Yes, it's not a Christmas tree. It's a festive tree, because everyone has different festive celebrations at the end of the yeah, and singling out one is wrong. *eyes his headline* Oh well. Either way, there's a decorated tree, and PlayStation Home online community specialist Locust_Star urges home-goers to work together to solve its riddles over the course of the month in order to reveal some surprising developments.

This week also brings a beachfront personal space with a MotorStorm: Pacific Rift theme, and a miner costume in the store to celebrate the recent announcement of Dead Space 2.

Hudson brings the insanely popular casual game Diner Dash to the PlayStation Network this week, and there's a scavenger hunt taking place in Home on Friday, December 11th, in which players can piece together codes for free downloads of the game.

Check out the link below for more details on this week's PlayStation Home festivities, and have a happy and safe generic holiday.

Holiday Celebrations Come to PlayStation Home + MotorStorm, Dead Space 2, and Diner Dash [PlayStation Blog]

The artists at Sony's Evolution Studios have come up with 24 new vehicle liveries for Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, with dynamic new looks in the pipeline for each vehicle class in the game. Starting tomorrow Sony will release one set of three new vehicle skins every week on the PlayStation Store until all 24 are in players' hands.

A fine offering, and free is always nice. I just hope this isn't the only weekly downloadable content that game director Nigel Kershaw was alluding to back in October.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift Game Update and Free DLC [PlayStation Blog]

Pacific Rift game director Niegel Kershaw writes that the demo includes both a single player and a split screen multiplayer race. The track on the demo is Razorback, which features jungle, colossal waterfalls, dank caves and tons of different routes.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Sony Worldwide Studios head Michael Denny revealed that the sequel to the PlayStation 3's hit offroad racer has done quite alright by itself since its October release.

In terms of the other titles it was also important to focus on – the sequel to MotorStorm, we're pleased with the high Metacritic rating of 82 per cent and it's sold over a million units worldwide.

This puts it on par with the original title, which sold 1 million copies in June of 2007 following its March release in the states. Looks like the original audience stuck around for more.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift passes one million sales [GamesIndustry.biz]

Oh yeah. And it was created before the dev team had received official hardware specifications from Sony. Being told that they were "the worst [of Sony's first-party developers] in the world" by former Sony Computer Entertainment Worldwide Studios head Phil Harrison probably didn't help.

"They actually announced the hardware specifications on a slide show presentation," Hollywood said in a newly published video interview. "We sat and jotted them down... and then they showed us our movie. So it was like, 'This is what the PlayStation 3 can do, and this is what you're gonna get on it.' And we sat there trying to do the math in our head, going 'Can we really do this stuff that we're doing now?'"

"Nobody denied it. Nobody said it wasn't in-game," Kershaw said of the PS3 target render.

Fortunately, it sounds like some harsh words from Phil Harrison helped the team tap turn out a pretty damn good racer. Shame it didn't quite look like that first glimpse...

"We showed MotorStorm to the board of Sony in November 2005. So basically, the infamous E3 video had been out, so there's all these expectations about the rendering prowess that we were going to expose... and we showed them a lot of boxes," Hollywood explained. "At the end of the show, Phil Harrison took us to one side and said, 'You guys are the worst in the world....' At that point we went, 'Right, we'll show you.'"

Kershaw further details the team's perspective on the controversial E3 2005 trailer: "But it's this thing that haunts you, that you didn't match your target render.... Everybody makes such a big fucking deal of it. Who gives a shit? That's how we make games. If people have got a problem with that, tough."

Nigel Kershaw On How MotorStorm's Original Target Video "Pissed Us Off a Lot" [1UP]

This year’s MotorStorm: Pacific Rift conjures up an unnamed Pacific island as the festival setting, and brings to it an extremely destructive nonnative species called the Monster Truck. Is one more vehicle class, double the tracks and an even more exotic location enough to carry MotorStorm’s legacy forward? Or is it a beefed up track-pack rehash? Let’s go ride out the storm.

Loved
Island paradise: If this island existed, I can’t imagine why humans would abandon it. Definitely a worthy successor to Monument Valley, and then some. The first MotorStorm was a single setting: the desert. Here the course artists work in much more complex vegetation and terrain features. Where courses include human construction, it is brilliantly blended with the surroundings to look abandoned, improvised, or overtaken by nature, wherever appropriate. Doing this for 720p is an achievement, no question. Sugar Rush, set in an old cane plantation, is a favorite of many. Caldera Ridge’s twin observatories above a rocky, skidding plunge, was also one of mine. Colossus Canyon was breathtaking. There are any number of fantasylands in video games that I wish I could visit. This one is easily tops among the racing genre.

