MotorStorm review

Actually, everything looks beautiful. We all expected it but you really don't understand until you're sat down in front of it. The elaborately-detailed textures, beefy car models, raucous physics and shimmering reflections make PS2 look laughably low-tech. Pause the game at any time - during a crash or takeoff from a ramp for example - and you can spin and zoom the camera freely, admiring every impeccable detail. Our one visual gripe? The spectators look shit. They're flat like ironed paper and completely motionless.

Sonically, however, it needs some work. The rattle and engine thrum of the amassed vehicles blends into one ear-shredding, cacophonous growl and drowns out the excellent soundtrack. Among its licensed tracks are hits by Primal Scream, Kings of Leon and Queens of the Stone Age, which suits the mood of the game.

But, above all, it's the liveliness of the races that makes MotorStorm so playable. It can be unforgivingly difficult and one crash can literally end your entire race - losing you 10 places as the rest of the throng go tearing past your bent, busted motor - but it's exactly as we'd imagine real off-roading to feel - volatile and merciless, like you're always on the edge and struggling for control.