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New SSX: Deadly Descents news from Official Xbox Magazine (WoW on a snowboard!!!)

charlequin said:
Combined with annual releases that brought nothing new to the table.

They actually did tend to add at least one new element that added a lot to the game. That was also the big problem that they ran into. Because they had to release it every year that meant that those new features sometimes wouldn't be as polished as they should've been. It's a real shame that Neversoft wasn't making the games by the time that Activision actually allowed a developer to take more than a year to make a sequel. But then again that extra year gave us Tony Hawk Ride. :/
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I NEED SCISSORS said:

5SGB4.jpg
 

Snakeyes

Member
arbok26 said:
Not just the Wii but the Wii contributed to a large part of what the game industry is these days. Mainstreamness. In the PS1 and PS2, dreamcast, xbox era, most of the games we got were for gamers.... sure we got a lot of Buzz, Singstar titles towards the end of the PS2 life, but most games were created for gamers.

The Wii changed the whole mentality of the industry. It turned non-gamers into gamers. Look at Activision these days - anything that isn't reaching mainstream or mainstream like numbers is not a success.

anyways - im not 'blaming' the wii or hating on the wii or anything - BUT the fact its increased the market space and set the bar higher for what is or isn't a success, the side effects are games such as these - SSX, Ridge Racer, DMC, Dead Rising - where even japanese executives have started believing that they need to westernize their games without even realising whether their end product is what their hardcore fans want (but again, we have become insignificant).

I'd consider replying seriously to this if even one of the Wii's big hits was a gritty and realistic war shooter.
 
Snakeyes said:
I'd consider replying seriously to this if even one of the Wii's big hits was a gritty and realistic war shooter.


Mario galaxy isn't a gritty realistic shooter?
My world is shattered!
 
just read through this whole thread. as a fan of SSX 3 above the others, i guess i'm one of those 'explorer' types. i could take or leave the over the top yelling stuff (though i loved the neon stuff to be honest). that's why an SSX with a focus on boarding 'unexplored' mountains appeals to me, and personally i see where the SSX brand comes into it.

but that's as someone who felt SSX hit it's stride when you had half hour runs down a single streaming mountain. this looks to offer more of that.

i have to say though i do miss the extreme high score sports games of old, and since we haven't had one of those in ages, to see a new SSX on the way, and then to find out that it isn't an extreme high score kind of game, i can see why that's got to be crushing.

it isn't like the people who were bitching about the Gears Kinect (cause they're getting Gears 3 this year anyways). it isn't even really like people bitching about that new Ridge Racer (cause you can bet that some other traditional Ridge Racer games are on their way, and hell, there are actually new games that offer a lot of what Ridge Racer offered back in the day even if they aren't under that banner).

so yeah, i feel for you guys. your genre is out in the wilderness so this must just look like a big 'fuck you'.
 
plagiarize said:
i have to say though i do miss the extreme high score sports games of old, and since we haven't had one of those in ages, to see a new SSX on the way, and then to find out that it isn't an extreme high score kind of game, i can see why that's got to be crushing.

Yeah. I mean, if we had a game that took the core gameplay of the SSX series and advanced it in a very understanding and nuanced way, but it had an idiotic style, you'd still see more people be understanding. But this game doesn't do that either.
 
charlequin said:
If only there were numerous people in every one of these threads who had explained their positions in detail so as to save this particular strawman any more whacks from your cranky-old-man cane.
OK but AltogetherAndrews isn't the cranky old man in this case. He's the one who's open to something new and different.

I NEED SCISSORS said:
Haha OK that is pretty funny.
 

cuyahoga

Dudebro, My Shit is Fucked Up So I Got to Shoot/Slice You II: It's Straight-Up Dawg Time
This does really lend credence to EA Canada being filled with middle-managers who know nothing except how to fuck things up.
 

Snakeyes

Member
Hey guys, what do you think about making Street Fighter V into a dating sim? You'll still like, have fistfights and all but it'll be in a dating sim framework.

New friend-zoning mechanics that appeal to 4 more gamer types!
 

