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While MotorStorm may have been a brand new franchise for Sony, it became one of the PlayStation 3's first big sellers and effectively set itself up as the PS3's premier arcade racing series. The inevitable sequel is now nearly with us, and it's shaping up well since we first saw it a few months ago. As the Pacific Rift subtitle indicates, this is a fundamental shift from the dusty canyons of the original to the more foliage-covered landscape of a tropical island. We recently managed to get an extensive play of the build shown at E3, which allowed us to sample the new two-player mode, as well as race the game's monster trucks for the first time.

The E3 demo came with two tracks, one that could be played in single-player and one in split-screen two-player. The single-player track was called Cascade Falls, which took place through a lush green forest and featured three vehicles--a bike, a jeep and the all-new monster truck. Like its predecessor, Pacific Rift features winding, multiroute tracks, with different terrain that suits certain vehicles over others. Players of the first game will know that larger vehicles tend to fare better in mud than bikes and buggies, so while the monster truck handles quite sluggishly, it can more than cope as long as you take the right course through the track.

So how is the new monster truck to race? Well, it's annoyingly sluggish to begin with, offering poor acceleration and a low top speed. But as with the previous MotorStorm, all of the vehicles are balanced, and the monster truck excels at being able to destroy pretty much anything that gets in its way. Bikes, buggies, and jeeps become playthings next to the pure muscle of the monster truck; thus, a simple flick will send anything else flying off into whatever obstacle lies at the side of the track. As for the bike--it may still be as painfully vulnerable as before, but it's fast and easy to maneuver. The buggy is perhaps the perfect mix of skills for the beginner...

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