MotorStorm
Developer: Evolution Studios; Publisher: SCEA

Evolution Studios' MotorStorm wsa first showed during Sony's initial PlayStation 3 unveiling during E3 2005, meaning that like several other games it became subject to various discussions about its graphical authenticity. Now, the off-road racer is one of the featured early PS3 titles, and it's looking pretty good. Only one track was available for racing: Raingod Mesa, a dusty canyon road with plenty of sharp turns and deadly drops.

MotorStorm goes for arcade racing over real world simulation. You are afforded a certain amount of in-air control over your vehicle, for example, and there are plenty of opportunities for big jumps. Powersliding is a basic mechanic of navigating the twisty tracks, as is the game's boost feature. Unlike in many racing games, boost in MotorStorm is unlimited and can be used at any time. However, as you burn boost fuel, a temperature gauge will steadily climb, filling up a meter that becomes gradually more red. If you spend long enough with your gauge maxed yout, your car will simply explode. It also seems that running hot makes your car more susceptible to combustion when in a collision or when grazing a wall or other obstacle. According to a tip that popped up on a loading screen, all the cool gamers time an explosion just as they cross the finish line.

For a game that puts so much stock into being a fast and action-paced racer, MotorStorm has taken some criticism for not being fast enough. It seems though that becoming too much faster might negatively affect the actual accessibility of the game, as it can be tough enough staying on the ground in one piece with so many deadly turns and other racers trying to jostle you off the track.

A variety of vehicle types are playable, from off-road buggies to trucks to muscle cars to bikes. Unsurprisingly, vehicles such as musicle cars seem to be noticeably less adept than buggies at negotiating turns on the game's unpaved roads. Hopefully, there are some other less extreme tracks on which those vehicles might be more practical.

Visually, the game is shaping up well. It may not be the prerendered eye candy explosion we were originally shown, but the texture and model work is all good and races feel appropriately frantic and exciting. Occasionally, when the camera is doing a fly by before or after a race, some unseemly low-res environment textures pop into view briefly, but these are areas that are inaccessible and out of sight during actual gameplay and are likely to be masked in the shipping game. Two points of view are available, a standard thid person racing view and an over the hood view. In the over the hood view, there are some nice graphical touches such as dust and dirt accumulating on the screen after plowing through a dust cloud or hitting the ground hard. Everything holds up well even with numerous other vehicles on the screen, making for an impressive experience.

The game will support up to twelve players online. Many of the workings of the practical aspects of PlayStation 3's online gaming experience are still unclear, but online multiplayer is in the game.

Sony Computer Entertainment America plans to ship Evolution Studios' MotorStorn in North America in the first quarter of 2007.

Continue to the next page for impressions of Untold Legends Dark Kingdom and Genji: Days of the Blade.

Untold Legends Dark Kingdom
Developer: Sony Online Entertainment; Publisher: Sony Online Entertainment

For the launch of PlayStation 3, Sony Online Entertainment is delivering the third game in its Untold Legends series, which it initiated last year on PSP. Untold Legends Dark Kingdom is a traditional fantasy-set action RPG, so those unfamiliar with the previous games are unlikely to be set back. The premise of the game is that the player is part of an elite fighting squad charged with protecting the king, but when the king becomes corrupt and begins exploiting his people and generally being an unpleasant fellow, the player and his or her fellow unit members must take the old guy down. Story sequences are delivered in voiced cutscenes, leaving gameplay sections to focus on combat and the occasional puzzle solving. The game consists of over 30 levels of dungeon crawling, boss battles, and so on.

There are three familiar classes in Dark Kingdom: the agile and acrobatic scout, the heavily armored and close combat focused warrior, and the spellcasting and long-range focused mage. Each class has between twelve and fifteen combo attacks that are acquired over the course of the game, each of which is uniquely animated. These combo attacks are assembled out of the basic face button-controlled attack types, including a strong attack, light attack, and context-sensitive attack. When you use of one of these attack types, various combinations of buttons are displayed in the lower left corner of the screen indicating different combos you can create by continuing to press combinations of up to four buttons each. This means you don't have to actually remember each combo's string of buttons in order to achieve wacky combat maneuvers. At the show, SOE had save games with high level characters with all combo attacks unlocked, so nearly any random series of button presses would result in some special move. Being a fairly straightforward hack and slash game, it doesn't seem like it is particularly crucial to know exactly what combo you're performing at any given moment, making them seem present more for the sake of variety than for a finely tuned strategic combat system.

