Motorstorm Pacific Rift Updated

Yesterday Motorstorm Pacific Rift received its second major game update.  Major in the sense that it is 415MB in size, not for its tiny increase in version number to 1.02.

According to vip.motorstorm.com the update contains the following:

• 40 unique Microbadges for every player to collect.
  Earn them for a wide variety of accomplishments and show them off to every other racer online!
• Sugar Rush short-cut removed.
  The short-cut to the left of the “keep right” arrows going into the sugar field was not intentionally included and has been removed.
• Sugar Rush respawn point fixed.
  Crashing at a certain point on the track no longer respawns the vehicle in a generous position.
• Additional fixes and improvements to gameplay.

As for what those additional fixes and improvements are, posters on the US PlayStation forums have so far found:

• Brand new selection of Ranked Races.
  Newly randomised selection of vehicles in online Ranked Races, including races on Riptide where it doesn’t rain!!!
• 3-Lap Races and 1-Lap Sprints.
  Now some Ranked Races will be 1 and 3 laps instead of the conventional 2.
• Brand new Never-Ending Races.
  Now in some Ranked Races you can start on Lap 0 and never have to finish!  Great for racing your best friends for life!
• Race-Over Screen.
  After you finish a Ranked Race, you will be taken to a new “Race Over” screen.  Wait for “Exit” to appear to see how your Ranked % was affected.
• View Microbadges whilst racing Online.
  Press L3 as many times as you can and eventually your opponents’ Microbadges will be displayed below their PSN ID.

Now I quite enjoy the odd few races around Motorstorm’s island paradise, but the thought of a never-ending race really does not appeal.  Maybe if you are really keen to learn every nuance of a track, but even then I doubt it.

Anyway, I would be fairly willing to bet that of all of the above it is the Microbadges that you are most interested to read about.  So I’ll let Jed Ashforth, MS:PR’s Game Director, introduce them to you:

Microbadges are brand new, in-game displayable ‘medals’ which let you flaunt your proudest personal accomplishments and your off-road racing prowess to every other racer online.  Some are tied to Trophies, some are based on your solo performance in the Festival, some are earned for online play, and some are exclusive to the new content we’ve got coming up – which you’ll get to learn more about, soon!

Having downloaded the update and looked through the list of Microbadges (WorthlessTrophies?) that pretty much sums them up.  They display below players’ names when racing online, with a tap of L3.

Apparently, the really “cool” thing about them is that you get to decide which of the ones you have earned are displayed for all to see.  For relative Motorstorm online rookies like me, you get to choose up to 3 badges to display.  As you move up the online ranks you are awarded with extra slots so you can display up to 6.

Of the 40, 6 are secret, but the good news is that the others are retroactive where applicable.  Though in my case, that only earned me one single, solitary badge.  Here are the 34 that have been revealed so far:

• Set 1- The “Weaver” Collection. Collected all Rich Weaver Signature liveries.
• Set 2 – The “Necro” Collection. Collected all Christian McKinney Signature liveries.
• Set 3 – The “John M” Collection. Collected all John Machin Signature liveries.
• Set 4 – The “Fig House” Collection. Collected all Alex Figini Signature liveries.
• Set 5 – The “JT” Collection. Collected all Jen Wie Tse Signature liveries.
• Set 6 – The “Stu ‘The Beast’ Cripps” Collection. Collected all Stu Cripps Signature liveries.
• Bully. Successfully punch or ram 100 vehicles.
• 250 Club. Win 250 races, Online and Offline.
• Hire Me. Beat all 128 developer ghosts in Time Attack.
• Immortal. Win an Online ranked race without wrecking.
• Over Achiever. Unlock all 50 Pacific Rift trophies.
• Necessary Roughness. Knock down 10 dismounted drivers.
• All Eliminator. All Pacific Rift Eliminator Events won.
• Bronze/Silver Festival. Completed Pacific Rift Festival with Bronze/Silver or better.
• Gold Festival. Completed Pacific Rift Festival with Gold medals.
• 25/50 Ranked Gold. 25/50 Gold medals won in Online Ranked play.
• All Speed. All Pacific Rift Speed Events won with Gold medals.
• 10/20/30 Microbadges. 10/20/30 Microbadges unlocked.
• The Collector. All Microbadges unlocked.
• Flame and Fortune. 20 Boost Explosion wins.
• Long Haul. Travelled a total of 2000km.
• Online Rookie/Veteran/Hero/Legend. Online rank 2/3/4/5 reached.
• Hard Driving. Win a race against a full grid in Free-play at Hardcore difficulty.
• Motorstorm Veteran. Monument Valley – I was there, all I got was this Microbadge.
• Supreme Victor. Win any Online/Offline race by a margin of 15 seconds.
• Time Attack Master. Record an impressive Time Attack time on any leaderboard.
• Time Served. Spend 10 hours racing Online.

No doubt Alex won’t appreciate this update further diluting the purity of the original.  But what do you think?  Is there anything in this update that will get you back playing MS:PR, other than to load the game and see which Microbadges you get awards retrospectively?  Do you think the Microbadges are pointless or a good idea to help you judge the skill of your online opponents?  Let us know in the comments.

Update: You see those 6 Microbadges listed above that relate to the sets of Signature Liveries.  You will be able to start your way towards unlocking them today as the first of eight sets of liveries is going up on the PSN Store with today’s update.  The even better news is that they are arriving at everyone’s favourite price point too; free.

Being released at the rate of one new set every week for the next eight weeks, each pack will contain new paint jobs for three vehicles.  Each new livery has been designed by one of Evolution’s studio artists.  Once you have the full set, you will have a new look for every single vehicle class in the game.

• Week 1: Lunar-Tec Signature Livery Pack
• Week 2: Patriot Signature Livery Pack
• Week 3: Mohawk Signature Livery Pack
• Week 4: Voodoo Signature Livery Pack
• Week 5: Atlas Signature Livery Pack
• Week 6: Jester Signature Livery Pack
• Week 7: Wombat Signature Livery Pack
• Week 8: Monarch Signature Livery Pack

Knowing that there are eight packs probably gives away 3 of the ‘secret’ Microbadges.  The Set 1-6 badges, along with three secret ones, are part of a group of nine.  So we would be fairly willing to bet that two of the secret ones relate to collecting the liveries from the 7th and 8th packs, with the third secret one being awarded for collecting all the liveries.

Tips:  Original: Kevling  Update: ManeoriX (via forum), Tuffcub