S S X Deadly Descents: Jan 2012!

[HappyTree]

Now this is what I call exciting!

My favourite genre of game - Snowboarding!
My favourite snowboarding games - SSX!

I always said what the 360 needed was an SSX game. I loved SSX 3 and On Tour, in fact they are the main reason I kept my original Xbox and didn't throw it away. And now we finally have an SSX for this generation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvizmCS8kAY

Looks AWESOME! And I never use that word. Usually I wait for a while before buying games so I can get them second hand and cheap. Not for this, I will be queuing in the snow for a week come January!



Brill!

[Little Hoover]

I've great memories of SSX3 such a fun game, it also more than other games in the series just created it's own great world, you actually really felt like you were part of a snowboarding community, pretty inconsequential to the main bulk of the gameplay really but it really added to the feel of the game. The fact that it took place on one big mountain added to it as well, the geography of it all was cartoonish and over the top but still had enough of a logic to it to feel like it could be a real place, and the soundtrack really complimented it as well. Though other games in the series we're great they didn't quite nail this feel to it and just generally weren't as well designed, so I hope this can recapture what SSX3 did so well.

[HappyTree]

Agreed, 3 was the most fun and had the best, most crazy super über tricks! On Tour was great because you could go down the entire mountain in one continuous run. So if this new offering can combine the best tricks with the continuity, in HD graphics, then that's all I ask from it.

Amped was good but I could never really get the hang of the style system, Shaun White lacked fluidity somehow. I really liked Trans World's exploration. But nothing beat the sense of occasion at the beginning of an SSX3 run with the announcer, etc.

[hoverdonkey]

Wahoo! Likewise, I've been waiting for a current gen version of SSX. This is most exciting. I love the series, especially SSX3

[papalaz4444244]

Loved SSX3 and also Tricky.

I've a feeling I'll be buying this ASAP.

[Obel]

I didn't like Tricky, but I echo the SSX3 love. It's easily the best snowboarding game, really fitting music (especially when you fly up high and the music changes, simple but so effective), great sound in general.

[mobias]

Massively looking forward to this. I've been following the news of the SSX reboot since the somewhat stormy announcement of it back in January. The original SSX was the game that made me buy a PS2 back in 2002. I've loved them all since, including the much derided SSX On Tour. I was always really shocked that EA had decided to kill off the franchise seeing as it was such a huge hit last gen.
I've got high hopes for this new version of it.

[HappyTree]

I just hope they don't try to make it too realistic and realise that what made SSX cool was that it was...well, cool. That booming voice "Soooper oooober!" was thrilling.

Why was On Tour derided? I didn't like it as much as SSX3 but it was still better than Amped.

[mobias]

Why was On Tour derided? I didn't like it as much as SSX3 but it was still better than Amped.

At the time it was made EA Games were going through a lot of problems, a lot of staff left the company and EA slashed the budgets of a lot of their games. SSX3 had cost a lot to produce and although it was pretty successful EA didn't see big enough returns on it. So there were big production cut backs with On Tour (hence there are no voices for the characters) The inclusion of Skiing meant they had to do away with the Super Uber trick system plus people didn't like the whole presentation of the game in that faux Napolian Dynamite nerdcore look.

So the game flopped and EA were in no hurry to bring it back for this generation. Apparently there have been a couple of attempts to get the game rebooted within EA since this generation kicked off but each time work was done on it for it then to be canned. So its a bit of a miracle we now have it back and it does seem very faithful to the series at its best (SSX3)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSn2gVgNS6s

[mobias]

Holly shit. The online mode can support 100,000 players at once in a global snowboarding arena.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbUVrgvvgy4&feature=player_embedded

[falafel]

I'm in love.

[HappyTree]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-H6EVZhscM

I'm not normally interested in online play, mainly because of not wanting to be forced to play at any particular time. I'm still not clear exactly how I can participate in a Global Event without having to do this, but apparently this system will "revolutionise" online play. Well they all say that. But playing against ghosts looks cool, I always like a bit of ghost action in snowboarding games.

[mobias]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-H6EVZhscM

I'm not normally interested in online play, mainly because of not wanting to be forced to play at any particular time. I'm still not clear exactly how I can participate in a Global Event without having to do this

From my understanding of it it'll be a bit like Red Dead Redemption (and other games for that matter) where by when going online you first enter a free roam mode and that's your leaping off point for other online gaming modes. I guess EA will have dedicated online servers for it so the match making isn't dependant on who's online and what the speed of their connectivity is. They'll have to anyway if its going to support 100,000 players at once.  Anyway It all sounds like jazzy talk for what is essentially common practice in an increasing amount of games where organising online play and focussing it has become a bit of an art form in itself, so many games get it wrong and it makes you not want to bother.

