Everything about that interview is really, really wrong. I think I'll make an active habit of steering people away from this game. That and was never really fond of the Skate control scheme.
Wow this is the biggest let down since the new xcom trailers. At least there it's just a generic fps with a beloved franchise name duct taped to it. This one is like some sort of twisted pervesion of probly my favoite "sports" game ever.
All they realy have to do is take the mountain from 3 and all the tracks from 1 and tricky. Use the trick system from 2 with the style system from 3 and have the characters have unique starting stats and caps. Maybe make a few new tracks game modes or maybe an extra mountain and some fresh faces. Throw in some decent net code and leader boards call it SSX complete.
Take DD change it to shaun white snowboarding appocalypse extreme awsome extreme and never call it ssx again.
The March 2011 Official X-box Magazine came out a few days ago with an article on SSX DD.
Creative director Todd Batty says everyone who sees SSX Tricky and SSX 3 thinks they are Wii games. He says that there are 10 "gamer types" for video games including "Explorers" who love big open worlds, "Managers" who love bartering and trading goods, and "Monsters" who mess people up. He says World of Warcraft hits nine of these types, and SSX DD currently hits 8, which is 2 more than SSX 3.
Summary of concrete features:
- Right now, the game is split into 3 main modes. Campaign - where you tackle the 9 Deadly Descents, Explore, and Live Events. Xbox magazine seems to think this last option is for online events.
- Plot: 3 returning characters including Zoe Payne get tired of the typical snowboard competition scene and form the SSX corporation to tackle the 9 deadliest mountains around the world. Some old characters join in for the challenge, but one drops out to race to get all 9 mountains done before the others. You step in as the new character "Jack", who is featured in all the screenshots.
- Rewind feature is confirmed, though there will be some sort of penalty for using it
- Batty says the danger element bridges the gap to an action-adventure game.
- In-game equipment like ice axes will be able to be powered up through an RPG-type power-up system and that overusing them will incur an in-game penalty. He says you won't be able to just 'fly through' a level.
- 200-300 tracks through 9 peaks. I would say "tracks" are more like "paths" than tracks in the old way of thinking.
- Expect Split/Second-type set pieces on every mountain, but they are not scripted events.
- You pick the tracks you race through a "Google Earth" type interface, which you can zoom in and out and pick which path you'd like the helicopter to drop you on.
- Now the doozy - Batty says they've simplified the process to do tricks from "nine inputs down to two". According to X-box magazine, they watched as he used the two analog sticks for the trick inputs: the left stick jumps and does spins, and sweeping motions with the right stick do tricks. Looks like some sort of Skate mechanic will make it through to the game. I have a strong hunch that Uber tricks will not make it into the game.
- Batty says he's got a unique way of including the score-multiplier feature from the old games without resorting to large neon-colored snowflakes that ruin the feeling of reality.
- Finally, it seems like it might be a 2012 release. Batty mentions that they have 15-months of development left on the game.
- And finally, X-box magazine says that while fans are wondering "Why So Serious?" with SSX, they wonder if the fans shouldn't give EA the benefit of the doubt. After all, Heath Ledger as the Joker worked out well, didn't it?
Yes it did. But EA is not Christopher Nolan. Nowadays, their studio is more like Uwe Boll.
The bolded quote not only kills any of the tiny remaining interest I had in this game, but also does a wonderful job of succinctly detailing what he thinks about the old games, what he thinks modern games need to be, and summarizing most of what people think is bad about modern game design. Quite a feat, really.
I just saw this thread updated with those bullet points, I get this magazine for some reason (I think it was like 5 bucks on Amazon and I was drunk one night), and I went to read the article.
There's not one mention of him saying any of that stuff in the 2 page article.
In fact he goes on about how this will have "totally ridiculous gameplay..it's arcade-y as ever. You'll still be able to pull off as crazy tricks as you could from SSX3" He confirms how the Skate team has absolutely nothing to do with this game and how they're taking the liberty of "SSX-ing" the real world peaks with crazy shit that doesn't really exist but makes the game even more over-the-top. He calls it "Burnout on Snow" at one point.
I dunno where all these bullet points came from but the magazine I'm reading makes it sound pretty cool.
If that's all fake and just a prank on someone's part then I'll certainly reconsider giving the game a look. I just don't want a Warrior Within situation.