Sixteen-Course Meal: One of the MotorStorm franchise’s many strengths is how it can supply a course experience that is rarely the same no matter how many times you drive it. Real time course degradation and permanent debris scatter are back in Pacific Rift. You race at three different times of day, and the exceptional lighting for each can be its own course hazard and eventually weather comes into play, too. But the new 16 long, expansive courses, with alternate routes that are either concealed or not immediately obvious, truly are a cut above. The only hints you get are signs marking fatal hazards, arrows when you’re reaching a course boundary, and double poles that frame big jump locations. Even after playing all 16 course 10 times each, I still don’t feel like I know the entire course, much less all the optimal routes for my preferred vehicle class. You’re continuously discovering things, such as the gun emplacement just before a big jump in the Beach Comber, which becomes a spinning hazard if anyone ahead of you hits it.

Jump in the Fire: The game features four zones: Earth, Air, Fire and Water, with four courses each, and each of them subject to a zone’s unique hazards. Air, of course, is full of huge jumps and soaring cliffs. The most notably hostile environment is fire, which races you next to lava fountains and mudflows. You’ll spend a lot of time on fire and your boost overheat gauge will erupt in flames, but all it means is you look that much more awesome when you soar a half-mile through the air and land on some piece of shit dirtbiker. Fire is also an extremely challenging zone for the motorcycle, where you have to race technically perfect just to survive.

Wrecks — Others: Watching the real time destruction of your competitors up ahead of you is a fists-up experience, especially when those great big Optimus Prime-looking MFers finally get theirs. The debris path is impressive and, if you’re in it, hazardous enough unto itself. In eliminator races the carcasses of previous victims will still be on the track when you circle back around. Anything hit and scattered will be right where it came to a rest. And nothing beats jousting with a similar vehicle at breakneck speeds, beating it to a jump, and looking back to see it plunge off a cliff. This game simply would not have its level of joyous mayhem without its well rendered wrecks, rolls, disintegrations and explosions.

Hated
Wrecks — Yours: This is more like “not loved.” You play a racer of this type (not super realistic, in other words) for two reasons, the thrill of the run when you’re winning, and spectacular destruction when you fail. And the wreck physics and animations for your vehicle are hit or miss. A full-on wreck begins in slow motion, so you can see the crumpling of your car body, the struts and shocks shooting out the front, sheet metal flaking off — and then what happens next is a crap shoot. Sometimes you just come to a dead unsatisfying stop. On ATVs or motorcycles, your rider can go straight up in the air, unrealistically. Overheating explosions are the best way to go, sending you into a tumbling fireball. But I’ve also been in slow rollovers that somehow end with the vehicle almost completely flattened, because that’s what the Havok engine called for. A good death would encourage me to watch and stay in the race; a bad one makes me restart.

Artificial Competitiveness: Rubber-band AI seems to be a part of this title, although a little less conspicuously. I can’t empirically prove it because it’s difficult to race the exact same route with the same time to see if it produces different finishes. But on the whole, I definitely feel like I can win this with less than my best stuff, especially by sitting on the boost button at the end. Conversely, on some courses (especially Riptide) where I know I can get to the lead quickly and hold it, I’ll still have the field hot on my ass the whole way no matter how fast my vehicle. This makes you very unprepared for online ranked matches — I was routinely smoked by more experienced racers going all out and had zero chance to catch up about halfway in.

Vehicle variety: I wasn’t really sold on the Monster Truck, which is new. Sure, it’s a lot of fun and will crush anything other than a big rig, but this might be one you bring out when you’re racing with friends in the room, rather than you sled of choice in Festival or online mode. Crunching up smaller vehicles in the bottleneck starting a race just seems unfair. Getting crunched by one in the same situation online is extremely unfair. And online, where flat-out speed is demanded every second, you'll roll over a ton, so it's far from an automatic winner. There are notable contrasts between the vehicle classes — play them enough and you’ll get a feel for it, and Festival mode will require you to drive everything at least once. But where options existed I usually chose the buggy or the racing truck as an all-around performer, not venturing out of that comfort zone if I could help it. The unlockable vehicle bodies seemed to be another thing that’s better on others than you. It creates a wide variety in the racing field, which makes it visually interesting. But the vehicle class will perform the same regardless of skin. It made the vehicle packs and, for that matter, driver get-ups, seemed more like an afterthought to me, rather than anything I strove to earn.

