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[Neuromancer]

Sounds amazing:

The demo begins with a lengthy, nerdy preamble about mapping all the world's mountain ranges from NASA data that makes SSX sound worryingly like an over-reaching sim. However, it's not long before we're pelting down a twisting tunnel of ice that is supposedly in the heart of Kilimanjaro's frozen volcano (but looks more like something from Mario Kart crossed with WipEout) while our demonstrator tells us the team's aim is to deliver "Burnout on snow". Phew!

It's a best-of-both-worlds situation. In a "Google Earth-inspired" interface, you can spin a 3D globe and select famous mountains from every one of Earth's major ranges. These will be modelled on the real thing thanks to that satellite data, and completely open for exploration - you can ride anywhere on them from preset drop points in a free ride mode covering vast, open-world areas.

We start with the race inside Kilimanjaro, beginning in the Kibo crater and plunging into its fancifully imagined intestines. In many races, riders start from different points on the mountain before converging on the track; here, Mac, Elise and others start scattered around the crater rim before meeting at the tunnel mouth.

It's fast and vertiginous, but the tracks have been designed with a view to presenting racers with a good deal of freedom across multiple paths. EA Canada expects finding the best shortcuts and fastest or safest lines to add replayability and a sense of adventure to this race mode.

The goal for the trick mode is to capture the style, flow and sense of self-expression of old SSX or the early Tony Hawk games, we're told. You can use either an old-school button configuration or the more modern twin-stick approach; I use the latter when I get to try the mode out and it is very fluid, responsive and slick.

Even the deadly descent "boss fights" are only so scripted. These nine challenges are summit descents on the "gnarliest terrain that we could find". Each acts as the final challenge of a geographical region and gateway to the next, and each has a particular hazard as its theme: snow, rock, ice, thin air, gravity, fog, wind, whiteout and darkness.

We're at the highest peak in North America, Denali (otherwise known as Mount McKinley) in Alaska, and our enemy is snow. What that means in practice is procedurally generated avalanches created by your own snowboard: everywhere in the game, the terrain is subject to a stability analysis, and the forces you exert on the snow while riding - a heavy landing, a hard carve at high speed - have the potential to loosen snow, creating spray, slough, slides and even different categories of avalanche.

Oh yeah and that's my boy Mac in the picture up top.

 

[Fantastical]

No new information as far as I can tell.

 

[badcrumble]

Sounds slightly Motorstormish too.

 

[Neuromancer]

No new information as far as I can tell.

Really? Even the stuff about the avalanches? And Mac? I guess I missed a bunch of stuff around E3 then.

 

[Vampire On Titus]

It's cool that I can go back to the SSX 3 way of doing Ubers. Didn't much care for the right stick method from On Tour.

 

[Cerberus]

Really? Even the stuff about the avalanches? And Mac? I guess I missed a bunch of stuff around E3 then.

Did you see the GameSpot stage demo? It shows some of the stuff featured in that Eurogamer preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTiJYeQhk0

 

[demosthenes]

So it seems EA is really turning an about face w/ the game and making it sound awesome.

I have still yet to see any man-made courses though. Have these been talked about? Or is it 100% nature?

 

[thezerofire]

so excited. I've been missing my SSX fix

 

[Neuromancer]

Did you see the GameSpot stage demo? It shows some of the stuff featured in that Eurogamer preview.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYTiJYeQhk0

Very cool, thanks!

 

[Master Milk]

Can you turn the avalanche stuff off? That sounds really annoying after awhile.

 

[Neuromancer]

Can you turn the avalanche stuff off? That sounds really annoying after awhile.

Well that's only in Deadly Descent mode from the sounds of it. Sorry bad editing on my part.

 

[SomeOneInaHat]

So it seems EA is really turning an about face w/ the game and making it sound awesome.

I have still yet to see any man-made courses though. Have these been talked about? Or is it 100% nature?

In an interview, G4 I think, they were discussing how the levels were designed. It turns out that they use the mountain scans as a loose basis of the mountain and design on top of what is given.

For example, the caverns in the Mt.Kilamanjaro (Spelling?) are a very notorious local for the mountain but impossible to scan. So they ended up completely designing the cavern by hand.

 

[Corky]

Is this a new version of that dudebro SSX that was scrapped(?)?

 

[Fantastical]

Is this a new version of that dudebro SSX that was scrapped(?)?

It wasn't scrapped, just seems to be reworked a bit. The game was originally called "SSX Deadly Descents", but now it's called "SSX" with only one mode being called "Deadly Descents".

 

[demosthenes]

Is this a new version of that dudebro SSX that was scrapped(?)?

No, that dudebro is simply one game mode of the entire new game.

edit: beaten.

 

[Fantastical]

I want an SSX collection in addition to this game. I would buy both.

 

[Corky]

Alright thanks, I haven't played a snowboarding game since 1080, will buy this if gaf approves.

 

[Neuromancer]

I want an SSX collection in addition to this game. I would buy both.

Me too although all I'd really want would be an HD version of Tricky.

 

[Frankenstrat]

can't wait for this. been needing more ssx in my life.

Alright thanks, I haven't played a snowboarding game since 1080, will buy this if gaf approves.

play these two asap. DO IT

 

[demosthenes]

Me too although all I'd really want would be an HD version of Tricky.

Same.

 

[Fixed1979]

I cursed and yelled when this was first announced. I'm happily looking forward to seeing how this turns out now. No snowflakes still makes me sad...