G-Fex

Member
Snakeyes said:
Hey guys, what do you think about making Street Fighter V a dating sim? You'll still like, have fistfights and all but it'll be in a dating sim framework.

New friend-zoning mechanics that appeal to 4 more gamer types!

Only if I can date cammy
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
I love the 'Reception' category on Wikipedia. Lol.

Reception

Deadly Descents was met with extreme hostility by fans of the SSX series and gamers in general. It drew many comparisons to Bomberman: Act Zero, a game which similarly took a beloved videogame franchise and made it darker and edgier in an attempt to sell it to a more "extreme" demographic. Bomberman: Act Zero sold extremely poorly and currently holds a Metacritic rating of 34/100.
 

codecow

Member
This is nothing new for SSX IMO. Some of you mentioned SSX 3 as a game you liked, that one IMO was influenced by the market at the time. If you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with examples of what I'm talking about.
 
codecow said:
This is nothing new for SSX IMO. Some of you mentioned SSX 3 as a game you liked, that one IMO was influenced by the market at the time. If you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with examples of what I'm talking about.


It wasn't such a huge departure from the series, though.
This one is Skate with more brooding on snow.
 

Chamber

love on your sleeve
Snakeyes said:
Hey guys, what do you think about making Street Fighter V into a dating sim? You'll still like, have fistfights and all but it'll be in a dating sim framework.

New friend-zoning mechanics that appeal to 4 more gamer types!
Wait until you see gameplay before you judge it.
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
codecow said:
This is nothing new for SSX IMO. Some of you mentioned SSX 3 as a game you liked, that one IMO was influenced by the market at the time. If you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with examples of what I'm talking about.
"If you think about it" ?
Back up your point up man.
 
I still can believe that from all the information in the OP, none are getting me excited about this new SSX.

Worst: every single point has made me say: " Wait, what ? "
 

Gravijah

Member
water_wendi said:
i finally remembered what this game reminded me of.. Dark Summit. Dark Summit wasnt so bad.

That's what I'm always reminded of, but I was under the impression Dark Summit sucked.
 

water_wendi

Water is not wet!
Gravijah said:
That's what I'm always reminded of, but I was under the impression Dark Summit sucked.
i didnt play it much. It did have that early Xbox wtf-were-they-thinking charm to it though :lol
 
Funny that you mention that, since hearing about the "survival" aspect they're going for made me namecheck Dark Summit's even more baffling follow-up in one of the previous threads:
250px-Toxic_Grind.jpg
 

hatchx

Banned
There is a lot of hate in this thread.


I love the details they've given about SSX:DD. Randomized mountains, life-threatening sim-based snowboarding....sounds awesome to me.


To be honest I've grown a bit tired of score-ranking and racing. This survival spin sounds like a very refreshing approach to the entire genre.
 
dallow_bg said:
"If you think about it" ?
Back up your point up man.

SSX and Tricky were based on individual courses around the world. SSX3 was a single mountain with 3 peaks (based on different difficulties), but each peak is an open world and you entered events by following signs to the event.
 

soultron

Banned
DaBuddaDa said:
There is absolutely no creativity or inspiration behind this. It's purely cynical, focused grouped, marketing trash. This is a game made by hacks with guns pointed to the backs of their heads demanding they sell 2 million+ copies.

I hope you're not planning on entering the industry with that kind of trash talk. Insulting developers without even seeing their work won't get you far at all. The staff at EA are all talented people. The Google maps-style tech sounds very impressive.

If this game was just called "Deadly Descents" with no SSX connection, it wouldn't even have a thread on GAF for it. Nobody would give a flying fuck. It would sell 50,000 copies and be $15 in a month. Now I guess it's obvious why they needed to rape SSX in order to get attention.
Yes there would be. There probably wouldn't be this amount of backlash because it wouldn't incite certain SSX fans' rage about it not being a colourful/quirky/RUN DMC game. Pretty sure most fans of the genre in general (like myself) are excited at the prospect of having a (hopefully enjoyable) game come out that isn't Shawn White or Tony Hawk.

You really need to calm down. Wipe the foam from your mouth, then try again.
 

