In the UK, the launch of PS3 was held together by two games - Resistance: Fall of Man and Motorstorm. Now, nearly two years since these games first graced the shelves, both sequels are set for release. With the former still to come, MotorStorm: Pacific Rift is one of the first sequels to a major PS3 exclusive and so there are a lot of expectations for it live up to, especially given the quality of the original. MotorStorm was great from a technical standpoint but lacked the amount of options that the racing genre needs to work, which were added through an extensive patch a few months later. In this respect, Pacific Rift is an improvement over the original - but is this all that the game brings to the table.

The first thing to establish about Pacific Rift is that it plays very similarly to the first game, and not just in the control department either. You take control of an off-road vehicle and fight your way to the front of the sixteen racers currently on the course, avoiding any debris or scenery as you go. Every vehicle has a boost reserve too, so using this effectively is sometimes more important than being in front throughout a race. Once again, MotorStorm is a blast to play and little can match it when you're speeding past the sixteen-strong opponent line-up in an attempt to find those ever-elusive shortcuts. Every second counts and, as was the case with the first game, even a tiny slip up can mean the difference between victory and defeat, ensuing that you're always at the edge of your seat. Boosting off of a ramp at top speed was always great fun in the first game and the experience is just as thrilling this time around. The gameplay of Pacific Rift is near identical to that of the original, but the same can't be said about the modes on offer; thankfully, they are much more substantial.

The most important of these modes is the MotorStorm Festival, where you take on a series of progressively more difficult races and challenges in an attempt to increase your rank in the overall festival standings. The event is split into four areas of expertise - Fire, Water, Air and Ground - and takes place upon the four tracks are featured for each area. This may not seem like a lot, but thanks to excellent track design, which I'll discuss later, this is more than enough. Furthermore, instead of only giving you four challenges in each location type, the developer mixes things up by restricting you to certain vehicle types or asking you to fulfil a secondary objective. The vehicle restriction is annoying at first, as it means that you can't use your vehicle of choice to complete certain races; however, after a few hours it makes racing across the same tracks over and over enjoyable, rather than a bore. For each trophy position you secure you increase your festival point tally by a tiered amount, making even a bronze medal finish vital in the long run, as the task of increasing your rank to the next level is always looming as you progress. The Festival is the best way to play Pacific Rift by yourself, thanks to the healthy progression that the game implores you to make.

Along with the Festival, the other modes all come under the banner of Wreckreation, a surprisingly ironic name in a game where crashing isn't ever endorsed, and in this section of the game you can find both single player and multiplayer modes. There is the obligatory Time Trial mode, and Split Screen multiplayer, but the real fun comes from the online options. You don't have much control over which track you race on, but racing online in MotorStorm is great fun. Without the rubber band AI of the single player game (where AI drivers magically catch up if you get too far into the lead), it becomes a completely different game, based purely on skill and not just how you react to a situation. This can become a problem for players who lack the necessary skills to succeed though, which leads to a large amount of last places on the already tough MotorStorm servers. This is only a small problem though and while some will find the online multiplayer too difficult, most will find it to be a worthy accompaniment to the great single player game.

One of the defining aspects of the first MotorStorm was not only the varied vehicle types, but how they interact with each other on the track. The same is true of Pacific Rift, largely due to the lack of many brand new vehicle types this time round. Only the Monster Trucks have been added; the other seven available rides are the same as last time, which is mildly disappointing. Unfortunately, the Monster Trucks are the weakest of the vehicles on offer, due to the lack of control you feel when driving them, and the fact that the next ride down, the Big Rig, handles excellently. You will find your favourite, whether it's the ATV, Buggy, or Racing Truck, but there is just enough variety between each type that players who want to try it all out won't become bored. They do look better this time around, with excellent rendering, the mud splattering across your chassis as you skid through a slippery patch, and they shine with a crisp but not overt sheen. The vehicle selection is like most things in Pacific Rift - near identical to the original; not even the Monster Trucks make it feel fresh. At least the cars look better than ever though, so as the vehicles aren't the highlight, it's down to the tracks you drive them around to really shine - and luckily they're better than ever.

The first game had great tracks but all of them were basically the same, with some small changes thrown in for good measure. That isn't the case here, however, as each track style - the elements mentioned before - makes for a completely different experience. The Fire tracks for example, see you avoiding flowing lava, which increases the amount of boost you burn when next to it. These sort of subtle differences between the tracks make for a wholly different experience and even though you may have a favourite track type, the variety is always refreshing. The tracks do a great job of allowing for any type of vehicle. Unlike Pure and its ATV-centric tracks, albeit with lots of options for you to take, here there are even more paths to choose from, each of which works best with a certain type of vehicle. Deciding which path to take becomes vital to winning races, as the smaller vehicles can't make it through large depths of water, which is solved by riding in a Big Rig or Mudplugger, which can. This is what makes the festival mode so great, because even when you have learned the perfect route for a bike, you're only given Big Rig as an option the next time round. This adds to the longevity of the game considerably, as you always have more things to experiment with and new routes to learn, making this the one aspect of MotorStorm: Pacific Rift that pushes it beyond its predecessor.

When the original MotorStorm was released, the reason to own it was the graphical prowess it held over other titles of the time. Then the developers released footage that was obviously their target for the sequel rather than what they had achieved, and in this respect the game is a disappointment. To be fair though, it still looks amazing, the big change this time round being the fact that the design team seems to have located the colour button, allowing for a wider palette than last time. The tracks that take place in the jungle are breathtakingly good, with lighting effects that only the best looking games can hold a candle to. The trees are stunningly detailed, moving in accordance of the g-forces as your ride breezes past them, really pushing the visual effects of the PS3 to the next level. The lighting especially makes the atmosphere even more electric in Pacific Rift, because while you're still playing a game, anyone unacquainted with it might wonder whether or not they were watching live footage upon a cursory glance. It's not as high grade as the track design themselves, but Pacific Rift wouldn't be the same without some of the best graphics that the PS3 has offered off so far.

The audio is up to the same high standard too; the Big Rigs sound a lot more menacing than the Bikes, for example, with a punchier revving up that makes you really feel like you're controlling of a brute of a truck. The crashes don't have as much impact as Burnout Paradise, but they do the job, as is the case with most of the sound design in Pacific Rift. Accompanying these visceral effects is a great driving soundtrack that features a surprisingly diverse selection of tunes, a mixture of heavy metal and some more dance-orientated numbers. And even if you're not partial to what's on offer then there is an alternative, thanks to Pacific Rift being the first to utilise XMB music playback. It works even better than it does on 360; with just a press of the home button you can play whatever music you have stored on the PS3's hard drive. It's as slick as it should be and if every game contained this feature then maybe bad soundtracks choices would be a thing of the past. It just feels right when you're boosting across an open section of a track with your favourite tunes blasting out; MotorStorm excels in every respect when it comes to presentation, with the versatile custom music options providing the virtual icing on the digital cake.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift feels more like a refinement than a revolution, although given the success and quality of the original, this is hardly a bad thing. Transplanting the core of MotorStorm into a Pacific setting makes for a much better and more varied gameplay experience, and the environments, track design and vehicles are all much improved. What it lacks though is innovation, and although I'd rather not resort to an overused phrase, Pacific Rift is Motorstorm 1.5, rather than a true sequel. It's a great game and both fans of the original and newcomers to the series will find something to enjoy, but let's hope that next time there are a few more changes and innovations.

Reviewed by Sam Atkins for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).