The addition of local multiplayer is an essential addition to make Motorstorm Pacific Rift a successful sequel, but there are always sacrifices when adding that much action to the screen. I asked Paul Hollywood, the Executive Producer, from Evolution Studios about this and what cuts would be made to allow four people on screen at once. The full interview is in our last podcast but here is a small snippet.
The main thing for me is maintaining the framerate. The 30 Hz experience is a necessity to make sure you have the right tactile feel. with one two three or four players, you will always get that frame rate. What we have had to do is remove some of the nicer visual effects, I hope that people will accept that you’ll have to loose a few things to get 4 players on the same screen.
Also BIGGER JUMPS. One of the things that I loved about the original was the size of some of the jumps. Here is what he had to say about how the jump in Motorstorm Pacific Rift will compare.
Bigger Better and Badder, we had a track that is based on Rain God Mesa which was located at the top of a 4000 foot mesa, we have created a track on Pacific Rift called Rain God Spire and this is on the edge of an 8000 foot spire. You get some serious air, you can be airborne for about 20% of the track.
Some of the other features new to game will be Custom Soundtracks, Picture Capture mode, Trophy Support Attacks and avoidance manoeuvres.
Tags: E3 2008, Interviews, Sony
Can you say “For The Win”?
I wish it was 60fps though.. >.>
Obviously 60fps would be better but like you say the fact that they have commited to have it stable when there is so much action happening is really cool.
Framerate locked at 30 fps is just fine, asking for 60 is just stupid. Also, 16 tracks is cool, but the ‘only 8′ from part one were never a problem to me: 1 track with multiple routes well tweaked for multiple vehicletypes beats any one-route circuit, so please stop creating extra tracks just for the numbers and make sure we can enjoy quality tracks like Grizzly, Sidewinder Gulch and Dustdevil. And Mesa, with only one jump (jumps, that’s Rockhopper) worth mentioning, the technical one that gives almost no place to land but if succesfull a very nice distance between you and the pack that avoids it. Those jumps and turns we need, like there are in most tracks of part 1: challenging & racedefining, risk vs. reward, so you get the best avoidance (?) manouevre of all, a.ka. the lead.
Great series, the first game I plugged in over a year ago, and I’m still racing every week in my black&white rallycar. Can’t wait to rule that Pacific rift, keep it up Evolution Studios!