Just not sure yet, which is very disappointing. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not even saying I won't buy it and love it. But what I am feeling is that it is not SSX 3, and I'm going to have to get over that.

There is no SSX in SSX. That is, no snowboard cross. No actual racing. You know, racers slotted in to starting gates, 3, 2, 1, GO! Jostling for position, pushing people down. Groomed courses with banked turns. Crowds. Fireworks.

No trick courses? Not sure, it looked like the trick event was just down the same mountain you race down. No half pipes, no big air events. No rival events. No free roaming. No running all the way down from the top of the 3rd peak to the bottom of the 1st.

So what we do have is time trials on a whole bunch of mountains. No way to know yet what the variety is like. And the deadly descents, which look cool, but I don't know how they play.

No DJ Atomica in the demo. But why would he be there? You aren't hanging out a some awesome ski resort, you are flying around the world jumping out of helicopters. The only person around is your (based on the demo) annoying helicopter pilot.

It plays like SSX, it just doesn't feel like it. Yet. I'm going to have to follow this closely, and play the demo some more.

Just not sure yet, which is very disappointing. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not even saying I won't buy it and love it. But what I am feeling is that it is not SSX 3, and I'm going to have to get over that.

There is no SSX in SSX. That is, no snowboard cross. No actual racing. You know, racers slotted in to starting gates, 3, 2, 1, GO! Jostling for position, pushing people down. Groomed courses with banked turns. Crowds. Fireworks.

No trick courses? Not sure, it looked like the trick event was just down the same mountain you race down. No half pipes, no big air events. No rival events. No free roaming. No running all the way down from the top of the 3rd peak to the bottom of the 1st.

So what we do have is time trials on a whole bunch of mountains. No way to know yet what the variety is like. And the deadly descents, which look cool, but I don't know how they play.

No DJ Atomica in the demo. But why would he be there? You aren't hanging out a some awesome ski resort, you are flying around the world jumping out of helicopters. The only person around is your (based on the demo) annoying helicopter pilot.

It plays like SSX, it just doesn't feel like it. Yet. I'm going to have to follow this closely, and play the demo some more.

Well they already made an SSX 3, and if that's exactly what you want, just play it again. What we have here is a bit of a new turn, but I think there's a lot of cool stuff that wasn't there before! The online multiplayer aspect is VERY competitive and it encourages players to try their best to get a higher trick score, a faster race time. There are already a number of SSX games that provide exactly what you're looking for, I don't blame them at all for branching out and trying something a little different. I like the helicopters, and the feeling of just being dropped off in the wild to shred. To each his own, and I don't mean to give the impression that I wouldn't ADORE a 2012 version of SSX 3, but it would be creatively stifling and not progressive of the studio at all to do so. There's plenty of fan-service already in place, so let's just take this new thing and run with it! Maybe we'll end up liking it even more than we like the other games. Just my thoughts.

I definitely hear what you are saying, and I'm hopeful I'm going to come around. I just need to see more. And play the demo some more tonight.

I think the clincher will be the track variety (the demo tracks didn't grab me right off but I'll play them more), and if the whole online leaderboard thing hooks me. I don't think I'll have any friends playing it so I'm curious to see how that will work. Will I see ghost of someone near my time? Will the game suggest people to friend who appear to be my overall skill level?

The maps are all the same. I'm not asking for SSX tricky HD but why do they all have to be mountain maps? What about some originality?

GOOD GOD!!! I suck at this game. I'm all over the goddamn mountains.

@theoldhouse: I'm reserving judgement but that's my worry. That's it's all just the top of peak stuff from ssx 3.

I love it as a tricking game.

I absolutely hate it as a racing game.

After switching to the classic controls I started to get better, never been a big fan of the Skate control system.

As someone who mainly played Tricky, what I find to be a much larger adjustment is how generally unforgiving this game is in Showoff mode.

Perhaps it's because I don't really do board presses, but I find that the combo countdown is extremely short and very unforgiving. I get runs that fluctuate wildly in quality (spanning anywhere between 6mil and 20mil, avg 16-18mil), depending on how I mistime the combo breaks. Likewise, the short SuperTricky timeout is rather annoying, but I'm getting used to it.

What I do like, however, is that one wipeout means you're toast and must restart because the combo multiplier also multiplies the reset "bonus".

In the single player mode, called world tour, you race against physical AI opponents. They went with ghosts in MP because they didn't want trolling when people were trying to get the top scores/time for the race.

I mainly played Tricky in the day and this just seems like a much harder game. Getting use to the controls is taking time but when I can pull off a run its awesome. I dig the style of the game so far and this is a must buy for me.

I looooooved it. It's a bit more generic, aesthetically, but the gameplay felt amazingly tight. Truly a next-gen SSX. Loved the demo, just yeah, I hope there's enough variety in the courses since there's so much of them.

So, I played the demo again tonight. Like, a lot. It took me over 20 runs but I finally got gold in the race event. I was pretty frustrated but eventually started to get the hang of the track.

I just hope the demo course isn't supposed to be a beginner course.

I also dug out my SSX 3 copy and played some races back and forth between it and the 360 demo. Yeah, boy. Not the same at all.

Definitely need to see more.

Just to close my thoughts on this blog, I bought the game, played it quite a bit, and bought the Mount Eddie expansion. Everything I said in the blog entry still stands. It was fun in spurts but it just didn't grab me like the previous games did. I think it all boils down to track design.