With filthy clothes, flashy moves and wolfmother blaring whenever it goes, this is like Motorstorm’s even brattier younger brother. There’s none of the aspirational glamour of racing sims here, Pure is all about caning quad bikes across mucky tracks until your brain downs in adrenaline. The tricks and slicks, the racing feels chaotic and everything from the sand up to the sky looks super polished.

It’s not just about being fastest, though. You need to pull off tricks to fill your Thrill Meter, which unlocks new moves and gives you extra speed when you are getting close to the finish line. There are three tries of stunts, which are all idiot proof, and all you need to worry about is having enough time to finish the move and get back on your bike before you smash back down to Earth. The big showpiece of any race is the Assassin’s Creed style moment when you leap off a stupid sized jump, time slows and you pull one of the invariable ludicrous signature moves as the ground drops away.

Depending on the type of event you choose, race, freestyle or sprint, you will need to balance tricks and boost differently, and you will have to learn to master them all to climb the world tour ranks. The only trouble is the more you play, the harder it is to get in the initial buss back, because tracks are repeated and the range of individuals’ moves isn’t huge. You can win new parts to customize your quads but, unless you a are a total petrolhead, a new set of handlebars isn’t going to make the same dirt track seem any more exciting.
[via IGN]