PS3 Fanboy

Watch out DC Universe Online, another game on the PS3 is contending for your friendship via MySpace! MotorStorm Pacific Rift is going on a tour in the UK in the form of a "monster truck, its veteran driver and his hot female entourage." You'll also get to play Pacific Rift before its October release.

Tour dates are shown above, but you'll need tickets to get in. If you are looking to attend either the Red Bull Air Race or the Ripcurl Unleashed Festival, today is last day you can send an email over to competitionsuk@scee.net with the event you want to attend in the subject line, along with your "name, daytime telephone number and full postal address" in the body to win tickets. Check out the game's MySpace page here.

[Via ThreeSpeech]

It had been rumored around the internet for a while now, so it's not exactly shocking news to hear its confirmation. Motorstorm 2 has officially been re-named Motorstorm: Pacific Rift. We're almost certain we'd heard this before, but since it hadn't been confirmed (the official unveiling is due in June's edition of PlayStation: The Official Magazine) we thought it'd be nice to assure you that you can, in fact, call the game by this title when amongst groups of friends. So get ready to race around some sexy islands and get into some sexy crashes later this year with Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.

[Thanks, Andrew Gaspar!]

Happy PAIN day! Those of you who have been anticipating PAIN all these weeks months will no doubt be overjoyed to finally see it hit the PSN Store -- and with so many add-on packs too! Those of you who don't care for PAIN might be a bit disappointed because that's pretty much all their is. Just keep watching that HD Motorstorm 2 trailer over and over. Here's the full release list:

• PAIN full game (£4.99)
• PAIN "Muffy" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Cookie" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Hung-Lo" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Santa" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Scurv Dogg" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Ginger" add-on (£0.69)
• PAIN "Fun with Explosives" add-on (free)
• Stranglehold map pack (£9.99)
• MotorStorm 2 trailer (free)

This certainly matches up to the "roadmap" that was leaked, but we'll reserve judgment further until a couple more weeks have gone by. It's nice to see that Europe is now up to date with PAIN content -- hopefully SCEE can keep us in sync from now on so that we don't have to suffer from any more ridiculous delays. If you're wondering why we haven't mentioned the Stranglehold pack, it's because it's ridiculously expensive and not worth our time. We're ignoring it and suggest you should too.

Threespeech's mysterious countdown has ended today with exactly what we were expecting - MotorStorm 2 has been officially announced. A CG teaser trailer accompanies the press release and can be seen above. While it doesn't show any gameplay, it does show what we can come to expect from the game when it's released later this year. MotorStorm fans who are fed up of dust and rocks will be able to look forward to a lush, island location for the next game. Much like the vehicle sections in Uncharted, we hope.

Other qualms from the first game have been resolved, such as split-screen play which will be included in MotorStorm 2 and will support up to 4 players on a single screen. A new vehicle type, the Monster Truck, will also be a part of the sequel. With levels that incorporate mud, tangled vines and lava pools, we can't wait to see the game in action. Until then, there's just the above video available to whet our appetites.

[UPDATE] This trailer deserves to be watched in its true Hi-Def glory and GameTrailers have you covered. Enjoy!

It seems information regarding Evolution Studios' sequel to last year's hit Motorstorm is finally surfacing. Some scans from the latest issue of OPM reveal not only the new locales featuring water, water everywhere, but monster trucks as drivable options. There's more info in the scans uploaded by C.Birch on the PS3 Forums, waiting for you to read them. But the main points are thus: Water. Monster trucks. Driving. Apparently, dodging vehicles once you're ousted from your own plays some kind of part, but we won't know until we see more.

ThreeSpeech, Sony's "semi-official" PlayStation 3 weblog has received a new lick of paint recently, you'll be happy to hear. The site looks altogether much spiffier, with a wider page format and a countdown timer. A countdown to what, though? You don't really have to be a rocket scientist to work out that when that timer reaches zero we'll be treated to some sort of Motorstorm 2 coverage.

We were promised a trailer by French site JeuxVideo but it never materialized. Even if we hadn't been given the blatant clue "a new breed of warrior will be born," we would've expected to see the video appear whenever the timer runs out. You never know, though. We've been wrong before ...

Our French isn't that great, but over at JeuxVideo, they seem to say something about an exclusive reveal of Motorstorm 2 happening soon. How soon? Wednesday. The reveal is most likely a video, since that appears to be the draw to the site itself. What'll it show? Just some pre-rendered footage? A slideshow of cars and proposed tracks? Gameplay of a game that will surprise us at just how far along it is? It's a mystery to us, but Wednesday is sounding like an exciting day.

In an article entitled "PlayStation bounces back" BBC's editor of their online Technology news index, Darren Waters, reveals why he considers the PS3 to be back on track. Waters has been shown a few exciting projects behind closed doors, including a gameplay demo of Motorstorm 2. No longer set in a desert, the game will feature a "lush island environment, full of interactive vegetation." Not only that, but in response to numerous criticisms leveled at the original Motorstorm, the sequel will have four-player split screen. The game is due out in time for Christmas this year.

Waters was also shown a trailer for Resistance 2, another huge upcoming first party title, which he describes as "epic." We're looking forward to seeing the trailer for ourselves whenever it's released to the pubic. Finally, Waters teases about a game which isn't due out until 2009 and which is shrouded in complete secrecy. It seems to have left him impressed because he states that he "was left speechless. If the footage I was shown truly is 'in game,' as told to me by the Sony PR people, then we could be on the brink of a step change in what games consoles are capable of in terms of story-telling and immersion."

Anyone else got goosebumps right now? It sounds like Sony have got some exciting stuff on the horizon for us. Judging from GDC, however, we need to remain patient for just a little bit more before we become privy to their plans.