By Brian Coonce, Principle Game Designer, Rainbow Studios
Over the past decade, Rainbow Studios has been hard at work fine-tuning the ultimate offroad videogame. As development has shifted from PCs and consoles to next-generation powerhouses, our vision of everything offroad has also expanded. Whereas previous games focused exclusively on MX bikes or ATVs, the latest iterations of the MX vs. ATV franchise have grown to include all of the offroad vehicles you might see during a weekend offroad outing, including sand rails, dune buggies and 4x4 golf carts. We then added the vehicles you’ve only dreamed about tearing through the outdoors in: trophy trucks, monster trucks, and the all-new ORV Sport.
While we packed in more machines, the greatest challenge has always been creating a competitive series where players can demonstrate their mastery over the vast variety of vehicles in the game. To this end, the design team created the all-new Opencross mode, a series of long-form races where the machines battle it out to determine who really owns the offroad.
The first thing you’ll notice in your first Opencross race is that these tracks are huge; in fact, they are the longest races you’ll find in MX vs. ATV: Untamed. Opencross allowed our track designers to take full advantage of Untamed’s massive open worlds. In a given race, you’ll travel across dams, over bridges, up narrow valleys and down steep cliff faces on your path to offroad domination. These courses were meant to serve up the toughest offroad challenge you will ever find, so don’t be surprised if you’re forced to battle for position through shallow river passes or across narrow natural rock bridges.
Although each vehicle is equally equipped to handle the harsh terrain, certain vehicles may have specific advantages depending on the environment. The wide open dust plains of Del Sol and Copper Valley are particularly well suited for the wide suspension of the sand rail and dune buggy. The shallow creek beds and rolling hills of Split Oak and Crawly Creek are easily soaked up by the monster truck’s giant tires. The sudden changes in elevation at Lakewood and Pine Lakes are quickly traversed by the light and nimble ORV Sport. The narrow back roads of Clearwater and Sutherlin Valley are the perfect opportunity to put miles behind you in a supercharged trophy truck. What vehicle and where you drive it is up to you as long as you can keep up with the competition.
Choose your path to offroad domination by downloading the demo today on Xbox Live Marketplace or the Playstation Network!