I haven't had more fun with my PS3 than the first 4 hours I spent playing Motorstorm.

The races are fun, the cars are varied and the setting is awesome. Crashes are funny and erupting over the finish line in a ball of fire never gets old. Could this be the first game I play where I think to myself at the end "yeah, that was a good game". The first game I can use as a shining example of me not being so negative?

No.

Sigh. Throughout the first few hours of racing I couldn't help but notice a few little problems appearing here or there. The AI for example. Your opponents clearly all drive along set paths, and they seem determined to get themselves on the racing line. This means you can frequently be side-swiped by another vehicle out of the blue. Your opponents will do this, even if it's clear it will total both cars.

On other occasions, your opponents will box you in quite happily until somebody is flipped (especially crap if they are in bigger vehicles than you). If you get to close to the rear of another car or truck, they slow down. The AI just seems dumb.

Then there are the issues of never escaping the main group of vehicles. I don't know if it's the fact that "boost" is crap, or if the AI has elastic, but I just can't seem to escape the other racers. If I crash 10 times during one lap (sadly, not exaggerating), I can usually catch up to the main group within half a lap. If I have a perfect race, the pack will still be right behind me.

This becomes annoying when, for example, I have had a perfect 3 laps, and get taken out on the final corner but some random AI and proceed to come last.

My slowly building rage came to a boil when I was put in a race on a bike, against other bikes and buggies. The buggies will happily take me out, and bikes only need to touch a pebble before they crash and explode. Coupled with a track actively designed to cause you to race through narrow, rock filled gaps, and you get ragedrox.

I'm sorry, but it's not fun. I'm sure the designers use the time old excuse of "oh, but it's more difficult" to make up for design faults, but come on. Make the enemies smarter, not dumber and more likely to take me out.

/rant