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PlayStation owners throughout the PS1 and PS2 eras had no shortage of arcade and simulation racers. From first-party offerings like Gran Turismo and Wipeout to third-party endeavors such as Formula 1, Ridge Racer, and Burnout, PlayStation players regularly enjoyed their fill of high-octane action. One development house—Evolution Studios—made a name for itself by producing sim racers for the Sony-owned hardware. Evolution’s World Rally Championship, or WRC, franchise received five PS2 entries, dragging fans into off-road excursions with impressive physics and audio designed to reflect the exhilaration of the life-threatening car sport.

Evolution pumped the brakes when transitioning to PS3 development, foregoing its simulation roots in favor of the arcade-driven MotorStorm. Often likened to the carnage of Burnout, MotorStorm set a new bar for off-roading by throwing away the rulebook that many racing games had long followed. The pursuit of these ends resulted in a racer that pit vehicles of disparate types against each other, with dirt bikes fighting for control of the road versus big rigs. Evolution made sure every vehicle controlled differently and every lap around a track offered new challenges, a feat it accomplished across multiple games.

But not unlike WRC before it, MotorStorm drifted to the background when a new generation of hardware skidded onto the scene. Instead of bringing the popular PS3 series to PS4, the developers hedged their bets on Driveclub, the immersive racer where teaming up with others took precedence. Driveclub’s unfortunate failure marked Evolution’s last turn at the wheel and spelled doom for the future of the beloved MotorStorm IP.

This is the rise and fall of MotorStorm.

 

[Punished Miku]

Hudo

 

[James Sawyer Ford]

Pacific Rift was incredible

 

[Hudo]

Hudo

DID SOMEONE SAY MOTORSTORM?

 

[Hudo]

Pacific Rift was incredible

Hell fucking yeah, it was!

Second best arcade racer ever. Only beaten by Burnout 3: Takedown.

 

[Portugeezer]

Stuck on the PS3... we really need that mystical PS3 emulator.

 

[blastprocessor]

They should bring back this IP on PS5 i'd love a remix of 1 and 2.

 

[Mr. PlayStation]

Pacific Rift was incredible

So was apocalypse, the levolution with the Tornadoes and other earth shattering events during mid race was just so damn good!

 

[spyshagg]

Still play it to this day (the first two, the driving was more physics based)

 

[drotahorror]

Best arcade racers to ever exist. All 3 are absolute gems. RPCS3 is doing wonders for these forgotten classics.

 

[Lokaum D+]

amazing game, i miss when Sony was all about taking risks and putting new things out there.

 

[Rawbutt Jellybean]

Had a ton of fun with Pacific Rift online back in the day. Liked Apocalypse but I think I remember the small playerbase it had just dying after the PSN hack and outage.

Shame that MP games like this just don't have a place in modern gaming that's all about milking the playerbase.

 

[Katatonic]

I remember seeing Motorstorm on the yet unreleased PS3 on display at the NY Times Square Toys' R Us. The draw distance was insane and clued me in to what the PS3 would offer when it actually came out.

 

[Killer8]

Did it really 'fall' when it was the new IP Driveclub that killed the studio?

Anyway, online racing in the early days of PS3 was fun but that's mainly because there wasn't much else on the console until COD4 came out. The single player was awful. Same events over and over, no variety, and some of the worst rubberbanding AI in existence. Lost count of how many times a rival bike clinched first place in the last corner.

Visually it also didn't hold up even within that generation. The motion blur and mud effects do all of the heavy lifting. I fired it up a few years ago and the first starting grid I thought to myself "I don't remember this looking this bad".

 

[Melfice7]

It's a motorstorm thread so gotta post this

 

[Alan Silvestro]

Someone post the ms Apocalypse gif!

 

[Icymanipulator]

Pacific Rift was incredible

Exactly what I came to say. Absolutely loved Pacific Rift. Hasn’t been anything like it since.
Would love a remaster.

 

[Hudo]

So was apocalypse, the levolution with the Tornadoes and other earth shattering events during mid race was just so damn good!

True. Apocalypse was unjustly hated, imho. That's at least the vibe I got from people back then.

 

[Damigos]

Incredible series
Needs ressurrecion along with DriveClub and Wipeout
Blur and Split/Second would be a great bonus too

 

[Sintoid]

Even Artic Edge was an Awesome game

 

[hemo memo]

When did it ever rise?

 

[drotahorror]

Did it really 'fall' when it was the new IP Driveclub that killed the studio?

Anyway, online racing in the early days of PS3 was fun but that's mainly because there wasn't much else on the console until COD4 came out. The single player was awful. Same events over and over, no variety, and some of the worst rubberbanding AI in existence. Lost count of how many times a rival bike clinched first place in the last corner.

