With the recent release of Motorstorm Apocalypse, PALGN was lucky enough to have a chance to interview two members of the development team from Evolution Studios. Simon Barlow, the Assistant Game Director/Lead Producer and Nadia Ankrah.
Digital Foundry : Evolution Studios' Motorstorm is one of the first, finest and most fondly remembered of launch titles for PlayStation 3. It's a release designed to answer the question posed by each new console generation: what makes a game 'next-gen'? With its robust physics engine and massive tracks, Motorstorm serves up a bold affirmative answer to this question, delivering an experience that could never have existed on prior console hardware. At the same time, the path to release was fraught with challenges that almost serve as a microcosm of the PlayStation 3 release situation itself. It was a success, however, with a trilogy of PS3 releases, plus PSP, Vita and even PS2 off-shoots.
After Driveclub and Onrush, the dev team will now contribute to and assist with the development of the upcoming NFS.
I would give anything to have a full compilation of the series remastered to play on PS5 with full DS support. Feeling the deformation of the tracks as you race in pacific rift or the snow laden tracks in arctic edge... that would be sweet.
Yes MotorStorm World Tour for PS5 damn it Sony make it. The Desert, Pacific Islands, The Arctic and City races.
Motorstorm Pacific rift was awesome! I think MotorStorm: Apocalypse was what killed the franchise due to its change of direction...
Pacific rift is the best (IMO) but apocalypse wasnt what killed it. At least it was still somewhat of a MS game. The RC one is really a departure from the norm. None of which were bad as they were all fun in their own ways.
RC was a blast to play on Vita.
Apocalypse had unfortunate timing due to the 3/11 earthquake in Japan. I never got around to playing that one.
Evolution had some harsh experiences. I had Driveclub from launch and the server issues weren't that bad and certainly didn't prevent you from enjoying the game.
Agree Apocalypse didn't kill it, it's just racing games in general just became less popular nearing the end of the PS360 generation as it was flooded with medicore racers and the extremely niche but enjoyable ones like Motorstorm, Blur, Spilt Second, and Forza Horizon (still going strong, but actual sales have been decent fro a racer, and often expanded by console bundles and now GamePass)
But since the PS4/XBO generation had a lack of arcade racers, it's a prime time for games like this to come back.
I've said for the longest, the additional income of PS+ Premium should be used for, Remastering, Remaking, or recreating sequels / spinoffs of classic PS franchises to launch into the service. Many PS3 games fit this mold of looking good enough that a quick remaster to 4K@60 with better texture maps would give them near PS4 quality.
Remasters: A game like Motorstorm look good enough where it can simply be remastered in 4K @ 60fps, and have better textures for mud, mountains/rock structures, and vehicles and it would hold up WELL.
Remakes: Games like Legend of Dragoon, Warhawk (could be a simple remaster also), and so many others could get remakes like FF7.
Recreates: Shorter sequels/prequels/spin-offs to other classic PS IPs like how Infamous First Light / Blood Festival (BF was a highly underrated vampire game) and Uncharted Lost Legacy. Give spin-offs to things like Heavenly Sword, The Order 1886 (1786 or 1986), Puppeteer, Tokyo Jungle, and more.
This is also why Sone NEEDS to get PS3 emulation up and running. It gets rid of all the PS3 server farms and replaces it with software that can work on EVERY future PS console with updated coding.
At bare minimum emulation could double the resolution and framerates of all PS3 games making many of them 1440p@60fps without any real work, and a few 4k@60fps.
As for full-on remakes again updating to 4K@60fps with completely revamped textures, and an option for 1440p@60fps with global illumination can make these games shine with a new lease on life.
Also I'm still waiting on my DriveClub 1440p@60fps update 😭
Apocalypse was actually pretty good i don't think that's what killed the series. PR was the best though.
I was late to PS3 and Pacific Rift was the first game I picked up on it... huge miss to not have one on PS4, hope it gets some love on PS5 (as well as Ridge Racer and Wipeout).
Never really got into it myself I remember getting it with ps3 and being a bit underwhelmed I preferred the RC version they did for vita 🙌🏻🤣
Going from ps2 to ps3 was not underwhelming when I first played motorstorm, it was like nothing we'd ever seen before ?
Each to their own didn’t like it myself. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;I didn’t say going from ps2/3 was underwhelming just the launch game motorstorm, bit different but hey ho.
PS3 was a slow burner for me it’s my least favourite Sony console, maybe as I had my 360 as my main at that point but yeah wasn’t impressed with first couple of years to be honest but that’s just me. Once uncharted MGS4 GT5 Last of us GTA4/5 dropped sure but launch games weren’t all that imo. Resistance was alright wasn’t as big a change as ps4 or even now ps5 for me. PS3 took out rumble and basically went HD it’s wasn’t exactly a revolutionary start. 🤷🏻♂️✌🏻 ;
Robert Workman (Prima Games): Sony experimented with its cloud-based PlayStation Now service over the past several months, but few people took advantage of it due to the high prices. After all, who wants to pay $40 to rent Earth Defense Force 2025 for 90 days when you can buy it on your PS3 for $20 at GameStop? That said, the company remedied this problem with the introduction of a new subscription model that kicks off next week. Whether you pay $19.99 a month or $44.99 for three months, there's more value offered with this program.
With that, over 100 games will be available at launch to choose from, with unlimited play for each of the titles (without extra fees). These include a number of obscure games and popular favorites. With that in mind, we have 10 suggestions for what you should play after signing up, so you can get the most from your seven-day trial.
I will be on board with this as soon as they can offer the completely lineup of specific franchises. I don't want to sign up to play Uncharted if I can't play parts 2 and 3. Likewise I don't want to play Killzone 3 when I haven't played 1 or 2.
Well I never played Killzone 1 and I've been enjoying the series since 2.
Heard mixed stuff about k1.
But I have to agree with Uncharted. You gotta play them all!
I mean I played Shadow Fall on the PS4 without playing any of the other KZ games and I really enjoyed it, so I definitely want to go back to experience all the others.
Same with Infamous, since Second Son was my first game in the series.
Hmm... Only 3 are must plays in my opinion. But that's my opinion. Not the author's nor yours. Only mine.
Nicholas Simonovski -- "Recently Stevivor had the opportunity to sit down with Simon Barlow, Design Director at Evolution Studies and Lead Developer of Driveclub."
So the game has been pulled world wide now, and we still dont know what the patch does.
Theres no way I'm downloading it now. I want to keep the game I bought intact.
This is just over sensitive BS. Yeah, I know. Why do I care about something so trivial when this is going on in Japan?
Thats exactly my point. Why would they care about something so trivial when this is going on in Japan?
You think people in Japan might have more important things to think about other than what videogames you're playing?
If they're really so concerned why not donate a percentage of the profits and actually help them. Being concerned doesn't cool reactors or evacuate victims.