MotorStorm [PS3]

Along the same lines and just as detrimental to the overall experience, the only gameplay option you have is the main career mode, which is simply made up of race after race. There aren't any separate challenges, elimination races, one-on-one duels or anything of that sort. There isn't even a quick race option, so if you want to play a single race on a specific course with a certain field of vehicles, you need to dig through the tickets in the career mode to find a race that suits your mood. It's rather easy to unlock a large number of them so you won't be stuck with only a few for very long, but we're still scratching our heads as to why the same options that a host sees for an online game couldn't have been applied to the singleplayer game as well.

Speaking of online, MotorStorm happily delivers here in spades. The game can be extremely fun online, especially when you're talking trash with a bunch of your friends and cursing at them when they run you off a cliff. Again, you can only take part in straight-up races, but you do have options for things like turning on or off catch-up assist, what vehicles you want to be made available and what time of day you want to race.

Helping to keep people glued to their seats, the game includes a ranking feature that allows you to increase your title. One small issue that we have here is that your overall record is dictated solely by how many wins you've attained. If you're always playing in 12 player races and constantly finish in the top three, but don't actually win all that often, other players should be able to see that you finish well in large competitions. Two friends who only ever race each other and split the wins will look incredible compared to the full-field racer.

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