Being a big fan of the Motorstorm series, I decided to import a copy of Motorstorm: Apocalypse awhile back. So far I've been really enjoying it, and I thought it'd be fun sharing some of my experiences in a blog.

You know, I saw tons of video for this game and was super excited from the start, if a little apprehensive also. Pacific Rift was slam-your-head-into-wall-over-and-over hard, and while I didn't mind it so much, I was worried the difficulty in Apocalypse would be even crazier because of all the crazy stuff going on while you're racing. Pacific Rift was hard, and you were just racing through jungle settings. Would everything be too distracting? That's another question. First off, I'm 80 percent through the single player story campaign and up to this point it's been tough but not ball-achingly hard. There were times I definitely had to restart races multiple times, but nothing compared to my play through of Pacific Rift. The AI is still uber-agressive, but something about it just isn't as tough. Fine with me, honestly.

The stages you race through are gorgeous, with tons going on. Boats being thrown at you from a tornado, Helicopters shooting the ground right underneath you and you subsequently ending up falling through the ground into a subway system. It's all insane. Did I find it distracting? Yeah, but its supposed to be. When shit goes down in front of you, it's usually pretty obvious how your supposed to get around it. But of course, there are some stages in my opinion which have way, way too much going on in it to a huge fault. The stage with the tornado in it for instance is just too crazy for my liking and i roll my eyes anytime it comes up in multiplayer. Combine the rain, the darkness, the tornado throwing out tons of stuff and the buildings kind of blending in, and it's just annoying to race. The story in the game is...I don't know what it is. The motion comics they use are pretty neat looking, but everything else i feel is just kind of awkward. Just way over the top, and i'm still not sure if i find it funny or not.

Now, the multiplayer is definitely what I'm enjoying the most. While I played a lot of Pacific Rift online, I got into it late and by that time people were raw. it was fun, but I never got into a groove where I could be really competitive. i'm having more much more fun with Apocalypse online --- it just feels more evened out. The perks, medals and accolades just keep me coming back. The betting system is really cool too, but it's got problems that I'll share my thoughts about later.

Getting into a 16 player race and watching the chaos right off the line is crazy. Someone always gets run off the road at the start and smashes into something, then blows up. Always -- never fails. And it's never not funny. Though I wish more people would talk, because it's almost always silent in races. The few times i've heard anyone else say anything, it's been in another language. With the game not being out in America yet, that's to be expected. But with the release in Europe being tomorrow (?), I'm hoping i'll get to chat it up and have fun with folks because as fun as it is now there isn't much socializing going on. :(

Anyway, the perks in this game are way more useful (and powerful) then I had thought they'd be, and it's a game changer. I'm partial to the motorcycles, and I can't even tell you how frustrating it is to get wrecked by every person in a truck, car or by any little piece of geometry in the stages. The "armour" perk changed all that, and now i'm having much more fun. 'Armour' lets you take more damage before you wreck, and now even monster trucks have trouble taking me out. And maybe i'm just crazy, most stages seem to be less hectic when you race online. As in, instead of crazy stuff happening all through the race, it'll just all happen on the last lap (which has completely fucked me over a few times) right in front of whoever is first. I'm not complaining, because if someone is way out in front it gives them a bit of a challenge to stay there which is fine with me.

And the much touted betting system needs work, in my opinion. As it stands now, it's confusing to understand at first (am I betting on someone to win? Is the bonus pot what I'm winning if I beat the person who bet on me? What the hell is that streak all about?) I eventually got it, but it took awhile and there is still one thing I don't understand about it which I won't get into. So, in reality your betting on who you think you can beat. And so of course everyone just bets on the lowest level players in the room -- you routinely see a level one or so player get like 8 bets against him. Which nearly always works out for the betters because usually that person hasn't learned the tracks yet, so they're an easy mark to beat. Once the game has been out awhile and everyone is a little more familiar with the tracks this wont be as much of a problem, but right now it's just silly -- because the amount of chips (XP) you get from betting can get pretty big if you can keep a streak going. (I.E. continually betting on the person in the room who obviously hasn't been playing the game long, and continually beating them.)

But I will say this about the betting, if you bet on someone who is good, it is fun as hell. I've literally jumped up from my chair, fist-pumping after beating a guy by 0.2 seconds.

The multiplayer is good. Real good, and I hope it stays active for a long time. The single player is fun, too -- but for me it was more a training ground for multiplayer. But some of the tracks seem to have more going on in single player compared to multiplayer so i'm glad I played through most of it just to see that stuff.