[MtnGoat]

If you've got one of the newer game consoles and like snow sports and a good virtual speed rush, don't miss out on SSX Tricky, a showstopping snowboard sim. Incredible rendering, great sound, really great courses. The sound of edges scraping on ice, or the staccato hollow crunch of a high speed turn in choppy snow, a fine spray of snow mist behind each rider, the shape of the track cut in the snow by the boards is dependent on speed, turn radius, etc, it's amazing. The races are a thing of beauty with perspective views balanced nicely to give a very good sensation of speed, especially in banked turns. After a record setting time run down Garabaldi, your heart should be going pretty good. It has fun tricks, really half the basis of the game, though I usually hate the distraction associated with trick moves instead of speed. You don't get points unless you land them successfully and that can be a real trick in itself. If you do a big air move in front of the crowded stands, be prepared for an expectant cheer from the crowd followed by an explosion of approval if you really stick a good landing after a frontside 720 with a grab at top speed. If you fall, no such luck and you'll probably be run over by the other competitors. You can also do two player mode of course and that's really the most fun off all, but the computer opponents are also quite fun and rendered with personalities and incredible attention to detail. If ya have the bandwidth and an interest, check out the "SSX Tricky Intro Movie" here. It's heavy on trick moves, but shows off the basics. Being compressed, the video quality isn't as good as the games video but it's good enough to get the point across. Believe me, what you see when you run the game is absolutely crisp and fast. If you look closely during this intro movie, you can see what appears to be a rendering of Rainier in the distance in one shot and another of what looks like Shuksan. http://gamespot.com/gamespo....00.html We just rented it for the weekend and I was immediately hooked, before I even finished my first run. What a great game, probably the best I've seen yet from a technical perspective of looks and detail, and the funmeter is pegged in terms of playability. The sound track is pretty darned great also, typically I'm not a big Beasty boys fan but for a boarding game, call me crazy but it works! There are many different tunes and you can pick 'em, so if the BB ain't your thang don't sweat it. There's even an untracked course with no starting gate except the back of the drop off chopper, no gates, fences, or crowds, pretty well done mountains and lots of bowls, chutes, and trees to rip through. The sun sparkling on the snow as your rider is waist deep in powder isn't nearly as good as the real thing of course, but makes a great way to pass some time at home base. This game *ROCKS*. Anybody wanna race?

[Sore Feet]

Consoles...FEH I say! You and me and Counterstrike...any time...any day...

[Ernest W.]

That game is too much fun. I've got my "uber tricks" down pat and can wrastle opposing riders with the best of em'. Ya don't want none of me buddy.

[MtnGoat]

It's a blast, isn't it? Just can't resist doing just one more run, over and over and over. Garabaldi is my fav, not very tough but more pure mountain than a couple of the others, I especially depise the Tokyo Megaplex. Alaska is entertaining though.

[C Dog]

Girabaldi's great because if you can knock down your opponent right out of the gate, you immediately get full adrenaline/boost and you can do an uber trick off that very first jump.

[MtnGoat]

Finally made Master mode with Luther, so I can chrome him out, way cool. Getting a Gold in Alaska showoff is pretty tough, you've pretty much got to ride most of the rails and hit every uber, and then still make the checkpoints. I especially like knocking down Marisol, she annoys the crap out of me.

[Randy]

Ya went out and bought it didn't ya? I hit master level with Mac. I'm a huge fan of the Alaska course. It was pretty tough to "Gold" in the showoff mode, I pretty much had to knock off that last 5X in the wind tunnel with a double Uber trick, something like 300,000 points off that one jump! Great entertainment, especially in the vs. mode. Love just beating my girlfreind to a pulp, especially after she's taken me to town in a game of Scrabble. She's always playing the tall blonde, always a good time knocking her down and throwing in a solid uber trick right after for good measure!

[MtnGoat]

Ya, got it a couple weeks ago. I had too. I was having Tricky withdrawal syndrome, IE humming the theme song every time something goes right or I see something amazing. Only kidding. Mostly. I think we may need to get together and play, I need some real competition, ie, if I don't (with subtlety) let my daughter win, the tears show up! It's tough to make it look real failure when you've got a zillion hours under your thumbs. I'd sure like to race someone who won't wail if I knock 'em down! There are a couple other trickyheads on the board here, maybe a tricky social. Alaska is a good race course, nice and long, even with that darned hard left where I go in the river seemingly every other time on! Even better, since my brother in law works for Nintendo, I also got two prototype controllers with a slightly different form factor, one for adult sized hands. The grips are longer with the buttons a little more widely spaced, it's nice not having your fingers all clumped up over buttons spaced with a 8 year old hand in mind. I'm not sure if these will ever see the light of day on the retail market, but I sure like 'em. Not as good as a set of autographed LOW for $22 bucks, but nice nonetheless!

[polarbear]

I think Tom has passed up the ultimate deal. You can get the official Olympics snowboarding cd-rom game by sending in 5 gold discs cut from specially marked Kellog's cereal boxes.

[C Dog]

I have recently uber-pissed off my SSX Tricky playin' buddies, was the first one of us to break a million points. Good 'ol Pipe Dream...

[MtnGoat]

cripes, in pipe dream that's practically cheating.... Once you've got half piping nailed, score is no object as long as you've got time! I routinely use the big pipes (2 in alaska, both after jumps, one halfway down Mercury city, one in Elysuim) to rack up points, once you've got superboost you can go back to the upper end of any of these and run em as long as time allows. My wife gets pissed when she sees me running these pipes when we're racing, because she knows I'm working up a superboost and that she'd better get as far ahead as possible or else I'll catch her for sure!