Characters can acquire and cast up to nine spells or abilities, depending on the class, up to four of which at a time are "active." Each one corresponds to a face button, and is cast or used by pressing that button in conjunction with the L1 button. Hundreds of weapons and items for each class will be available. They can hold up to four item enhancements, though the precise mechanism for this was not demonstrated. Leveling up is standard RPG fare; killing enemies will raise experience, and when enough experience has grown the character will level up and obtain points that can be used for things like spells and abilities.

Despite taking some flak for early unremarkable screen shots, Dark Kingdom is a nice looking game. While the art direction isn't particularly new or exciting, the graphical fidelity is solid and everything runs at a good consistent framerate. Most moves are individually animated and look very fluid and attractive. Of course, spells and certain special abilities have appropriately pyrotechnic graphical effects associated with them.

Untold Legends will allow up to four players playing cooperatively, either on the same machine or online. I was unable to get a clear answer as to how the online component of the game will work, but it seems that the game's Xfire implementation is completely separate from the actual PlayStation network system. From what I can tell, if you wish to play with your friends online, you can message them via Xfire if you have chosen to register an Xfire account, then they find and join your server via the game's server browser. If there is a way to do this via a more simplified invite system, the rep demonstrating the game did not seem to be aware of it.

While not seeming to strive towards breaking much ground, Untold Legends Dark Kingdom should be a solid action RPG for fans of hacking and slashing. Sony Online Entertainment plans to ship the game alongside PlayStation 3's launch in North America on November 17, 2006.

Genji: Days of the Blade
Developer: Game Republic; Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America

No matter how Genji: Days of the Blade performs at retail or in reviews, on the internet it is likely to be remembered as the game based on Japanese history where you have to strike the weakpoints of giant enemy crabs for massive damage, thanks to Sony's pre-E3 2006 conference at which the game was unveiled. Game Republic's first PlayStation 3 effort is a followup to the studio's 2005 PS2 title Genji: Dawn of the Samurai.

Genji is a third person action game that allows players to switch between a variety of characters on the fly during gameplay, meaning that the character with the most appropriate stats and skills for a given situation can be swapped in at any given moment if need be. Each character can also instantaneously switch weapons (the oft-quoted "real-time weapon change"), one of which is generally a slower more powerful weapon and one faster but less powerful. There are also lighter and heavier attacks that can be used with each weapon. Attacks can combined with other types of attacks or with blocking moves to create combos, and some moves can be charged up for longer and even more powerful moves. For example, one heavily built character with a tree trunk-like staff weapon can charge up and become something like a spinning top, doing a great deal of damage to many enemies at once.

During combat, a "kamui" meter is built up as the player does more damage. When that meter becomes full, the player can execute a special attack that actually takes the character and nearby enemies into a separate battle screen, similarly to how a traditional console RPG brings its battles into a different interface. The kamui attack works something like a rhythm game with less rhythm. The player character appears in an ethereal environment, with a slowed down timescale, swirly colors and sparkly effects, and a number of enemies. Face buttons indicators appear on the screen, and the player must quickly press the corresponding buttons to execute powerful attacks, some of which will automatically result in a fatal blow. After the enemies have been dispatched (or, presumably, after the player has failed to do it right), the game returns to the regular level. It's a handy trick to pull when the number of enemies on the screen becomes overwhelming.

The right analog stick is used not to control the game's camera but rather to perform dodge maneuvers in various directions. While this can be useful, its particular implementation leads to a few problems. For example, there are combo attacks that are used by dodging then following up with face button attacks, but it feels slightly awkward to have to use the right analog stick then immediately press a face button with the same thumb. Loss of control of the camera also leads to problems; several times, I fought battles that were halfway off the screen or in some cases almost entirely masked by objects or enemies. Players can also opt to perform dodges by jerking the controller in a given direction, thanks to the controller's tilt-sensing feature, but it is likely that most players will simply stick to the analog stick. The dodge system is obviously a significant part of the game design at this point, so hopefully Game Republic can tune up the camera, or possibly pull it back a bit for a fuller view, by the time the game ships.

Sony Computer Entertainment America plans to ship Game Republic's Genji: Days of the Blade when PlayStation 3 launches in North America on November 17, 2006.