It is perfectly understandable if all we've been getting for MotorStorm are videos of its cool features. After all, the game has already been shipped (at least to Japan). Developer Evolution Studios has nothing much to say now, except maybe to convince other territories that the game is worth their money.

A couple of days back, we had the Big Air gameplay wherein giant trucks flew around the tracks in one massive motoring mayhem. This time, we want to share with you another one called the Dust Bowl gameplay. Well, just like the first one, the title for this specific gameplay covers pretty much everything.  Engines revving up and dust filling our lungs sights. All, of course, to our heart's delight.

MotorStorm is expected to arrive in North America sometime in March of 2007.

Just a couple of hours ago, we shared with you a couple of videos about the different courses you will encounter in racing game MotorStorm. We have also already settled before that developer Evolution Studios did a pretty good job of making giant trucks fly around racing tracks.

While we know that you'll take our word for it, we still wanted the game to speak for itself. So we're sharing with you now a video clip dubbed as "Big Air." As always, things aren't called as such for nothing. In this video, you will see trucks careening and flying as if they are as light as an ordinary racing car. While the video is around three and a half minutes long, we're sure you will enjoy every bit part of it.

Anyway, MotorStorm is already released in Japan but they aren't getting any online fun. On the other hand, we here at the Americas would have to wait until March of 2007 to get our hands on MotorStorm. But given all its exciting features, we know it will be worth the wait.

It's time to have a good look at the courses you'll be setting out for in Evolution Studios' MotorStorm. We have here for you three videos on three locations that you'd have to bust your way through to win the race, unless you'd let it bust you.

The first would be the Grizzly Course. Mainly a rugged terrain in the mountain tops, prepare yourself for an exhilarating ride as you crash your ATVs off the rough roads. The dirt and the other races aren't the only things you'd have to contend with, as there are also a whole lot of obstacles in your way to make life just a tad bit riskier for you.

Meanwhile, the second video is actually the Tenderizer gameplay. Pretty much, it depicts the off-road racing action that you should expect in MotorStorm. as for the last video, it directs you straight to yet another course, this time, the Dirt Devil Course. Of course, they don't call it by that name for nothing. This course will most certainly test the durability of your ride.

Now, these rides, they were meant for these kinds of course. The question is: are you?

North America will find out soon enough come March 2007.

Grizzly Course

Check out the rest of the videos over at Full Article.

There's been a lot of dirt heading the PS3's way, and for the fans, it's of the good sort. We're (obviously) talking about the MotorStorm title that's being prepped for launch, and with this in mind, Spong made way to Evolution Studio's HQ for a round of interviews and mud-slinging (gaming). First up was an explanation of the game structure by producer Simon Benson:

It takes place at a gathering of people – a festival – in the desert. Its menu is structured like a DVD: it’s very simple. The way you progress through the game is by using tickets, each of which gives you access to between one and four races. The challenge lies in figuring out how to come in the top three on each stage, given the vehicle that you’re in.

After explaining the basic game mechanics, Benson iterated on the game's wheels - seven vehicles in total - with their own unique characteristics the player could choose from. Depending on the vehicle and track you pick, expect to start thinking fast on how you plan to go through the course - by air (jumping ramps), or by ground (slogging it through the mud).

The devs also discussed some of the finer points of the game, such as the photo-realistic setting in Monument Valley, where we've seen many a crash. As lead designer Nigel Kershaw explained the joy of making the tracks:

Because of the WRC games, we’ve always been used to the idea of grabbing real-world locations. With MotorStorm, we wanted to do the reference trip the same way, and we wanted it to be the point at which we started being next-gen. So we hired a helicopter crew with an HDTV camera attached and took over 15 hours’ footage. We had to get the permission of the Navajo. We got the contrast between different stages by setting some high up on the rock and others down in the mud.

With MotorStorm shaping up to be a worthy contender as first line game for the PS3, and for guys who'd love to have a complementing title for their Resistance: Fall of Man, here's mud in your eye.

What does a little kid and grainy camera quality have to do with a car combat game like MotorStorm? If you're a Japanese advertiser, it means everything.

With Sony and Evolution Studios' MotorStorm heading to Japanese game stores in a little over a week, it would make sense that they'd start bringing out the commercials. In the often-quirky Japanese fashion, they've decided that their latest commercials needed a hook of sorts. To do that, they've enlisted the help of kids getting into accidents.

