No Snow? Get Amped

By Will Barker

Amped 3 offer a brilliant sense of freedom

You can grind pretty much anything, including conifers

Jump off the snowmobile and crank up the speed

Amped 3 isn't perfect, but neither is proctology

One would think that a regular paycheck for a videogame review here, a shady home delivery there and the sanitisation of the odd public toilet block (not to mention my one-time hit CD power ballad, "I'm Gonna Eat Your Gall Bladder Tonight") would be enough to finance a life a wondrous adventure.

Wrong on every level.

Granted, I save up my pennies and do get to go snowboarding in New Zealand and Australia every now and then. But in general things are tough for me. And with these new anti-terror laws, scrutiny of my so-called 'private stuff' has never been this intense.

But I digress. Getting out to the snow fields is a wonderful relaxant, being amongst the pristine snow gums in Australia and carving a few fresh tracks. Good times for one and all... But what happens when the snow doesn't fall, or as is increasingly the case, the Earth's atmosphere heats up to such levels that the snow rarely falls at all? Things get dicey... I haven't been once yet in 2006 and it's almost August?!!

How can one attain contentedness without pow-pow in winter time?

I have just one word for you: mind-numbing videogames. You heard right fellow game players - it's time to hit the digital slopes and the latest game in the Amped series is easily the best snowboarding game I've played yet.

It's not without it's problems, and is very different in the way it progresses to the last two Amped games that hit the Xbox console, but overall I've had a lot of fun mucking around with the game.

The biggest changes for the new game include the addition of new vehicles. As well as some 25 new sleds (which are nigh on impossible to control) there's even a hang glider and a snowmobile, and I found that snowboarding down a run, then using the snowmobile to thrash back up it, was a shitload of fun, and also gives you a sense of just how large the environments within the game are.

In my often criticised opinion, Amped 3 on the Xbox 360 is exactly what the previous two titles wanted to be, but could never quite manage. For mine, this game is great because it recreates the feeling of actually going to a mountain and exploring its myriad runs, carving through deep pow-pow, finding off-piste trails and pulling off massive stiffy nosebones from the nastiest kickers you've ever seen.

There is a story of sorts to the game, and it begins with the player's on-screen representation (or as Hindu philosophy would term it, an 'avatar') donning a rather absurd bunny suit. This is the tutorial of sorts, and tells you how to ride and pull off tricks, and from the very moment your bright pink rabbit-like humanoid board rider begins his low friction journey down the frozen flanks of a colossal mountain, it's clear that this game is more accessible than the previous games.

Everything has been simplified and it's not as punishingly difficult as the previous titles, giving players more leeway when landing tricks and what not. The purists won't be too happy about this leniency, but newcomers to the genre certainly will be. Furthermore, you don't have to push a button to grind rails, which sounds silly but in terms of wanting to stay true to life, the transition of a snowboard from snowy surface to metal rail often requires no adjustments on the riders part until you reach said rail. Thankfully, you still have to balance your rider when rail riding (a la Tony Hawk), but I will admit that the lowering of the game's difficulty may be a problem for some players, especially those who dominated the original games. For me, I didn't mind the more relaxed approach to the gameplay and controls, but the veterans may find the game too easy, and thusly boring.

Part of the game's initial, and indeed longterm appeal, is its visual clarity - it looks good. Very good. So good in fact that I think I may give up on reality and plug the Xbox 360 directly into my optical nerve, via the hypothalamus, then grafted to the tibia. It's a great idea that kids should not try at home - use your friends' Xbox instead! That way, when the bleeding causes you to pass out, you won't have to foot the carpet cleaning bill.

Anyway, where was I? Ah, the graphics... Apart from causing all my other games to lock up after a patch was loaded to run the game (turns out the Xbox 360 runs way too hot, the DVD laser melted and I had to replace it), Amped 3 looks sensational. One of the most stunning things to bear witness to is the astonishing clipping distance, or viewing range. You can see the entire mountain, trees and all, from the various mountains' summits, and even beyond, to mountains that probably can't be snow surfed. Up close and at slow speed, some of the rocks look a bit low polygon, and the trees look a bit 2D, but at speed and when viewed as a whole the game is a sight to behold, particularly in high def mode.

