Motor Storm Ice Racing

Racing in Arctic Edge, like in its console brethren, is all about flexibility

The Motor Storm Ice Racing series has already sent you careening along muddy cliffsides and barreling through lava-filled landscapes.

Now with Motor, you can hop in a snow machine and race through drifts of slippery snow.

Racing in Arctic Edge, like in its console brethren, is all about flexibility.

Each of the 12 courses includes multiple routes, each suited to a particular class of vehicle.

The vehicles include some returning favorites, such as the ever-popular and eminently drivable buggy, the bouncy-but-responsive ATV, and the boxy yet surprisingly agile big rigs.

There are some new additions as well: snow machines are good at drifting, if a bit squirrely;

sturdy snowpluggers have replaced the series' standard mudpluggers;

and snowcats (think high-powered, industrial snow plows) feel even heavier and more imposing than the big rigs.

Each vehicle type has three models to choose from (two of which you must unlock),

with subtle differences in speed, acceleration, toughness, and handling--and you can customize their appearance with liveries earned as you play.

And as MotorStorm fans would expect, how you tackle each race depends on the vehicle you choose.

Arctic Edge's snowy courses are as fine as any you've seen in the series so far.

Highlights include the precarious cliffs and underground caverns of Northern Face;

the twisty turns of the attractive-looking Log Jam;

and the overall versatility of the complex Eagle Falls, which isn't quick to reveal its secrets.

Racing on many of these courses is a thrill.

Vehicles feel fast, tight turns demand precision, and watching a rally car soar above your big rig as it attacks its chosen route is always a delight.

A few tracks are more straightforward, such as the mountainous Ascension, but for the most part, they still excel--with the possible exception of The Chasm.

This course features an annoyingly constricted choke point, which leads to some of the Motor franchise's signature frustrations.

Choke points are always a hazard in the rough-and-tumble MotorStorm Ice Edge formula,

and not just due to the variety of vehicles coexisting on a single course (it only makes sense that a snowcat/bike collision won't end well for the unlucky biker).

As in the other games, the AI is never as concerned with winning as it is with making you lose.

Rather than taking the best possible route, big rigs and snowpluggers will crowd your poor little ATV on its ramp-heavy route with the explicit intention of making you suffer,

so if you intended to learn the best routes for your chosen vehicle by observing the AI Motor Storm Ice Racing, you may want to rethink your strategy.