From little toddlers taking small spills on their cars to kids doing flips, the commercial makers decided to represent the exact same things with car crashes. They even decided to bring the ad to an end with an inviting bit of Engrish, "Shall we crash?"

We've got the YouTube videos here, but if you're interested in seeing better-looking versions of the videos for download, then feel free to check the sourced link below, from which we also got the above picture. Happy gaming, and don't take a nasty fall like the kids in the commercials, alright?

Watch the videos after the Jump!

IGN had a sit-down interview with Evolutions Studio's Martin Kenwright, who was more than happy to talk about their Motorstorm title that's hitting Japan in about two weeks. The interview covered details of Evolution's upcoming title, from its early conception based on Evolution's success with their World Rally Championship (WRC) title, MotorStorm's reception at E3, and future plans for both Evolutions and the game.

Based on their success with WRC, Martin's team had decided to follow it up and build a game that contained the ideas they always wanted to place in WRC, but never could. With MotoStorm, and with the Blu-Ray tech the PS3 offered, their team had the opportunity to let lose, if the Motocross' demo over at the E3 is any indication.

Because we started work on MotorStorm three years ago, we thought that maybe the hardware would be more potent than we expected, or possibly it would be less powerful. Looking back now we've actually exceeded in some areas considerably, which we're amazed about. Some of the lighting and HDR effects are much better than we ever expected. Other things, we haven't quite matched our initial ideas due to technical restraints.

Indeed. And as for future plans, Martin's still keeping his horizons open, and while he doesn't have any clear plans for the next five years, it looks like Evolution's planning to ride out MotorStorm's success until they can come up with a bigger, better title, or at the very least downloadables for this current title to make the most of its capabilities. For the full interview, feel free to read the source link.

Game developer Free Radical Design (FRD), started making a name for themselves when they left videogame company, Rare, Ltd., back in 1999. It has been a wild, yet rewarding ride for them  as they experienced changing publishers twice then got accolades for current-gen titles TimeSplitters and Second Sight. The next-gen console war partially begins with the Wii and PS3 North American launch next week, so it would be interesting to see if FRD could bring their winning ways to next-gen gaming.

Coming from a previous generation of videogames, FRD Director David Doak says they are beginning to get a hang of the next-gen craze. "We're starting to enjoy it now. New products are going to be great and they're going to turn peoples' heads but it's not a revolution, it's an evolution. It's an incremental step," reflects Doak. He was then reminded on how their company first felt about making next-gen titles: "It's like going into a new house and thinking, 'Let's cook dinner. But hang on, we've got no f**king cutlery.'"

Speaking of cooking and cutlery, we all know that any developer ain't complete without a decent, if not an outstanding, publisher. It's a developer's main ingredient for success. Regarding that, Doak is more than happy about their relationship with their current publishers. "Ubisoft has a really great passion for what it's doing, and real passion for the quality and the product as well, which isn't often seen. With LucasArts, it's just been a fantastic opportunity to be working with a company which has such a long heritage."

Currently, FRD is working on the game Haze which is set to come out both for the X360 and the PS3. Doak is still unable to furnish any details regarding the LucasArts partnership. Anyway, the whole discussion then shifted to online content and it seems FRD is a tad suspicious regarding the matter. "It's something that we'd really like to do. It's the kind of thing that would help people's careers in learning to go through a development cycle. On the flip side, I have deep suspicions about the economic side of it." says Doak.

As expected, this year's Golden Joysticks Awards held at the Park Lane Hilton hotel in London, was a real blast. There are a total of 16 awards given, 15 of which were decided by the gaming public. Winner of the Editors' Choice Award, on the other hand, was selected by a panel of the industry's journalists. Titles that came out on or after August 1, 2005 until July 31, 2006 were all contenders.

Rockstar Games continued on its winning ways as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories took home the Handheld Game of the Year award. It would be remembered that just last year, San Andreas also emerged victorious in the said award giving body. Accolades were then given to The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion by 2K Games as it grabbed three trophies: PC Game of the Year, Xbox Game of the Year and PLAY.com Ultimate Game of the Year.

Nintendo also shared the limelight as it won in three categories as well: Nintendogs for The Sun Family Game of the Year and Bliss Girls' Choice for 2006. New Super Mario Bros., on the other hand, won the Nintendo Game of the Year trophy.