Visually it also didn't hold up even within that generation. The motion blur and mud effects do all of the heavy lifting. I fired it up a few years ago and the first starting grid I thought to myself "I don't remember this looking this bad".

Imagine saying the graphics are bad when the video below was from PS3.
Rubberbanding is hilarious, I always see that as a gripe. If you know the racing lines and correct ways to play a track you will never ever lose. It's literally impossible for them to win. The only real bad rubberbanding I noticed is if I'm losing, they allow me to catch up.

It's a motorstorm thread so gotta post this

 

[bumpkin]

I didn’t play any of the PS3 games but I loved the Vita one with the RC car twist.

 

[Aldynes]

I need a remaster/HD collection.

Oh and the obligatory Driveclub is my all time favorite racing game.

 

[dudester]

Soundtracks were always on point too for all the Motorstorm titles!

 

[Rayderism]

Motorstorm and Split Second are the main reasons my PS3 is still hooked up.

 

[Pejo]

The only bad part, for me, was the horrific rubber banding. I kinda get WHY they did it, but it was some of the worst out of any racing game I've ever played.

Playing Apocalypse on that Sony 3D with the rechargeable 3D glasses was cool as fuck.

 

[MacReady13]

They were amongst my fav racing games in that era. Pacific Rift ranks amongst some of my favorite racing games ever. Just had so much fun with these games. I miss the days Sony would fund stuff like this. Fucking Uncharted broke them ffs...

 

[NinjaBoiX]

Pacific Rift was incredible

It really was, absolutely loved that game!

Although the AI in the final stages of the career was beyond bullshit, just throwing themselves at you to knock you off course, actually winning the race be damned.

 

[bitbydeath]

It’s a shame nothing like it exists today, I’d love to see the graphics of it with today’s power. We would have overtaken the OG PS3 trailer this gen.

 

[ReBurn]

I wish arcade racers didn't fall out of style. It's pro my favorite genre and Motorstorm was one of my favorite series. Sucks that Evolution was shut down.

 

[Shadowstar39]

Stuck on the PS3... we really need that mystical PS3 emulator.

What good will that do as it will just be on pc (my pc is more than capable but if love for this back on the console). . One of the joys of Motorstorm was playing on console with rumble and if you have a bud over split screen..

What needs to happen is Sony needs to get off its live service shit ass and make these games available on ps5. There really is no excuse. So many good games stuck there and ps2 because they won't do it.

They also killed the studio and what was left made that shirfest game onrush that was nowhere close to Motorstorm. It was a floaty high tech feeling live service pos. Sorry if anyone liked it but nothing like gritty, dirty, visceral, elemental, Motorstorm. The mud the trenches the different paths. Bike vs quad vs monster truck. It was glorious! And pacific rift was the crown jewel.

Only other game to even scratch the itch was the game "Fuel" and at times but that's stuck on that gen too. Mad max has some feel of it but that's not a dedicated race game. Wreck fast you would think has the feel but it doesn't.

We need a Motorstorm trilogy disc, a Killzone, infamous and Resistance collections too. Either that or a console emulator to play them and sell them online. Although with having licensed music I feel it's a pipe dream.

 

[E-Cat]

Maybe the PS3 trailer could be made in real-time on the PS6.

 

[LordCBH]

I miss Motorstorm. Never played the third one, but I liked the first two and the psp one.

 

[Badlucktroll]

I hope when that Ps3 emulator for Ps5 comes out they at least put up Motorstorm 1

 

[Unknown?]

Motorstorm 1 was the only semi successful in the series. That's because it was a huge leap from PS2 near the start of the PS3 gen.

Pacific Rift sold terribly and Apocalypse sold even worse. Great games though.

 

[Danjin44]

Pacific Rift sold terribly and Apocalypse sold even worse. Great games though.

That game had terrible luck, I remember when this game was close to release there was natural disaster happened (I dont remember where) which force the game to be delayed and when the game did released Sony got hacked, so online part wasn't working.

 

[simpatico]

Stuck on the PS3... we really need that mystical PS3 emulator.

Sad that the online console classics just become coasters in their twilight years. Cartridge based stuff still has high demand and rising prices. All the gems from the PS360 era just become flea market fodder. 5 for $20 bin. Even worse on PS3 since all the DualShock 3s have dead batteries now.

 

[StreetsofBeige]

Not just motorstorm, but most arcade racing games disappeared. Gamers just don’t give a shit about them anymore. Way back there tons of racing games and every console launch had a couple showstoppers you had to get to show of your consoles 3D. Now, who really cares.

 

[Lokaum D+]

Not just motorstorm, but most arcade racing games disappeared. Gamers just don’t give a shit about them anymore. Way back there tons of racing games and every console launch had a couple showstoppers you had to get to show of your consoles 3D. Now, who really cares.

Imo EA releasing NFS "annually" and the games being one worse than the other, was what started slowly killing the genre.