Hello, PlayStation.Blog readers. I’m able to deliver some exciting news: MotorStorm Apocalypse will be bringing off-road racing mayhem of apocalyptic proportions to your PS3 on April 12th, 2011. And to introduce the game’s cool cover art, here is Matt Southern, the Game Director at Evolution Studios.

Our cover art has been sent to shops and websites ready for pre-order. Once again we’ve got different boxes depending on where you live! I thought I’d share them here.

Here’s the Packfront for North America. It is much more of a ‘classic’ box and is based on an image we created in early 2010 that I absolutely love.

…and here’s the European box. Our priority here is to show what is new in the game, and it slightly harks back to the box for MotorStorm 1. It is quite unusual for a racing game and we spent a long time working out what we thought would be right. Which means I can’t decide which of the two l like best…

I’d love to know which you all like the best – and what cover art over the years have really stood out for you. My all-time favourite is probably the EU/Japanese version of ICO, painted by Ueda-San and inspired by The Nostalgia of the Infinite by Giorgio de Chirico. I also get a nostalgia buzz from looking at the games I played in the 80’s with airbrush art by Bob Wakelin. Good times.

You’ve read about some of the cool new features the game has to offer, and watched the first in-depth developer diary video. And the game just had a great showing at the Sony booth at CES last week, wowing people with its mind-blowing 3D and intense racing across, and through, gigantic skyscrapers.

So don’t forget to pre-order the game before it hits on April 12 to get one of the cool pre-order packs available. There’s much more in store for MotorStorm Apocalypse in the coming months to look forward to. Until next time!