The mountains have a very populated and 'living' feel to them as well, because at any time you'll always see snowboarders and skiers whizzing past and attempting tricks, not to mention spectactors sitting around idly, the latter of which are integral to some objectives, as you have to impress specific numbers of people on the mountain to unlock more stuff. It's all quite involving and helps suck you into the cleverly created snow-covered game world.

The way the boarders move as they complete tricks looks spectacular, and is emphasised when you try for the special camera objectives. During these, you must attain a specific score while performing a specific type of trick. Example: you gotta score 32,000 points performing grab moves, and as you approach the trick area the camera comes into play and everything takes on a 'bullet-time' level of slow motion, which not only looks rather special but gives you a little more time to squeeze an extra tweak in there. You can even get style bonuses for performing slower, more graceful tricks, like 540 degree spins and the like. The levels of motion capture must have been high, because the borders look great going through the motions of tricking.

The control system is fairly basic, and it's relatively easy to perform difficult moves. As mentioned, this may not please the purists, but I think it suits the game quite well, and stringing long combos together takes skill. I should also mention at this point that the game's presentation is rather strange, taking on an MTV-type mood, where the objectives are told to you via a number of zany premises, from high quality anime presentations to low quality flip books and what not. It gets pretty trippy at times.

Progression through the game comes about by gaining certain scores, which are attained by completing objectives, ranging from the abovementioned camera objectives, to co-op destruction missions and the story missions. A higher score allows you to explore more mountains, and more areas within the mountain, but a little trick I discovered was that you can use the snowmobile to check out areas that are locked on the map screen, which is cool.

One of my favourite features in the game is the ability to instantly ride a snow mobile, or ski doo as the Scandinavians call them. Even though you can instantly restart at the top of the mountain by pausing the game and hitting the trail map, it's much more fun to turn around and ride back up the hill, bystanders diving out of the way as your two-stroke steed powers up the steep incline with no heed for their safety. You can even pull off motocross inspired tricks and big stax are quite common too, as these things are quick. I really liked how they give you real sense of freedom when hacking across the mountain too - spot something cool, check it out then switch to the snowboard and trick it. Great fun, and eminently accessible.

There are some two player levels, but they're pretty silly and get boring fairly quickly. They involve racing down a designated course on a rickety sled - tethered together no less - and trying to cause as much injury as possible to your on-screen persona. It's fun for a bit, but is quite random and not much input is needed to get results. Smash your face and shatter your femur and *bang* mission accomplished. There's also a park-building function where you can buy and place obstacles - from jump ramps, to rails and even toilet blocks - anywhere on the mountain. I didn't really get into the thick of the park builder as I was too busy carving my way through powdery runs, but from what I sampled it seems pretty full-on and fairly well integrated.

While this game is easier than its forebears, and has a few issues with the game engine (snowboarding uphill sometimes?) and could have done with a deeper multiplayer aspect, Amped 3 is a lot of fun. It looks great and plays well, and gives you a lot of freedom to explore what are truly massive mountain ranges via a number of different vehicles. All told, I loved this game. Bear in mind I am a snowboarder of some repute, so bias could be working its evil ways into my opinions in this instance, but even through my powder-coated glasses, I can see that this game is an enjoyable one, and it's got quite a bit of shelf life too.

Fans of the original Amped titles would be advised to try before they buy, and the lack of Xbox Live connectivity sniffs bums as well (online leaderboards don't count). But as a snowboarding game, Amped 3 succeeds on many levels and recreates the feeling of being there authentically. If, like me, you're an avid snowboarder and haven't been getting your fill of powdery Sunday sessions, you could do a lot worse than this very attractive videogame. And as the chorus of the one-time hit CD power ballad "I'm Gonna Eat Your Gall Bladder Tonight" foretells: love is tender, love is true, gall bladder rancid, watch me spew.

Game: Amped 3
System: Xbox360
Players: 1-2
Online: Sort of
Developer: Indie Built
Distributor: 2K Sports

Rating: 75%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)