MotorStorm is back and this time pitting bikes, buggies, big rigs, and monster trucks against each other on a chaotic island filled with lush vegetation and a plethora of deadly hazards.

With the game's release set for sometime later this year, PSU.com thought we'd check in with the team at Evolution Studios for a quick update on the title courtesy of Creative Director, Paul Hollywood.

First and foremost, Hollywood described how the team acquired a better understanding of the PS3 during its development of the original MotorStorm, thus allowing them to use the machine to far greater potential, creating the more “intensive environments” seen in the sequel. 

“We’ve started from scratch with a lot of this game. We learned a lot about the PS3 while making the first game." he said. "This time we can use that knowledge to get more out of the hardware, and work more efficiently. So that allows us to produce the more intensive environments that you’ll see on the Island. It really is a whole world away from Monument Valley, where MotorStorm was set.”

“But obviously we don’t want to just have the same game in a new place; that would be unfair to people who buy the new game," Hollywood continued. "So we’ve gone back over pretty much all of the systems and cranked them up a notch or two. So we have a greater variety of vehicles, more tracks, better AI systems, a new game structure, better online capabilities – the works really.”

Philosophically, he said the idea behind MotorStorm was fundamentally to “entertain” the player, describing the game as being made deliberately more “Hollywood” than other racers on the market. 

“When we created MotorStorm, we made a conscious decision to make it primarily to entertain. This might sound strange, but most racing games are there to provide a representation to the player of what that race might be like in real life. MotorStorm was different because it was made deliberately more Hollywood," explained the appropriately-named Hollywood. “This meant that we allowed ourselves the freedom to concentrate the action around the player, to try to constantly give them something to look at other than just the track ahead. We’ve brought this thinking straight into the new game too. So, basically, the MotorStorm games are all about trying to give the player a good time, rather than allowing the player to have a good time by themselves.”

Finally, when asked on what MotorStorm Pacific Rift will offer gamers that they haven’t already seen in other racers, Hollywood pointed to what he considers as the every “essence” of the franchise – brutal, chaotic racing.

“There’s always stuff going on, whether it’s a bike rider insulting a buggy, a rally car flipping over in front of you, or even a big rig ramming some other poor sap into a wall,” he said.

“We tried to make off-road racing cool again, and I guess from the number of new off-road racing games, we must have succeeded. But our games are not just about racing, they’re about racing in this messed up, physically demanding world in which everyone’s fighting and struggling for themselves. And it makes a great show for the player.”

We'll have more for you on MotorStorm Pacific Rift tomorrow.