I know I didn’t really mention the soundtrack. I’m no music critic. It wasn’t striking enough to be loved, wasn’t bad enough to be hated. Nothing seems out of place but it definitely competes with the engine whine, explosions, splashes, and collisions. I think I have an automatic noise reducer on my TV because things would occasionally get so loud the volume would drop, like it thought I was watching some screaming used-car advertisement. Keep this in mind.

One of the drawbacks of reviewing games is, even when you’re on a good one, you have to play it so extensively it kills a desire to go back in later. Not MotorStorm: Pacific Rift. This will be a go-to title for me when I have a half-hour to kill and don’t want to get involved in a deep RPG or shooter. It will definitely be a game I trot out when friends come over and want to fool around with something, as the learning curve is really shallow for gamers of all abilities.

If you visited Monument Valley and loved your time there, the Pacific Rift is well different enough to warrant a trip. And that’s besides the implied drinkin’, fightin’, dancin’ and yes, crazy monkey sex in this rambunctious festival of destruction.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift was developed by Evolution Studios, published by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. Released on Oct. 28 in North America, Nov. 7 in Europe for PlayStation 3. Reviewed on PlayStation 3. Retails for $59.99. Raced all 16 tracks, all eight vehicle classifications, and all race types. Raced and placed in 50 of 96 events in Festival mode. Participated in six ranked matches online.

Confused by our reviews? Read our review FAQ.

The game's director, Nigel Kershaw, tells CVG that the team has new goodies expected to digitally ship via the PlayStation Store "in the coming months," that "major packs" will hit the new Motorstorm sometime after Christmas. So hurry up and wait.

MotorStorm 2: Weekly DLC planned, some free [CVG]

Here’s the full list of 16 tracks featured in MotorStorm Pacific Rift:

Kanaloa Bay: “Sun-kissed, secluded, sandy, and slightly more treacherous than its good looks first suggest, Kanaloa Bay is a great track to be a spectator at. It’s an awesome beach party with a welcome smattering of vehicular carnage running through it. But beware the dark territory beyond the lagoon – space gets real tight, real quick in that steamy jungle stretch.”

· Sugar Rush: “Only MotorStormers would think to stage a race in and around an old sugar plantation. The sharp machinery and rusty metal, those rust-weakened floors and rotten walls, and the zero-visibility of the cane fields all combine to make this track a sickly-sweet rush that’s going to ruin more than just your teeth.”

· Mudslide: “The clue’s largely in the title: Mudslide is like one of those crazy rides you get at water parks, except with mud instead of water.

· Still, there’s plenty of slip-slidey action to engage in, with high routes available for those of you without the tires to tackle the mud.”

· Cascade Falls: “Dense jungle, thick with haze, gives way to wide-open plateaus and rickety scaffold. The tropical setting makes for a fascinating blend of beauty and danger – much like my ex-wife. The key to success is to keep it honest – don’t take any unnecessary risks, and don’t get caught making out behind the start gantry.”

· Beachcomber: “The black sand is evidence of the awesome power of nature, created by lava flowing into the ocean which explodes as it is supercooled by the water. The WWII airbase and the unexploded bombs are evidence of the awesome destructive power of man. The sheer carnage created when these are combined is evidence of the awesome power of the MotorStorm. Let battle commence!”

· Colossus Canyon: “This track has it all – beautiful forest, vibrant fauna, and a picturesque mountain stream that courses through a narrow gorge, over brook and water-meadow, and plummets over an enormous waterfall. Let’s face it; if you’re only going to accidentally plummet over one giant precipice in your MotorStorm career, this is the one to do it on. Today is a good day to fly.”

· Caldera Ridge: “The race organizers looked long and hard to find some driveable routes here, but in the end decided it’d be more fun driving vehicles over the edge of an enormous crater and barrelling out-of-control down a near-vertical slope. And that’s exactly why the race organizers don’t get invited to make race tracks for anyone else. Ever.”

· Badlands: “A giant track, racing at the feet of a giant cinder cone, Badlands has a name that’s perfectly descriptive. Wait until you see the enormous active crater you need to jump over, or the blind, sheer precipices you need to tear round at high speed if you’re to have any chance of winning. And let’s not get into the collapsed tunnels and the huge canyon jump that crosses the track 75 feet in the air. These are MotorStorm lands. These are Badlands.”

· The Edge: “There’s at least half a track here that isn’t ridiculously dangerous. The other half is on a camber so extreme that descriptions like ‘gnarly’, ‘radical’ and ‘utterly ridiculous’ don’t begin to convey it. This is all about keeping traction, and keeping nerve. Seasoned MotorStormers are already declaring ‘Don’t lose your bottle on the Edge – because if you do it’ll probably fall and kill someone half a mile below you”. Wise words indeed.”

