Evolution answers EDGE reader questions about MotorStorm

EDGE Online decided to ask its readers if there’s anything they wanted to ask Santa – er, Evolution Studios, about MotorStorm. Well, anything but a free PS3 with MotorStorm, perhaps – that, they can ask Santa for.

Anyway, the results are up on EDGE Online’s site, and there are a lot of questions, and a lot of answers from the devs. We’re going to extract the most interesting bits for you guys to chew on – perhaps you won’t have to worry about that CES gaffe anymore.

• Yes, there will be online VOICE chat during online dust races. Evolution says you can use USB and Bluetooth headsets. Currently, it’s for 12 foul-mouthed, achy-breaky players… they’re hoping for sixteen but the devs “can’t commit to that right now.”
• There are currently no plans for split-screen (which this writer wished was at least in the demo), due to the complexity required to render two gameplay experiences in one screen. But guess what? “unless we get an overwhelming demand… the beauty of online consoles is that the game can change… and we can sit down with SCEE and say, ‘Let’s offer this for download – the fans want it’.”
• Regarding the lack of online in Japanese MotorStorms: Evo’s Matt Southern revealed that, when talking to the Japanese localizers for the game, that this sort of thing is actually quite normal with them. They’re used to “new iterations of the game” coming after launch, whereas Western audiences prefer the complete package out of the box.
• Download Part Deux! A reader asked if there could or would be a “Replay Feature” in the game with full camera controls. Says Evo, “Not for the boxed launch, but as ever weÂ’ll see what is being demanded by fans when we start to offer download packs.”
• They didn’t miss rumble while making MotorStorm: “because we were heavily influenced by film in the making of MotorStorm and it has been proven many times over that you can achieve immersion without rumble.” (… define Irony: Immersion without rumble…)
• Finally, Blu-Ray. Evolution did compress game data to save space and loading times, but still “the sheer size of top-quality high definition data necessitates something like Blu-ray.”

EDGE Online decided to ask its readers if there’s anything they wanted to ask Santa – er, Evolution Studios, about MotorStorm. Well, anything but a free PS3 with MotorStorm, perhaps – that, they can ask Santa for.

Anyway, the results are up on EDGE Online’s site, and there are a lot of questions, and a lot of answers from the devs. We’re going to extract the most interesting bits for you guys to chew on – perhaps you won’t have to worry about that CES gaffe anymore.

• Yes, there will be online VOICE chat during online dust races. Evolution says you can use USB and Bluetooth headsets. Currently, it’s for 12 foul-mouthed, achy-breaky players… they’re hoping for sixteen but the devs “can’t commit to that right now.”
• There are currently no plans for split-screen (which this writer wished was at least in the demo), due to the complexity required to render two gameplay experiences in one screen. But guess what? “unless we get an overwhelming demand… the beauty of online consoles is that the game can change… and we can sit down with SCEE and say, ‘Let’s offer this for download – the fans want it’.”
• Regarding the lack of online in Japanese MotorStorms: Evo’s Matt Southern revealed that, when talking to the Japanese localizers for the game, that this sort of thing is actually quite normal with them. They’re used to “new iterations of the game” coming after launch, whereas Western audiences prefer the complete package out of the box.
• Download Part Deux! A reader asked if there could or would be a “Replay Feature” in the game with full camera controls. Says Evo, “Not for the boxed launch, but as ever weÂ’ll see what is being demanded by fans when we start to offer download packs.”
• They didn’t miss rumble while making MotorStorm: “because we were heavily influenced by film in the making of MotorStorm and it has been proven many times over that you can achieve immersion without rumble.” (… define Irony: Immersion without rumble…)
• Finally, Blu-Ray. Evolution did compress game data to save space and loading times, but still “the sheer size of top-quality high definition data necessitates something like Blu-ray.”