Let’s be honest, MotorStorm RC was one of the Vita’s big launch surprises: a fantastic price, really clever online functionality and a learning curve so slick it’s perfect for long term mastering of the various tracks and vehicles –Â I liked it then, and I like it now, the regular DLC schedule providing a few nice top-ups along the way.
The last major DLC – the Pro-AM festival – introduced new tracks and new cars, and based the whole thing around a skate park, something I thought was a smart idea given the scaled down buggies and rigs. This time around it’s based on a carnival, and finally – for the first time – Evolution have let rip with the track design.
It’s hard to say that the courses here are necessarily better than the ones previous, but they’re certainly more ambitious, more fun, and – crucially – feel completely different when they’re flipped and raced with faster cars. The tricky, unpredictable spiral of Funhouse becomes a drifter’s paradise in a tail happy vehicle, for example.
Likewise, the huge, roughly strewn speed bumps of Beach Party ultimately end up a twitchy, delicate but precise array when you master the required speed, something that’s thrown back at you when the track is reversed. There’s something to be said for the time of day switching too, forcing you to abandon signposts you’d previously memorised.
As with Pro-AM, Carnival expects you to be good at MotorStorm RC, dropping you in at the deep end and providing a substantially more difficult pile of events than previously available – something that’s no doubt of great news to those of you with hours and days to spend perfecting the lines required to top the leaderboards.
And whilst the game hasn’t changed here, Evolution’s experimentation with track surfaces (water and sand make up a lot of the six different courses) provide a more freeform set of rules, and yet manage to still remain as endlessly playable. As ever, the purest events (time trial, drift) are those I prefer, but this is meaty DLC by any standard.
The Carnival DLC is available today, for £2.39/€2.99.
Youles
More great DLC for a great price, I’m in.
Following your first paragraph and the games’ apparent popularity on TSA I feel I should mention that the Official PlayStation Magazine gave MotorStorm RC about 1 paragraph of coverage in the bottom right-hand corner of a page, and a review score of just 6/10 – pretty stupid in my opinion when you consider it’s a cheap PSN game, released for launch of the Vita but is compatible on 2 formats! How could it be improved? It’s a great game (whether you get on with it or not), and has some great functions like pressing a single button to jump straight into an event to challenge your friends, and has revived a competitiveness in the form of lap times and not direct racing – which also means 8 friends don’t have to be playing at the same time. And with cheap DLC such as this to keep it fresh, it’s bloody awesome in my opinion.
nofi
You want me to comment on OPM? IT’S A TRAP!
Youles
Lol. No, I just find the difference between sources interesting, and I think TSA provided a far more accurate account of MRC. Official isn’t always best or most accurate that’s for sure!
mrfodder
Thanks again for the early access code. It was great to get a chance to get near the top of the leaderboard. In fact I got to number one once only for someone to have beaten me by the time the update went through. Doh!
Erroneus
Awesome, defiantly picking it up, as the Pro-AM levels were quite good. I’m not the biggest Motorstorm RC fan, I thing the graphics quality could be a tad better and the steering on the Vita is still not as good as on the PS3, but it is a fun game for a very good price and the format suits the Vita perfect.
pOOpInFlames
Steering could be better on the Vita? I have set ALL my records on my Vita and i’m 8th on festival and 6th on Pro AM. The game handles PERFECTLY on th PSVita :)
Erroneus
Guess I have to play around with the controls, but at the moment I find it easier on PS3.
Tuffcub
Nope, stil havent managed to complete a single lap.. stupid controls are stupid.
nofi
Er, left turns you left, right turns you right. The other buttons make you go and stop.
Zephyre
If it’s the acceleration/brake mapped to a thumbstick that’s peeing you off, you can change it to L1/R1 – made the game far more playable for me.
colossalblue
I can see how people struggle a little bit with the viewpoint and steering but play around with the different control methods and then take some time getting used to it. I can’t see how they could have made the controls more intuitive without switching the viewpoint to parachute cam and that would defeat the purpose of it being RC, wouldn’t it?
pOOpInFlames
I can honestly not see it. I use one of the original control setups and it is ace. The one where i use both sticks.
Sitorimon
I veer from rage to love to rage with this game in 30 seconds. I can’t do the drifting challenges for toffee and the supercar infuriates me!