· Paradise Beach: “Paradise Beach was perfect. Clear skies, gentle surf, warm water. It was a small town, and the living was good. Was, that is, until 30 years ago when the fire-God Pele cruised into town in his fiery hotrod of molten death, and literally tore up the strip. Now all that remains is dust and bones. Welcome to Paradise.”

· The Rift: “The Rift: a mile-long tear in the world that is said to be the serpentine trail to the dark underworld of the God Milu. Formed from multiple interlinking lava tubes created over millennia, the Rift is a tight, claustrophobic journey through the jaws of the underworld, where death awaits the wearied traveler at every turn.”

· Scorched: “Fire, steam, lava, craters – Scorched is about as far away from the golden beaches and cool blue ocean as possible. The heat and dust make a real mess of your engine, and the lava will make a real mess of you. Once you’re out of the barren lands, you may think you’ve escaped unharmed, but the thick forested area on the back section of the track throws up plenty of its own unique hazards.”

· Razorback: “The Daddy. Mud, dirt, flora, caves, rock, water. Deadly drop-offs, dangerous jumps, spectacular falls and fast-flowing rivers. This is the big one – the whole MotorStorm ethos showcased in a single, epic track. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, your time to shine is now.”

· Rain God Spires: “A humid, slippery, unfeasibly dangerous track set at the summit of a towering cathedral amongst heavy, pendulous tropical clouds.

· With immense slick precipices over immense drop-offs, Rain God brings hell to the Heavens and provides one of the Festival’s most dangerous and deadly roller-coaster rides.”

· Wildfire: “Trapped in no-man’s land between a deadly lava deluge and an unforgiving ocean, Wildfire is the rock between two hard places - a very temporary island-hopping race over the elemental battlefield where fire and water collide. Smoke and steam conspire to reduce race visibility to a minimum while the route screams along perilous cliff-edges and leaps across rifts and chasms.”

· Riptide: “The crowd-pleaser down on the beach, Riptide is the unholy offspring of MotoX and MotorStorm. From MotoX it has inherited ramps, big jumps, whoops, rollers, tight banked turns and technical hairpins, and from MotorStorm its blue eyes, cute little button nose and sandy complexion.”

Also mentioned in the post is a retailer exclusive demo available to folks who pre-order the game from GameStop, a subtle hint that you should go and pre-order the game at GameStop. Glad I could clear that up.

MotorStorm Pacific Rift crosses the finish line October 28th [Official PlayStation Blog]

Evolution may have changed up the setting, but they haven't mucked much with the MotorStorm mechanics, as players of the first will feel right at home. The vehicle line up is almost exactly the same, but handling on the rides felt just a bit looser, making it harder to avoid obstacles than we remember. Unfamiliarity with the new Pacific Rift tracks more than likely accounted for our many, many crashes. It certainly wasn't a skill issue.

The newest, most notable changes come in the form of engine cooling by driving through pools of water—watch out though, motorcycles simply can't handle deep water—the new monster truck vehicle class and splitscreen multiplayer.

We only tested out the splitscreen mode briefly and only with two players. After our hands-on time with that particular mode, we don't expect to revisit it often when the game is finally released. With such expansive tracks and the option of taking multiple routes, slicing one's horizontal view in half doesn't make for the ideal MotorStorm experience.

Taking the monster truck for a spin, however, is certainly something we look forward to revisiting. The vehicle class's pros, cons and quirks weren't immediately apparent in our handful of monster truck races, but its promise—quad crushing and better-than-a-big rig handling—is exciting. As expected, the thing can overturn rather easily, meaning you'll probably do more braking than with other classes.

As we mentioned before, the game was still early; only 40% complete, reportedly. That was certainly apparent, as the frame rate wasn't close to consistent and much of the environmental effects seemed to be missing. We didn't seem to notice much in the way of land deformation, nor did explosions and the kicking up of mud impress. What did, though, were the ragdoll physics. Launching a motorcyclist across the finish line from an exploding bike was far more rewarding than in the original. Visually, though, the game looks rather flat at this point.

MotorStorm: Pacific Rift certainly has promise. We're definitely concerned about the current lack of "oomph" in the build we played and that the tropical setting may make for more cramped, less nail-biting thrill rides. Given that Evolution says it still has a long way to go—and that we still had fun—we're definitely giving them the benefit of the doubt.

LIVE: EU PlayStation Day dawns [GameSpot]