AstroLad

Hail to the KING baby
soultron said:
Pretty sure most fans of the genre in general (like myself) are excited at the prospect of having a (hopefully enjoyable) game come out that isn't Shawn White or Tony Hawk.
no, not really. not sure where that hope is coming from either but ok
 
I don't think the two stick trick system is a big deal. That's what Stoked uses and I love those games. Yeah OK maybe it's not the SSX you remember playing 10 years ago but things change, time marches forward.

No ubertricks would be assy though, that I will readily admit.
 
Neuromancer said:
I don't think the two stick trick system is a big deal. That's what Stoked uses and I love those games. Yeah OK maybe it's not the SSX you remember playing 10 years ago but things change, time marches forward.

No ubertricks would be assy though, that I will readily admit.
Why is less inputs "time marches forward."
 

legend166

Member
arbok26 said:
Not just the Wii but the Wii contributed to a large part of what the game industry is these days. Mainstreamness. In the PS1 and PS2, dreamcast, xbox era, most of the games we got were for gamers.... sure we got a lot of Buzz, Singstar titles towards the end of the PS2 life, but most games were created for gamers.

But this game is obviously a response to what is selling on the 360/PS3. The Creative Director even goes out of his way to say the old games looked like 'Wii games' and this new one is more awesome and mature.

arbok26 said:
The Wii changed the whole mentality of the industry. It turned non-gamers into gamers. Look at Activision these days - anything that isn't reaching mainstream or mainstream like numbers is not a success.

That's because Activision are selling 20 million copies of Call of Duty per year on the 360/PS3

arbok26 said:
The article interviewing Todd Batty says there are ten gamer types, and he's reaching out to 8 now, 2 more than before. There's no alleigance to hardcore gamers anymore, yes we might be the first to spread the word and make something like Demon's Souls a success, but we are not the be all and end all of games success.

Which has been true throughout the history of the industry.

arbok26 said:
What I think they really should have done was not use the SSX name at all - i dont think there would be such an uproar. Sure we would have ridiculed the game still but we wouldn't actually be angry and disappointed like we are now.

anyways - im not 'blaming' the wii or hating on the wii or anything - BUT the fact its increased the market space and set the bar higher for what is or isn't a success, the side effects are games such as these - SSX, Ridge Racer, DMC, Dead Rising - where even japanese executives have started believing that they need to westernize their games without even realising whether their end product is what their hardcore fans want (but again, we have become insignificant).

But, the bar for success on the Wii is much lower because of the lower development costs. The arms race on the 360/PS3 pushing the need for amazing graphics, tonnes of features, etc is what has caused development budgets to rise and the bar for success to increase. Japanese executives westernising their console games has nothing to do with the Wii. If anything it's in response to the shrinking console market in Japan due to the increased presence of handhelds.

Nothing you're saying is making sense.

Note: I am not 'blaming' the 360/PS3 for anything, because that's stupid.
 
soultron said:
SENSLESS RAGE

I hope you're not planning on entering the industry with that kind of trash talk. Insulting developers without even seeing their work won't get you far at all. The staff at EA are all talented people. The Google maps-style tech sounds very impressive.

MORE SENSELESS RAGE

Yes there would be. There probably wouldn't be this amount of backlash because it wouldn't incite certain SSX fans' rage about it not being a colourful/quirky/RUN DMC game. Pretty sure most fans of the genre in general (like myself) are excited at the prospect of having a (hopefully enjoyable) game come out that isn't Shawn White or Tony Hawk.

You really need to calm down. Wipe the foam from your mouth, then try again.

Very well said. The amount of hate in this thead is ridiculous and, sadly, typical.
 
soultron said:
Yes there would be. There probably wouldn't be this amount of backlash because it wouldn't incite certain SSX fans' rage about it not being a colourful/quirky/RUN DMC game. Pretty sure most fans of the genre in general (like myself) are excited at the prospect of having a (hopefully enjoyable) game come out that isn't Shawn White or Tony Hawk.
Oh, you mean all 60,000 of those fans that ran out in droves to buy Shaun White Skateboarding, or are gushing about how awesome Stoked is in the one-page official thread we have? Don't kid a kidder; this game would be completely and utterly ignored if they didn't bolt the SSX name onto it, which makes the whole thing even more offensive.

