MX Vs. ATV Alive review - a new way to buy
THQ declare war on the £50 game, with a new mid-range price point but less content on the disc. But is their new off-road racer the best way to promote it?
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MX Vs. ATV Alive (PS3) – a mid-priced ride MX Vs. ATV Alive (PS3) – a mid-priced ride

This probably seems like the last game in the world to start a revolution, but that's exactly what THQ are hoping. Not because of the game itself, but because of the way it is sold. If you look down the page you'll notice that the RRP is £29.99, not the usual £49.99. The game itself though comes with less content on the disc than is normal, with the idea being that if you like it you can buy more as microtransactions.

If the experiment is successful then the idea is that many more games will be sold this way, perhaps all if it really takes off. It's a brave experiment that we fully encourage, especially as a similar approach may have made THQ's own Homefront much more palatable.

We certainly hope other games use it, and quickly, because nobody outside the U.S. ever seems to be interested in the MX Vs. ATV games, and there's a real danger the whole experiment could go completely unnoticed. Which is a double shame as the game's actually pretty good.

2010's MX Vs. ATV Reflex was meant to be a reboot for the series, even though it looked and played pretty much the same as always. The Reflex in the title referred to the new dual stick control system, which is retained here and sees you controlling your motorbike or quad using the left stick and your rider's position upon it with the right.

This helps not only to keep you upright in jumps and lean into corners, but also allows you to perform a variety of acrobatic tricks when in the air. It wasn't a particularly new idea even at the time but it worked well and Alive manages to iron out the problem with the physics engine, that saw you flying off your mount after hitting even the tiniest bump.

Despite so many other games trying to simplify their controls, and appeal more to casual gamers, this takes a much more realistic approach than you'd expect. It's still an arcade racer at heart, but working the clutch and constantly altering your balance and speed are essential simply to avoid falling off at every corner.

To actually win a race takes more skill than most recent racers have ever required of you, especially as the new Road Rash style barging between players makes relatively little difference.

There's a good variety of courses too, with everything from ordinary muddy motocross tracks to a French vineyard, Chinese paddy field, a beach track and one set in a MotorStorm style canyon. There are 12 in all, but most have to be unlocked by levelling up your rider. There are also another four Short Tracks and two 'Free Rides'.

Free Rides are large open world environments that work a bit like Free Flight mode in Pilotwings Resort, where you can drive around exploring and earning medals for things like the longest jump or combo. But they're not as large as the ones in Reflex and there's less to do in them. There are also no Freestyle or Supercross events of any kind on the disc.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that there's also no real career mode, you just pick a single race and at the end of it you are awarded an appropriate number of experience points to help towards levelling up your rider. As well as new tracks, this also gives you access to new bikes and rider skills. You can have two of the latter active at any time, giving you such benefits as a faster track reset or more leeway when landing from a jump.

We do feel there is probably just enough content here to justify the price, at least compared to other full price games. But it doesn't seem as if it's necessarily the right content. We would've been happy to have seen a couple less tracks, in exchange for a proper career mode - or one super busy Free Ride arena instead of two half empty ones.

The great irony though is that because we were sent the game on PlayStation 3 we can't get access to the in-game shop to see all the other downloads, which apparently includes extra modes, tracks, bikes and accessories. (Nor obviously can we try the multiplayer on the PlayStation Network but the split screen two-player is good raucous fun, so we expect no less of the 12-player online).

In a sense though this gets out of a tricky situation with this review, and ensures we consider only the content provided on the disc, not any downloadable freebies THQ might have been tempted to throw our way.

The MX Vs. ATV games are always solid and enjoyable racers and the driving model here is the best it's ever been. But there really isn't enough on the disc for it to provide any long term entertainment and so in the end you'll probably end up spending, via downloadable content, exactly the same as you would with a normal retail release. More if you would've only bought the game on cheap - which is of course exactly the point.

Whether you consider this a manipulative scam or a useful new attempt to increase consumer choice will depend greatly on your own point of view. What we can tell you is that at least it's a decent racer.

In Short: Whether it's more or less value for money than usual is up for debate but in purely game terms this is the best MX Vs. ATV yet.

Pros: Excellent handling model and a good mix of realism and arcade action. Decent variety of courses and smart graphics.

Cons: No proper career mode and only two Free Rides arenas - both of which are low on content. Downloadable content greatly adds to the cost.

Score: 7/10

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