I personally liked how Motorstorm got tough as hell in the later events. You had know every inch of the track like the back of your hand to have any chance of winning most of the races once you got past stage five or so. I spent lots of time just running time trials to get the tracks completely nailed down so I could advance through the festival.
Maybe they just need an option to turn down the AI somehow. Mod Nation Racers is another game that caught a lot of flak for being too hard/cheap, and they patched in an easier difficulty level for the folks who just wanted to play the content without getting all OCD about finding the optimal line.
