Posted on 21 February by Matt Southern – Studio Game Director
Don’t you just love it when rumours are true!
When I joined Evo 9 years ago, the first concept I worked on was for a racing game that was all about racing with friends. It combined the best cars (and they would have to be real ones), on the most breathtaking roads in the world, with gameplay that was totally focused on team-based racing.
I loved the job from day one.
Posted on 13 April by Matt Southern – Studio Game Director
The timing of MotorStorm Apocalypse hasn’t exactly been ideal. I remember waking on the morning of the Friday, near the end of what was already a pretty heavy week gearing up for European release, switching on the news and being stunned. My first thought wasn’t for the game, but for our Japanese Producer and his family.
Just a short while after the devastation he emailed me to apologise for having to suspend the ongoing tests for MotorStorm! That sums him up, and his fellow countrymen – courageous, unflappable and so gracious, even in the face of such tragedy. It really put everything into perspective. We did the right thing when we decided to delay it.
Now that we’re available in Europe (and soon to be released in the US), it’s time to make good on our promises to everyone already playing the game and start unveiling some of our add-ons. I hate calling it ‘DLC’; it makes it sound like a spreadsheet template or something.
First-up, you’ve got two weeks from today to pick up the ultimate ‘Stormer status symbol: the Supercar Elite, and then it’s gone forever. This is lightning-fast eye candy, with a completely unique look – play online and you will stand out in an instant as a dedicated Lunatic, and no-one will dare bet against you.
In the same two weeks, you’ll be able to freshen up your existing rides with the Launch Livery and bring a bit of the festival scene into Wreckreation with a strobe laser livery and amplified artwork design. This party piece will only be around when there’s something to commemorate, so grab yours while it’s there.
We’re excited about all of the add-ons we’re designing and making, and hope you like them too. There’s more on the way and, as promised, some amazing updates are coming real soon – a brand new track with more than one version (including another night race), the Mode Editor and so much more.
Oh, and if you still aren’t convinced on the all-consuming awesomeness of our game, there’s a single player demo available on PlayStation Store giving you a taste of the intense racing action with a Supercar and Superbike.
You will believe.
Posted on 9 March by Matt Southern – Studio Game Director
Get ready for what will be the most insane and adrenaline fuelled racing experience of your life!
The Track we’ve chosen is one of my favourites: “Mainline”, which is a solid example of the way this game is never just about street racing. Every race on every track is unique in MotorStorm Apocalypse Festival mode, and we’ve picked “Off the Rails”, a Rookie track from Festival day one, with 15 insane rivals… and some surprises, courtesy of Mother Nature. You know what I mean, right?
We hope the demo gives you a sense of what we mean when we say this is urban off-road racing action. When MotorStorm Apocalypse is unleashed in Europe from March 16th, you’ll see how this track changes each time. It is also home to a *nuts* military attack, and a really challenging 5-lap Veteran race, with damage carried over from each previous race. Oh, and the demo works in stereoscopic 3D if you have a 3DTV. Please try to see this – folk all over the world are agreeing that it is the best example of 3D gaming in the world.
In the demo you can race one of the lightning-fast Supercars or extremely agile Superbikes, both available for action racing in MotorStorm for the first time. Also new, (but not playable in the demo), are Choppers, Superminis and Muscle Cars, plus the legendary mix of diverse vehicle classes from previous MotorStorm games.
‘Mainline: Off the Rails’ is one of the early earthquake hit tracks you’ll encounter.
Playable in the demo:
Also available on PlayStation Store is a variety of suitably apocalyptic MotorStorm PSN Avatars and a Dynamic Theme, featuring the characters of MotorStorm Apocalypse Festival and incredible artwork of Jonboy Meyers.
Posted on 25 February by Matt Southern – Studio Game Director
Our first video diary was all about ‘Festival’ mode. The most ambitious aspect of MotorStorm Apocalypse, ‘Wreckreation’ mode, needs two more video diaries to fully explain… and today we’re unveiling the first.
Dive deeper into in the suite of diverse multiplayer and solo game modes, and learn more about the flexible, rewarding and entertaining game-play experiences Wreckreation has to offer – and watch out for new footage and reveals of some of the challenges, rewards and customisation features. 
There is still a lot more of MotorStorm Apocalypse to uncover, and we’ll be sharing the second video diary on Wreckreation on the blog soon .
In the meantime, we’d love to hear what you thought of this video and what you’re looking forward to from “the party at the end of the world”.
Finally – a demo is coming! Dates are very close to confirmation (it needs to be tested around the world just like the full game), but if you’ve seen any glimpses of a track called Mainline, you’ll have a good idea of what to expect. As soon as we have a date, we’ll share it.
Posted on 26 January by Matt Southern – Studio Game Director
Hi again,
Yesterday I paid one of my irregular visits to our research technicians in the building they share with our embedded testers and sound engineers. Once again they blew my mind with their staggering glimpses of tomorrow’s world. Videos of Sony prototypes such as the head-mounted display and the volumetric cylinder show how exciting the exponential growth of technology for games really is. The Holodeck is closer than any of us could imagine!
About five years ago, at the same time MotorStorm was in pre-production, I shared a studio space with these guys, and they were adamant that stereoscopic 3D gaming was going to be far more compelling than 3D movies. To prove it, they built a 3D simulation of our local race track and stunned us all. Politicians, senior SCEE Execs and pro race drivers all secretly visited to see what the modest geniuses we hired from British Aerospace Engineering had achieved.
The culmination of that work can be seen in MotorStorm Apocalypse. It is now regularly described as the best example of 3D gaming you can get, so all that research and development looks like it was well worth it. Hopefully most of you will at least get to see the 3D, but even more than that I hope you get to play it. This video is one we’ve made to showcase the tech – it’s 2D on the blog but you’ll be able to grab the 3D version from the PSN store to view on a 3DTV.
It’s so cool to see a ‘blue sky’ technology grow into a real game in this way. Maybe in a few years I’ll be back here with a video of something I saw yesterday, but till then, the 3D revolution will suffice.
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