I'll just quote everything the Batty guy says in the article, I honestly don't know where any of the info above is coming from because it aint here in the magazine. Nothing about 9 courses, in-game equipment, modes, plotline, controls, or anything (not saying its not all true or written elsewhere):
- "We wanted to add something to the SSX universe, but we're not throwing out what made the series great in the past; we're expanding on it, trying to find a way to incorporate new gameplay elements and more modern design ideas. We've watched as other games have tried to mimic the original franchises gameplay style, and at the end of the day that alone hasn't cut it; it doesn't have that kind of staying power that it once did"
- Sequel will still have "great characters, great tricks, great environments, awesome speed, great music, tight control, and totally ridiculous gameplay"
-"We've taken the liberty of SSX-ing the real world terrain wherever we felt like it"
- Areas still have plenty of shortcuts and longcuts to find
- Goals such as "outracing avalanches, avoiding fatally freezing shady areas while barreling down an Antarctic mountain, getting through an oxygen-barren "death zone" before you black out.
- When asked how the new SSX will compare to games like SHaun White and Stoked, Batty declares "We're much more approachable than either of those. We're not trying to make a snowboarding sim, we're just trying to make an awesome game- something people can do amazingly fun things with, Burnout on snow"
I still stand by my previous statement, that the ability to play as a perky Japanese girl and dress her up in adorable outfits will be my barometer for whether or not the spirit of SSX is intact.
I'll just quote everything the Batty guy says in the article, I honestly don't know where any of the info above is coming from because it aint here in the magazine. Nothing about 9 courses, in-game equipment, modes, plotline, controls, or anything (not saying its not all true or written elsewhere):
- "We wanted to add something to the SSX universe, but we're not throwing out what made the series great in the past; we're expanding on it, trying to find a way to incorporate new gameplay elements and more modern design ideas. We've watched as other games have tried to mimic the original franchises gameplay style, and at the end of the day that alone hasn't cut it; it doesn't have that kind of staying power that it once did"
- Sequel will still have "great characters, great tricks, great environments, awesome speed, great music, tight control, and totally ridiculous gameplay"
-"We've taken the liberty of SSX-ing the real world terrain wherever we felt like it"
- Areas still have plenty of shortcuts and longcuts to find
- Goals such as "outracing avalanches, avoiding fatally freezing shady areas while barreling down an Antarctic mountain, getting through an oxygen-barren "death zone" before you black out.
- When asked how the new SSX will compare to games like SHaun White and Stoked, Batty declares "We're much more approachable than either of those. We're not trying to make a snowboarding sim, we're just trying to make an awesome game- something people can do amazingly fun things with, Burnout on snow"
If this is true then hey this could be awsome. Congratulations you have restored some good faith in me hopefully there will be more official word comming soon to verify your article and debunk the neogaf post.
Just hoping Kaori, Psymon and Zoe are still playable. Also that the correct some of the minor flaws of three.
Apparently, the quotes are from Playstation 3 Magazine not OXM.
The original quote was ...
Todd Batty, SSX: Deadly Descents, Creative Director said "Some of my team saw me playing SSX Tricky and thought it was a Wii game"
"SSX had this amazing casual candy bar wrapper but inside was this amazing hardcore gameplay experience...we want to deliver what SSX players absolutely love, just change the wrapper so it sits a bit better on PS3".
So, he still might be crazy and I still might not play it. I'll have to get the full article.
"SSX had this amazing casual candy bar wrapper but inside was this amazing hardcore gameplay experience...we want to deliver what SSX players absolutely love, just change the wrapper so it sits a bit better on PS3".
Apparently, the quotes are from Playstation 3 Magazine not OXM.
The original quote was ...
Todd Batty, SSX: Deadly Descents, Creative Director said "Some of my team saw me playing SSX Tricky and thought it was a Wii game"
"SSX had this amazing casual candy bar wrapper but inside was this amazing hardcore gameplay experience...we want to deliver what SSX players absolutely love, just change the wrapper so it sits a bit better on PS3".
So, he still might be crazy and I still might not play it. I'll have to get the full article.
Hey, if a PS2 game looks like a Wii game, I'd say it's aging pretty well.
Perhaps he means they are just going to have super high quality models, and keep the same style and such?
"SSX had this amazing casual candy bar wrapper but inside was this amazing hardcore gameplay experience...we want to deliver what SSX players absolutely love, just change the wrapper so it sits a bit better on PS3".
Maybe it's just me, but that's probably why it was so damn popular. That's a perfect way to market a product.