PS: arbok26, you'd be better of just saying you blame Wii Fit and leaving it at that.
 

soultron

Banned
I AM JOHN! said:
Oh, you mean all 60,000 of those fans that ran out in droves to buy Shaun White Skateboarding, or are gushing about how awesome Stoked is in the one-page official thread we have? Don't kid a kidder; this game would be completely and utterly ignored if they didn't bolt the SSX name onto it, which makes the whole thing even more offensive.

PS: arbok26, you'd be better of just saying you blame Wii Fit and leaving it at that.
I was speaking more about Shawn White Snowboarding and Tony Hawk Shred. They're not great entries in the genre. Not to mention Shred comes in as an offshoot of the Tony Hawk Ride peripheral fiasco. Maybe that had something to do with their sales?

Stoked is the best entry into the genre we've seen in some time. The best entry since Amped 3, IMO. But you're kidding yourself if you think EA's marketing push (EA is much larger a publisher than Destineer is) would result in the same sales numbers Stoked got. The fact that this has been greenlit means there will be a massive budget (marketing included.) going into this game, and that it will be good.

I'm not too worried about this game. It might not be the game most of asked for. But it will be good or it won't come out at all, I'm guessing. Remember NBA Elite 11?
 

cilonen

Member
Look, hush up now and get back to being good little easily definable gamer types.

Simmer down and enjoy the gritty yet x-treem-to-tha-max niche sport-related action adventure title our focus groups have deemed highly relevant for you.

Jeez, anyone would have thought we just shit this stuff out of our asses or something.

Sincerely, EA.
 
EmCeeGramr said:
Why is less inputs "time marches forward."
I was saying that more in the sense that games that came out 10 years ago aren't necessarily suited to the market today, but since you asked, I think it could be easily argued that an analog stick gives you more control options than four face buttons. Which would be time marching forward, probably.
 

hey_it's_that_dog

benevolent sexism
Neuromancer said:
I don't think the two stick trick system is a big deal. That's what Stoked uses and I love those games. Yeah OK maybe it's not the SSX you remember playing 10 years ago but things change, time marches forward.

No ubertricks would be assy though, that I will readily admit.

It's a big deal because the combinatorial trick system was part of what defined SSX. It's not "better design" to simplify something that doesn't need simplifying. Engaging controls are an important part of skill-based games, which is what the SSX series was. You learn tricks, you learn the mountains, you learn the routes that yield the biggest scores. This isn't simple, yet people can do it because gaining mastery is both fun and motivating. Simplification is great when a previous solution was convoluted or otherwise an impediment to its own aims, but sometimes simplification removes a big chunk of what made a game engaging to begin with.

It's too facile to chalk it up to time marching on.

Neuromancer said:
I was saying that more in the sense that games that came out 10 years ago aren't necessarily suited to the market today, but since you asked, I think it could be easily argued that an analog stick gives you more control options than four face buttons. Which would be time marching forward, probably.

A fun game with solid mechanics should always be suited for the video game market. You can wrap it in the aesthetics of the time, if you must, but the underlying things make games appealing really shouldn't change much over time.

Also, although an analog stick may provide many different input options, it will also provide less precision than buttons. You also can't do more than one analog stick motion at once, so there's that.
 
hey_it's_that_dog said:
It's a big deal because the combinatorial trick system was part of what defined SSX. It's not "better design" to simplify something that doesn't need simplifying. Engaging controls are an important part of skill-based games, which is what the SSX series was. You learn tricks, you learn the mountains, you learn the routes that yield the biggest scores. This isn't simple, yet people can do it because gaining mastery is both fun and motivating. Simplification is great when a previous solution was convoluted or otherwise an impediment to its own aims, but sometimes simplification removes a big chunk of what made a game engaging to begin with.

It's too facile to chalk it up to time marching on.
I don't know that it's simplifying controls at all. It's just different.
 
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