The basic gameplay remains the same: Choose from a variety of vehicles ranging from MX Bikes, Snowmobiles, ATV’s, and more as you traverse various championships, races, and freestyle events to prove that you are, in fact, as extreme as Mountain Dew has lead you to believe.

If you choose to play thru the single player campaign, you’ll encounter a less than stellar story mode, but as is the case with most racing games, you’re not really playing it for the story are you? Nah, not really, you just want to race, and ATV has plenty of that to offer. You’ve got National, Circuit, Rallycross, Point to Point, Freestyle, Supercross, and Sponsor races to compete in. There’s so many that thankfully the developers don’t force you to play thru them all to advance to the end of the game, but you’ll definitely find yourself going back thru for a full completion at some point.

All the different variations of race type run the gamut of fun, ranging from a blast with the traditional styles of Rally and Supercross, to the somewhat grinding Circuit stuff, on down to the less than fun Freestyle races.

On the visual side of things, you’ll notice a slight improvement in character models, environments, textures and the like from the previous series entry. Even the draw distance is pretty remarkable, and it helps to establish the natural environments most of the outdoor tracks take on. Even the interior tracks aren’t as drab as you might expect. There’s nothing in here that’ll be blowing you away, but its all a far cry from being hard on the eyes.

When it comes to sound, special attention has definitely been applied to making the vehicle sounds as realistic as possible. For the game soundtrack you’ll get some generic top 40 rock themes, and run of the mill Hip Hop. Music snobs need not apply.

When it comes to over all gameplay and fun though, this title really shines. Vehicle handling is very responsive, and never manages to feel off. You’ll easily be able to tell the difference between most vehicle types, more so when it comes to different classes. You won’t notice as big of a difference in handling between, say, an ATV and a Snowmobile as you probably should. The AI won’t be winning any awards either, but it manages to keep things at a semi challenge for most of the game, so you won’t feel like you’re just floating by. However, if you keep up with your vehicle upgrades, you’re not going to have much trouble. The AI definitely gets a boost though, you’ll never be able to just jump far ahead on the track, there’s always someone just a few steps behind you.

To top things off, Sony has added some nice functionality between this title and the new ATV Off Road Fury Pro on the PSP. You can do a variety of little things if you own both titles, like unlock vehicles, trade content, etc.

All in all, ATV Offroad Fury 4 is a really fun addition to the long running franchise, and here’s to hoping for an ATV system on the next gen system sometime soon.