He's right though, it won't sell on a PS3 or a 360. If you can keep the gameplay the same (which he states they are doing) why does it matter that it doesn't have RUN DMC or a level in Hawaii or floating snowflakes to record score multipliers? I liked SSX3 and On Tour and those were just giant mountains to race down just like this new one sounds like it will be.
That's kind of the appeal of the franchise. There were other snowboard games out there during SSX's heyday, but none of them came even close to what EA was offering.
If we wanted a realistic snowboard game we'd just play Amped or something else. That over-the-top nature is what made the game fun and memorable.
Yeah but he says they're not getting rid of any of that over-the-top nature. It's just not set on a giant halfpipe on a beach in Fiji like Tricky was.
Am I crazy for remembering SSX and On Tour as just giant mountains you went down and did awesome tricks on? Did everyone complain when those came out that they "weren't Tricky"?
Yeah but he says they're not getting rid of any of that over-the-top nature. It's just not set on a giant halfpipe on a beach in Fiji like Tricky was.
Am I crazy for remembering SSX and On Tour as just giant mountains you went down and did awesome tricks on? Did everyone complain when those came out that they "weren't Tricky"?
SSX3 was more subdued than Tricky, but it wasn't a real-world thrill ride where you had to learn to SURVIVE THE ELEMENTS!
This game could very well be great. But I think being slightly perplexed that they've taken up an IP only to discard what makes that IP unique is completely understandable.
I don't get the hate for On Tour. It had some pretty glorious level design. For one SSX 3 it was pretty easy to land out of bounds and get reset on the track slowing you down or breaking your combo. This was pretty much nonexistent in On Tour.
On tour had lazy track design, they nerfed down the cast considerably and just about killed the personalities of others (i'm looking at you Psymon Stark) in the place of the create-a-boarder. A lot of tracks were just retreads of other designs.
Personally I could never get into those build-your-character modes, so it was a real pain to see that the primary focus of On Tour at a sacrifice of the colorful cast.
On tour had lazy track design, they nerfed down the cast considerably and just about killed the personalities of others (i'm looking at you Psymon Stark) in the place of the create-a-boarder. A lot of tracks were just retreads of other designs.
Personally I could never get into those build-your-character modes, so it was a real pain to see that the primary focus of On Tour at a sacrifice of the colorful cast.
I had basicly the same complaint about SSX3. The cast was all there and they had all the voice acting but they all started and ended with exactly the same stats and the fact that you could put any trick on any charactor made it even worse. Seeing Kaori doing Psymons guilloteen uber trick was just wrong. Was also the first game where the snow boards had no stats on them there was no alpine or style boards either. Was still a good game just lacked the personality of SSX and Tricky.
I look forward to seeing more of these dev videos, that video made me feel like it might not be quite as bad as feared, and some of the developers are actually devs from previous SSX games, so thats a good sign.
Only thing I'll really care about, ultimately, is gameplay videos. Of course in these videos they're going to tell us what we want to hear, it's in gameplay we can really get a sense for the personality and feel of the game. Given how much of the appeal (for me) is in the personality of the game, seeing is the only thing that's going to make me less skeptical.
Of course, given that I didn't really like SSX3 much I'm likely to be a bit more skeptical than most people.
Other than Automodalista I can't think of too many examples of dev's listening to fan feed back as a bad thing.
What happened in that one? The wiki says that it bombed due to a lousy handling dynamics.
The original japanese release had good handeling and they complained it was too hard to drift so the US release was like driving on bare rims on ice in a snow storm. Fucking Initial D.
I wonder if any one other than niche gamers sees these promotional videos. They could be a good way of reaching out to us specifically and playing up the dev's role, as well as the parts of the game we'd find interesting.
Posts
I mean, it's not like SSX has a huge fanbase to being with so they can't think they're getting a lot of traction with the name.
Take DD change it to shaun white snowboarding appocalypse extreme awsome extreme and never call it ssx again.
I just saw this thread updated with those bullet points, I get this magazine for some reason (I think it was like 5 bucks on Amazon and I was drunk one night), and I went to read the article.
There's not one mention of him saying any of that stuff in the 2 page article.
In fact he goes on about how this will have "totally ridiculous gameplay..it's arcade-y as ever. You'll still be able to pull off as crazy tricks as you could from SSX3" He confirms how the Skate team has absolutely nothing to do with this game and how they're taking the liberty of "SSX-ing" the real world peaks with crazy shit that doesn't really exist but makes the game even more over-the-top. He calls it "Burnout on Snow" at one point.
