!

Grand Valley

Seattle 100 miles

Laguna Seca 200 endurance

Passage to Colosseo

Trial Montain Endurance

Special Stage Route 11

Roadster Endurance

Tokyo 246

Mistral 78 laps

Superspeedway 150 miles.

If you own a Playstation 2 weather you like racing games or not you should get GT3 it is without a doubt PS2's killer app! If this is a first generation PS2 title I can't imagine what's in store for our future. To compare the graphics of GT2 to GT3 is like comparing Billy's 6th grade art to Salvidor Dali's paintings. No other racing game on any console in gaming history comes close to the magnificense that is GT3 except maybe pole position....J/K!

Graphics are amazing, music is great, there's enough here to keep you behind the wheel for months!

10/10

Game Review: Gran Turismo 2

It's time to race on a higher level....

Polyphony Digital brings the Real Driving Simulator back for a second lap with Gran Turismo 2. With over 500 cars, more than doubling GT1's 160, 38 manufacturers tripling GT1's 11, and 6 licenses vs GT1's 3 buckle in it's gonna be a long ride.

GT1 showed you how to drive like a pro, GT2 is gonna see if you were paying attention!

Drivers education 2.0...

Lets go get our license to drive. First thing you'll notice is there are six licenses to acquire now B, A, IC, IB, IA & S. The tests are much the same as GT1, braking, cornering, S-turns, handling variances between FF/FR/4WD etc.

Lets go buy a car, GT2 Has four districts representing the four corners of the world and their respective manufacturers.

+=New Manufacturer

North City:

Aston Martin

+Audi

+BMW

+Jaguar

+Lister

+Lotus

+Mercedes Benz

+MG

+Mini

TVR

+Opel

+RUF

+Volkswagon

South City:

Acura

+Chrysler

Chevrolet

Dodge

+Ford

+Mercury

+Plymouth

+Shelby

+Vector

East City:

+Daihatsu

Honda

Mazda

Mitsubishi

Nissan

Subaru

+Suzuki

+Tommy Kaira

Toyota

West City:

+Alpha Romeo

+Citroen

+FIAT

+Lancia

+Peugeot

+Renault

+Venturi

Gran Turismo 2 adds 11 new race tracks to more than double the amount GT1 had!

+=new track

Autumn Ring

+Apricot Hill

Clubman Stage R5

Deep Forest

+Grindelwald

Grand Valley East

High Speed Ring

+Laguna Seca

+Midfield Raceway

+Red Rock Valley

+Rome Cicuit

+Rome ShortSpecial Stage R5

+Seattle Cicuit

+Seattle Short

Super Speedway

+Tahiti Road

Trial Mountain

+Test Course

GT2 offers four separate events, the GT league, Special Events, Endurance Races and Rally Events. GT2 takes the Races and Championships from GT1 and adds a plethora of new races, cups and challenges like the K-Cup, Luxury Sedan Cup, Convertible Car World, Compact Car World Muscle Car Cup, Historic Car Cup, Station Wagon Cup, Grand Touring Car Trophy

80's Car Cup, Gran Turismo All Stars, GT300 & 500 Championship.

Gran Turismo2 expands the Endurance Races from GT1 with the return of the Grand Valley 300km (60 laps), Apricot Hill 200 km, Seattle Circuit 100 miles, Laguna Seca 200 miles, Rome Circuit 2 hours, Trial Mountain 30 laps, and SS Route All Night.

Polyphony Digital added Rally Racing to GT2 and was toying with drag racing but opted not to include Drag Racing at the last minute. The Rally Events include Smokey Mountain North/South/reverse, Green Forest Roadway, Tahiti Maze, Tahiti Dirt R3/reverse, Pikes Peak Uphill/Down hill Challenge.

Grand Turismo improves on the original in every way, the graphics show improvement, the sheer number of new manufacturers and cars is astounding, the handling is vastly improved which says alot considering the first was revolutionary, the addition of Rally races expands the franchises influence but needs a bit of work on the way the cars handle off road....they handle too similarly to when they're on a track in my opinion. The inclusion of muscle cars of the 60's and 70's is a great addition and is cool pitting A Dodge Viper GTS against a 71' Dodge Charger!

GT2 is a fun ride!

9/10