There?s something I never particularly understood about my general dislike of off-road racing games, something I heretofore believed was inexplicably indefinable. Yes, in everything from Sierra?s SODA Off-Road Racing to Sony?s ATV Offroad Fury series, I could race upon gritty, chassis-attacking courses in cactus-ridden locales around the world. But something was missing?what the F was it? When I first played MotorStorm, Sony?s off-road racing game for the PlayStation 3, I realized almost immediately what those other games were lacking. It was not so much the realm of realism as it was about romanticism: The PS3 graphics on an HDTV so vividly and melodramatically placed me in the grand desert, I felt I could taste the scorched dirt that my souped-up vehicle kicked up as I hurried through an ancient canyon. Along with that romanticism came something just as important -- the feeling of adventure, the wind on my pasty face, the sweat on my worried brow, the about-to-lose-my-lunch fear. While I spend a lot of time sitting on my sorry ass playing games, I do some extreme travel writing, too, which has me flying to South Africa and diving for great white sharks in the cold winter water near stinking, seal-populated Dyer Island. I expect the same kind of excitement when I travel into a game; I expect to shiver with a sense of escapism, panic and freedom.

Within the action of MotorStorm is something exotic, mysterious and, occasionally, full of the kind of wide, glorious expanse that?s not unlike the life-affirming feeling I get when viewing painter Caspar David Friedrich?s ?Wanderer above the Sea and Fog.? What makes MotorStorm work for me even more is the breathless feeling of excursion I get almost every time I ride and compete. Ensconced within my vehicle, I have a mad look of glee on my visage, and I imagine that Jack Kerouac is next to me drinking from a goatskin and Quentin Tarantino is in the backseat, screaming road-rage-filled directions and losing his remaining strands of hair as I lightly sideswipe an 18-wheeler.

While MotorStorm isn?t perfect by any means, it features a very worthwhile melding of intense, ever-evolving artwork with technology obviously programmed by persnickety individuals who are anal about every detail, especially the way the vehicles move and the courses change. So, when Sony manufactures a phrase like Real-Time Deforming Terrain to describe the way the racing courses alter constantly with each lap, with new ruts and freshly-loosened earth, I don?t mind the pseudo-scientific wording. The game works well, so let ?em have their effete jargon.

Before you begin, you?ll choose a ride from any of seven vehicle classes, including bikes, ATVs, rally cars or big-ass trucks. Then, get your motor runnin? and head out on the muck-encrusted, off-road highway. Initially, you?ll have two vehicle choices in each category. The rest of the 20 cars, bikes and trucks? You?ll have to unlock them by winning races. The Sixaxis is especially versatile as a controller. No, it?s not a steering wheel, but it acts like one on TV, er, when working with your TV screen.

The offline single-player portion of MotorStorm is all about jump-starting your emotions, stoking the fires of insult and anger within your soul like a software devil whispering sweet evil into your ear. While a fairly devious artificial intelligence on the part of the racers does everything short of flipping you the bird, your focus should be on passing other vehicles with speed or by nudging them just enough so they?ll spin, roll or crash. You can watch the spectacular results of the crashes with a rear view, too, but it just wastes time in your quest to win the MotorStorm Festival. Here, a simple riff on a clich? becomes a truism. Keep your eye on the off-road to become victorious.

As enthralling as MotorStorm can be, its AI can be unforgiving in the later levels. It almost seems as though your savvy opponents have some kind of traveling, portable holodeck to transport themselves to very near your speeding derriere -- even if you?ve pressed the X button to boost your way to the head of the pack and beyond. (Don?t boost too much: You?ll literally explode.) Another glaring negative is the lack of tracks. As varied as the vehicles can be to handle, more wacky courses should have been a natural for a game that costs $60. Plus, I wouldn?t have minded seeing the occasional coyote crossing the path and, on the next lap, vultures feasting upon coyote roadkill to slow someone?s bike, or even a bearded, bipolar gold miner crawling across the mud in search of cool, clear water -- you know, just things to get in the way to make sure the synapses are sparking properly.

There?s a fair amount of strategy involved in winning, especially when it comes to leading a big rig to the finish line. Since courses are often divided between wide, low roads and skinny, precarious high roads, don?t even try to steer your truck up high: that way lies madness?and an exploding engine. With a bike or dune buggy, I?ve found it?s highly useful to use your yaw (the left controller stick) to straighten the rumbling machine out when you?ve rocketed off a ramp high in the air. And, if you hit the damn ground after a crash and are facing the wrong way, a light tap on the Select button will set you in the proper direction.

When racing online, the competition can be cruel, insulting and brutish, but at least you won?t have to wait to join in on the action. Speeding around in the dirt is a generally flawless experience, but I did find the occasional lag while playing. You?ll start out as a Zero, move up to Grunt, and if you don?t become bored or frustrated, you?ll work your way up to Hero, then Legend, then God, the ultimate ranking. If that?s not enough, there have been, since its release, five downloadable updates along with large chunks downloadable content via the PlayStation Network. For instance, a no-charge download lets you play time trials, the results of which you can upload to a leaderboard and boast, or hide your face in crippling shame if you stink as I do. For minimal bucks, you can suck down the Devil?s Weekend upgrade, which includes a new track with nine new racing challenges.

As it ages, MotorStorm, in all its dusty, oily glory, gets even better. Yeah, the sound of a dozen engines powering and cranking together can be annoying, as can the adrenaline-charged, heavy metal soundtrack. (You can turn it down. Next time, how about thinking outside the box to put a Nellie McKay ballad on one of these sports games? Metal and hard rock is oh-so-usual.) And, yeah, some folks are going to find MotorStorm too excruciatingly hard to finish. Me, I find going on these drives with Kerouac and Tarantino to be the ultimate in gaming romanticism: fluid, awe-inspiring trips where ?On the Road? meets ?Death Proof? meets ?The Twilight Zone.?

This review was based on a retail copy of the game provided by the publisher.