I dunno where all these bullet points came from but the magazine I'm reading makes it sound pretty cool.
- "We wanted to add something to the SSX universe, but we're not throwing out what made the series great in the past; we're expanding on it, trying to find a way to incorporate new gameplay elements and more modern design ideas. We've watched as other games have tried to mimic the original franchises gameplay style, and at the end of the day that alone hasn't cut it; it doesn't have that kind of staying power that it once did"
- Sequel will still have "great characters, great tricks, great environments, awesome speed, great music, tight control, and totally ridiculous gameplay"
-"We've taken the liberty of SSX-ing the real world terrain wherever we felt like it"
- Areas still have plenty of shortcuts and longcuts to find
- Goals such as "outracing avalanches, avoiding fatally freezing shady areas while barreling down an Antarctic mountain, getting through an oxygen-barren "death zone" before you black out.
- When asked how the new SSX will compare to games like SHaun White and Stoked, Batty declares "We're much more approachable than either of those. We're not trying to make a snowboarding sim, we're just trying to make an awesome game- something people can do amazingly fun things with, Burnout on snow"
This is all that I see. Vertical avalanche takedowns!?
If this is true then hey this could be awsome. Congratulations you have restored some good faith in me hopefully there will be more official word comming soon to verify your article and debunk the neogaf post.
Just hoping Kaori, Psymon and Zoe are still playable. Also that the correct some of the minor flaws of three.
The original quote was ...
Todd Batty, SSX: Deadly Descents, Creative Director said "Some of my team saw me playing SSX Tricky and thought it was a Wii game"
"SSX had this amazing casual candy bar wrapper but inside was this amazing hardcore gameplay experience...we want to deliver what SSX players absolutely love, just change the wrapper so it sits a bit better on PS3".
So, he still might be crazy and I still might not play it. I'll have to get the full article.
HARDCORE ONLY.
NO CASUALS.
FINAL DESTINATION.
Hey, if a PS2 game looks like a Wii game, I'd say it's aging pretty well.
Perhaps he means they are just going to have super high quality models, and keep the same style and such?
Maybe it's just me, but that's probably why it was so damn popular. That's a perfect way to market a product.
If we wanted a realistic snowboard game we'd just play Amped or something else. That over-the-top nature is what made the game fun and memorable.
Am I crazy for remembering SSX and On Tour as just giant mountains you went down and did awesome tricks on? Did everyone complain when those came out that they "weren't Tricky"?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-zJhPmcHcY&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzkUtrT8GQM
I can't hear you over all the sparkles.
SSX3 was more subdued than Tricky, but it wasn't a real-world thrill ride where you had to learn to SURVIVE THE ELEMENTS!
This game could very well be great. But I think being slightly perplexed that they've taken up an IP only to discard what makes that IP unique is completely understandable.
And On Tour was dire.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Personally I could never get into those build-your-character modes, so it was a real pain to see that the primary focus of On Tour at a sacrifice of the colorful cast.
I had basicly the same complaint about SSX3. The cast was all there and they had all the voice acting but they all started and ended with exactly the same stats and the fact that you could put any trick on any charactor made it even worse. Seeing Kaori doing Psymons guilloteen uber trick was just wrong. Was also the first game where the snow boards had no stats on them there was no alpine or style boards either. Was still a good game just lacked the personality of SSX and Tricky.
Sounds like EA is trying to put some fears at ease cause this video adresses pretty much all the concerns that have been happening.
Cautiously optimistic, specially since some of those course drawings did look like the SSX I know.
Still not at Day 1 or anywhere near it, but I'll wait and see.
I'm worried about the survival aspect though. Adding that to the tricks and the racing could make it a bit---busy---for lack of a better word.
Of course, given that I didn't really like SSX3 much I'm likely to be a bit more skeptical than most people.
I wonder if this is the first time a developer addressing concerns from fan blowback could actually be a good thing
What happened in that one? The wiki says that it bombed due to a lousy handling dynamics.
The original japanese release had good handeling and they complained it was too hard to drift so the US release was like driving on bare rims on ice in a snow storm. Fucking Initial D.
Steam: CavilatRest
My skepticism towards this game just got a lot less massive. It sounds like there's potential here.
Steam: CavilatRest