When the original game was one of the best games from the initial releases on the PS3 it must be hard when it comes to develop and release a follow up. However, let me tell you, although this is not a perfect game by any means, it is definitely an improvement on the original and fixes quite a number of the faults the original had.

Once again as in the original this is an off road racer but this time the tracks are all based on the same island and we also have new elements to contend with including foliage, water and dangerous of them all – fire!

The water in the game presents a good and bad effect. The bad is of course that if you drive through it, the effect will be a slow down of epic performance. However, if your engine is in danger of overheating then driving through the water, without your boost button pressed will cool it down almost instantly.

The fire hazard is present in the form of lava. Get near it and you overheat your engine. Touch it and it means melted metal and death.

Cleverly however, the developers have including bits of water where-ever there is lava present, so if you are clever, you can use this to your advantage.

The foliage has different effects depending on the size of your vehicle, small vehicles will be destroyed by hitting it. Large ones will drive straight through it with no effect. The medium ones will experience severe slow down.

The track design is something to be amazed at and deserves praise to the developers. There are at least twice the number of tracks that there was last time, which was one of the major faults of the original game. On the new courses there are plenty of alternative routes including criss-crossing ledges and high pathways which are only passable by the smaller vehicles. The laps are also quite large which makes memorizing them more difficult but you will need to do that in order to get your lap times right down.

One of the major differences between this and the first game is the fact that now there is a marked difference to the different sized vehicles. The larger vehicles can quite literary run over the smaller ones if they have a need too, however the smaller ones are much more speedy and agile which helps a great deal on some of the courses.

Once you have had enough of the single player mode there is also a much improved online experience. This has rankings, leaderboards, stats, matchmaking, voice chat and support for up to twenty racers with a number of gameplay types and modes to keep the online community very happy indeed.

Also there is split screen with up to 4 players playing locally.

There are also plans in the future to release more tracks, vehicles etc for download on the PSN which can only increase the life span of the game.

Graphically this is an excellent title, it may look a little ropey on the screenshots and even when you pause the game but when you watch it in action everything, the landscapes, the effects and the vehicles themselves come together beautifully. There are excellent lighting effects and also good use of mist, fog and smoke in places.

The audio hasn’t been forgotten either with a loud thumping excellent soundtrack that perfectly matches the game itself. However should you detest the music you can if you wish play your own as it supports true XMB custom soundtracks and playlists. The sound effects of the engines etc is also very well done.

Overall this is one of the best racers by miles on the PS3. It is an incredible looking game with great audio, excellent track design and most of all it is fun from start to finish. It probably won’t please everyone but for the majority of people this will prove to be an excellent purchase with many pleasing hours both online and offline.

Excellent.