SSX free roam does sound great fun on its own though. Just hanging out with mates carving up the snow in the beautiful landscape. 

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Supreme Snowboarding and Amped 2 are the best snowboarding games I've played.

SSX never appealled to me as it was too arcadey and never very interesting to look at.

[mobias]

Supreme Snowboarding and Amped 2 are the best snowboarding games I've played.

SSX never appealled to me as it was too arcadey and never very interesting to look at.

It is definitely very arcadey. For me though its way better to look at than Amped 2 or Supreme Snowboarding. SSX3 in particular was one of the most beautiful games, both in terms of its design and its graphics, of last generation and the 'other world' heightened reality look always really appealed to me. That level of arcade gameplay is what i love in games. The closer games become to simulations, whether they're car racing games, snowboarding games or whatever else, then the duller they become as far as I'm concerned. I love the sense that you can do things you can't do in real life and visit places which don't exist but which are an exaggerated form of reality. Its just much more fun and exciting.

So for me its definitely Motorstorm over Gran Turismo and SSX over Amped 2 and GTA over walking out the front door and creating mayhem.   

[HappyTree]

I liked Amped 2 as well but I too am more of the arcadey type. I mean, take the half pipe event in SSX3 "Perpendiculous".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mRfWruv7WU

SICK! You just float higher and higher, do insane moves, grab glowing bonuses and then you can try to land on the higher ledge to go up into the clouds! I can remember this half pipe event contorting my hands into a twisted mess :-D

[mobias]

Yeah that half pipe was pretty insane. Some of the youtube clips of people doing record breaking runs in SSX3 are completely crazy. Here's someone getting over 9 million points on the 3rd peak freestyle course. He finishes on 90 X multiplier.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjdoF5Xgb4U&feature=player_embedded

And here's someone doing the all peak race flawlessly in 17 mins 16 sec.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU3bzk1S_5I&feature=player_embedded

I played the game for years and decided it was impossible to do it faster than 20mins or there abouts. I don't think I ever did it without crashing at least once or twice.

I really can't wait for SSX 2012. The online stuff will be amazing. Plenty of opportunities to show my utter ineptitude in the face of people who manage to do these things perfectly and  with little or even no effort.

[mobias]

Someone's put up some camera phone footage of the game being played. The quality is rubbish but it shows the massive sale and depth of the this new version of the game. I'm super hyped for this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRJ6lKmAPhQ

[mobias]

New trailer out today looks immense http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5scm_58USc

[mobias]

I'm keeping the SSX flag flying even if most of you aren't interested. The new Tricky trailer is amazing! http://www.gametrailers.com/video/exclusive-it-s-ssx/724009?

[HappyTree]

I am so on that shit, he said in an irritatingly American idiom. Keep that flag flying, bubba.

[hoverdonkey]

Yum. Can't wait. Ahh February. Where the nights draw out and SSX returns

[mobias]

First gameplay trailer is out. Looks like they've pretty much nailed it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAl-VNeyQNw&feature=youtu.be&hd=1

The wingsuit looks fooking ace fun!!!

[falafel]

Gonna need to buy some new pants.

[HappyTree]

Never in the history of game previews has anything actually made me sit on the sofa grinning and chuckling "No wayyyy!" out loud to myself.

Until now! This looks basically exactly like what I'd hoped for: SSX3 in HD. And with wings!

[mobias]

Never in the history of game previews has anything actually made me sit on the sofa grinning and chuckling "No wayyyy!" out loud to myself.

Until now! This looks basically exactly like what I'd hoped for: SSX3 in HD. And with wings!

Totally agree. It's just so amazing just to see a proper SSX game really for the first time since 2003.

Also, it's just amazing and refreshing to see a game for this gen that doesn't involve a) shooting people or b) zombies. Lol

[hoverdonkey]

Well this looks very exciting. It'll probably be the first game of this generation that my wife AND four-year-old can and will want to play too. It looks perfect. Crazy stunts with vertigo-inducing drops, some cool music and some decent characters.

[Hobes]

...and they've added a new zombie character!

Spoiler alert

(may not actually be true)

[close]

[mobias]

I love the fact that when you trigger an avalanche the camera flips so its in front of you and you have to out run it with a backward view. It looks totally epic http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coWVxwjHR9k

They're really filling it with a lot of cool little ideas.

[mobias]

Things are really ramping up for this games release. I can safely say this is the game I've been waiting an entire generation of consoles for and what's fantastic is that it looks more amazing than i ever dreamt it could be. Huge new preview here, major spoiler alert though. http://vimeo.com/34857290