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Please note, this is a hands on experience review and not our final review of this product. Code of games played at the X01 event may not be final.
Before attending the X01 event I was eagerly awaiting getting my hands on Amped Freestyle Snowboarding and Dark Summit, both had received good coverage and released equally good screen shots. I can now report that although Dark Summit is good it does not compare to Amped in terms of visuals and gameplay.
If I only had $50.00 on launch day and had to choose Amped gets my vote. As I descended down the mountain face, I was actually shocked at just how much detail there was, the powder snow effects from my board were simply the most realistic I had ever seen. The snow the mountain the snow covered trees all authentically recreated. (it was quite amazing how close to snow the snow actually looked)
Microsoft have pulled out all the stops of traditional snowboarding titles, In Amped the course’s are authentically recreated real life mountains, mountains such as those found at the ever popular resorts of Utah's Brighton, Vermont's Stratton and California Snow Summit, Amped allows players to go anywhere that they can see, these are truly huge & vast areas and completely open to explore whilst exploring players can bust some insanely big tricks and completely mad runs down the face of these stunningly recreated mountains.
The Microsoft Development team have reached no boundaries in there quest and have gone to great lengths to ensure the capture the realism and every nook, rock, bump and cliff, from bump-mapped snow drifts to the wilderness of tree clusters rising from the snow, Log cabins, ski lifts right down to the spectators every detail has been accounted for and recreated for Amped.
According to the developers there are over 150,000 polygons per area which is just simply amazing and really shows on screen whilst you attempt that double back flip into a forward roll before crashing and bouncing 150 meters odd down the mountain, starting off in Amped was also different to any other, simply hit the select button and you are whisked off up a random lift to one of 120 course starting points, after reaching the summit get ready to plumit baby, and quite how you plumit is completely up to you.
This is not about speed or racing this is about technique, style, and show-boating, each course will have its own staff pro, each pro is not their to be shown up by you the rookie, the pro will try to show who’s the pro challenging you to follow him on expert runs. If you beat him, maybe he'll show you a new route or he'll teach you a new, and if you loose, well if you loose your will shoot your reputation into a puff of snow off the wake of his board.
On top of all this Amped will feature a whopping 150 tracks from all sorts of indie artists. All in All Amped is a mater piece and one which I personally can’t wait to get my grubby little hands on for yet more free roaming madness!! Please bewaire this was a 20 – 30 minute hands on experience so the 8.5 out of 10 may well improve come a full review. In this games case I would not bet against it. Features:
• Open freestyle riding — Forget miles of barren wasteland and tight tunnel racers. Trick off of a huge variety of jumps and rails on wide-open mountains.
• Jib, bonk or spin between runs to hidden areas and cool jump sequences.
Mountains are alive with crashing boarders, flying pros and roaming photographers.
• Spectacular real mountains — Ride the runs on real mountain resorts: Utah’s Brighton, Vermont’s Stratton and California’s Snow Summit.
• Premier snowboarding resorts are recreated with perfect snow conditions and jaw-dropping built-for-Xbox graphics.
• Unlock international fantasy venues designed by world-renown terrain architect Chris Gunnerson.
• Be a snowboarding media star – Get enough global exposure to become one of the world’s snowboarding media superstars.
• Pull insane tricks in front of roaming photographers and camera crews to get your face on video and magazine covers.
• Take on challenges like “follow the pro” or jib the snow off trees to gain exposure and unlock mountains.
• Amp it up with the most music of any game, ever! — No more endless repetition of the same 10 songs, get 15 CDs worth of hot new indie music from pounding hip hop to rhythmic reggae.
• Includes more than 150 new songs from core indie labels
• Rip your own songs onto Xbox, make your own play lists, and import them into the game
• More in-game choice for maximum replayability — Make your gameplay choices on the mountain, not in a menu of disconnected events. Start at the top of a peak and decide how to win.
• Jump between 120 different runs packed with rails, kickers and half-pipes, each with six unique challenges, hidden areas and a rotating stream of spectators, for a different ride every time.
• Jump between 120 different runs packed with rails, kickers and half-pipes, each with six unique challenges, hidden areas and a rotating stream of spectators, for a different ride every time.
• Experience true freestyle multiplayer — when not showing-off, players can taunt or throw snowballs at friends in freestyle multiplayer competitions.
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