GAME: MX VS. ATV ALIVE – GAME GORILLA
Review By Anthony O’Sullivan
Publisher: THQ
Developer: THQ Digital Studio Phoenix
Platform: PS3, Xbox360
Review: MX vs ATV Alive is the fifth game in the series of off road Motorcross racing games and probably the biggest change is a new direction taken by THQ that allows the player to build the game to suit their own style by adding additional content through DLC after purchase of the initially cheaper than usual disk.
Motorcross is quite a specialised interest sport and despite a few other games entering the market in recent years such as Motorstorm or Pure, MX vs ATV is very much the professional’s choice. The players are not faced with ludicrous unrealistic jumps or explosions, nor are they faced with any kind of fighting options. This is real racing, its tight, its hectic, its fast and it’s muddy.
The main selling point of the series is the control method, real life motorcyclist will understand that shifting your weight around the bike is hugely important when cornering. Something the developers of MX vs ATV have realised while others haven’t. So along with your standard left stick controls for turning left or right you also control the rider with your right stick. Pushing forward will get him to lean forward and push down the front of the bike lifting the back wheel, in the same way if you pull back he will lean back lifting the front wheel. Leaning left or right going into a corner gives you a lot of extra control and allows you to take corners at high speed without losing it.
The cornering itself then can vary, if you have a particular tight left corner coming up, pushing forward and left will dig the front wheel into the mud and lets the back of the bike come around behind you a lot quicker allowing the rider to snap his bike around tight corners. This costs you speed as your back wheel is your power but you gain the advantage of being able to turn faster. On longer corners you pull back and left on the right analogue stick, this gets the rider to push the back wheel down into the mud which means you can maintain your pace but you do require a much wider turning arc.
It is harder to explain than to actually do it in the game, and it soon starts to come very naturally to you in the cornering. It also comes into play while jumping and doing tricks, learning how to land properly was one of the most important lessons learnt early on. As you race around and pull tricks you earn XP, this is done quite nicely in game and the more XP you earn the more stuff you unlock. Ranging from bike upgrades, to new stickers, to rider skill points.
Back to the point raised in the beginning the DLC. Once you stick in the game disk you are met with your racing options there 12 long tracks, 4 short tracks, initially there are 2 of each but the rest are unlocked as you progress along and gain XP. Also included are two open free areas (which is a lot less than the previous instalment) these are just to have some fun in but any stunts or challenges completed in the free areas still nets you XP. THQ’s thinking here is to get the game disk out at a low cost and let the player add the content they want through DLC at a later date rather than them choosing for the player and maybe including options the player has no interest in. It is a new approach and any innovation is to be welcomed but the game does feel a little light out of the box and of course if you don’t have access to the internet you’re screwed.
Over all the racing experience is excellent the controls are very different and it really is a lot of fun. The low cost game idea is a new one and there is enough on the disk to get a lot of fun out of the game but at the same time I’m still not sure about buying DLC we will have to see how this pans out. Graphically the game is fine the tracks do look good and deteriate under the tires, an although I am sure its real life scale the riders do look a bit tall on the bikes and the ATV’s can at times look like they are more suited for kids.