Other winners are as follows:

• T3 Innovation Award - Xbox Live Marketplace (Microsoft)
• 1Xtra Soundtrack of the Year - Need for Speed Most Wanted (Electronic Arts)
• Nuts All-Nighter Awards - Pro Evolution Soccer 5 (Konami)
• PlayStation Game of the Year - Resident Evil 4 (Capcom)
• Intel Online Game of the Year - Age of Empires III (Microsoft Game Studios)
• Retailer of the Year - GAME
• CVG's The One to Watch for 2007 - PlayStation 3 (Sony)
• Publisher of the Year - Electronic Arts
• Editors' Choice Award - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter (Ubisoft)

Over the years, visual quality of video games has been improved tremendously. That is why developers are currently looking into other aspects to increase the experience of reality during gameplay. One such thing is physical simulation. During the UK">London Game Developers Conference, Evolution Studios' Scott Kirkland demonstrated on how MotorStorm used the Havok engine.

Kirkland also shares that with the use of such middlewares, developers are able to focus on the game itself. Primarily, the Havok engine was designed for the destruction of vehicles and roadside objects, as well as the rag-doll physics of motorcycle riders. Accordingly, demonstrations showed vehicles bending and buckling upon impact.

More excitingly, the technical director confirms that MotorStorm would support the motion-sensitive features of PS3 controller Sixaxis. Unfortunately, it seemed he wanted to save some more surprises as he did not reveal specifically how. MotorStorm will come out later this year for the US and Japan market while it will launch together with the console for UK and Europe in March, 2007.

If the Tokyo Game Show was good to any one game, that would be Motorstorm. Having had the luck of actually getting my hands on Motorstorm at E3, I could tell there really was something special about the game, the graphics just needed a kick in the pants. TGS showed that Evolution Studios had given its title just such a kick, and then some. The fine guys at 1up sat down to chat with Pete Smith, senior producer at Sony Computer Entertainment Europe to talk specifically about the game's graphics, here's an excerpt:

1UP: Okay, so everyone knows about the E3 2005 target video by now. Are you relieved that you were finally able to show something at TGS that looked pretty close to what that video promised?

Pete Smith: From day one we knew that hitting the standard of the target video was going to be a challenge, however we created the movie as a representation of what we expected the final game to be. We're delighted we're delivering that, but we're not surprised. The movie delivered an intense piece of brutal racing, but it was non-interactive. Now you can actually pick up the pad and be a part of the action -- it reaches another level. We estimate the TGS demo is around 80% complete. The game has already progressed quite a bit since then.

1UP: When the game is 100% finished, how close do you think the visuals will be to that target video?

PS: I think we will be very close and in many places we'll surpass it. But to me it's about more than just the visuals the movie showed; it's the intensity of the action. You guys played the TGS demo so you know the action is already totally full-on. We're in the polishing and balancing phase now. This is always where the gameplay makes huge progress and that is definitely the case here. A game like MotorStorm with the variety of routes and vehicles needs this time to deliver an experience to match the visuals. The final game will definitely blow people away in terms of both visuals and gameplay.

1UP: The TGS version of the game felt a bit slower than we expected it to. Is this part of your approach, or just the result of an incomplete TGS demo version?

PS: This is simply due to the demo being incomplete. We want every vehicle to feel fast and since TGS we have made improvements to framerate and tweaked the cameras and handling and already the game is much faster. I don't expect anyone to find the final game slow.

1UP: What kind of features can we look forward to with the game's online play?

PS: Online we're targeting somewhere between eight and 16 players, offering single races and various tournaments. We're also working on some cool modes, but we haven't locked them yet, so I can't give details. Obviously we'll have in game chat, lobbies, buddies, etc. Imagine a full-on multiplayer MotorStorm experience with you screaming at your mates to get out of the way and ramming rivals into a rock face and you'll get the idea.

1UP: [There have been conflicting reports on the use of the tilt controller.] Do you have plans to use the PS3's tilt controller as an option for steering in the game?

PS: The TGS demo actually works with the tilt pad as the primary control, [but] we've not yet decided whether to include this in the final game. Some people like it, but it's pretty tricky to stay in control when you're flying 'round the track at full speed. At the moment we're looking at in-air control with the tilt pad and a few other cool little surprises.