PAX 2008: Stoked Preview

Destineer's first game to come to the 360 will be Stoked, a fresh snowboarding game that will be hitting the shops in the Winter months. The 360 hasn’t has a snowboarding game since Amped 3 hit way back at the 360’s launch. So it is certainly time for another snowboarding game, and with Shaun White’s release just around the corner as well, it’s a good time for fans of the genre.

The demonstration started off with the new trend in snowboarding games being able to fly a helicopter around the mountain to decide where to jump out and start boarding. There are no issues of searching for ski lifts to get you where you want to go in the game; you have your own helicopter following you round, ready to pick you up whenever you want to be transported to a different part of the mountain. The helicopter also provides a cool camera view looking back at you, which is something Amped lacked.

The mountains themselves are large, covering an average of 45 square miles. There will be multiple mountains to board on, and they are based on real life mountains, such as Mount Fuji in Japan and there will be plenty of different trick routes available to the player at all times. As well as this, there is a dynamic weather system that will affect different parts of the mountain in different ways. An example was when our initial play sessions started, the snow was shallow and it was a bright sunny day, then 10 minutes later, the weather had changed and it was snowing heavily. The snow was a lot deeper because of this snow storm which made for a totally different snowboarding experience. There will be a weather report available to you throughout, so you can plan when you want to board certain routes to make use of deep, powder snow. This is a great feature that will ensure that the game is constantly changing, giving the player a new experience whenever they turn the console on.

Multiplayer will be a big aspect of the game. While playing on your mountain, you can drop markers that your friends can see and join you at and you can then lay a challenge out going down the mountain that your friends can then challenge you at. You will be able to easily jump into each other’s sessions and enjoy online gaming with your mates.

The graphics on the game were looking good for a game that wasn’t quite at Beta, so I imagine that there will be plenty of polish added to the game before release. The controls were simple as well with pulling down on the RS stick making your guy crouch, and then up on the RS stick getting air. Tricks were fairly easy to do, and with some practise you should be able to master the controls and set some neat scores going down the mountain, leading to some great competitions with your mates.
 
First impressions certainly look that Destineer’s first foray onto the 360 will be a decent one, and snowboarding fans will certainly be glad to get some new life in the genre. One major piece of news is that they are looking to release the game at $39.99 as well, so will be a bargain if this game turns out to match its potential. Keep an eye for this game, it may well sneak under some peoples radars and it shouldn’t.