SSX DLC: It’s (Finally) Tricky

Yesterday EA Sports released the Mt. Eddie DLC for SSX (2012), and it’s what fans of the series have all wanted. No crevices to fall into. No need for wingsuits, ice picks, pulse goggles, armor, or any other reality-based equipment. Like in the beginning, it’s just you, your board and all the jumps, rail grinds, and fun you can handle.

Let me take a step back for a moment. The latest edition of SSX, released back in March, was heralded as the second coming for the SSX series. When the title was unveiled as “SSX: Deadly Descents”, the most vocal of fans decried it as an enormous step away from what made SSX great – odd characters, fun slopes, gravity-defying tricks. Though “Deadly Descents” was dropped from the title, it wasn’t dropped from the game. In fact, EA utilized creative-commons satellite imagery of the Earth to create 9 distinct peaks to race, trick, and survive. I’m not a big sports gamer, and the only new-gen racing game I own is Split/Second, but there is a harmony to the SSX series. Once they tried to make it based in reality a LOT of the fun went out the window.

Like Choosing A Favorite Child

How can you do that and not feel dirty? How do you decide which one you prefer over another when, truly, there is no choosing between children. Or, at least, I assume it’s how I’d feel if a) I had kids and/or b) the issue at hand was really about children.

So here’s the dilemma: Dead Rising 2 or Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2?

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 (Demo)

Premiering to Xbox 360 Gold members late Monday night, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 demo brings the Sith(Jedi?) secret apprentice Starkiller back the dead. I played the original Force Unleashed on the 360 and loved it. Thought he camera was a little irritating and the force grip controls buggy, as an avid Star Wars fan, I could feel it flow through me with every button push – which was great because that meant I was either electrocuting someone with lightning, moving them out of the way with force push, or chucking them for distance with force grip. I didn’t care if my lightsaber was red, blue, green, purple, gold or black – it cut through AT-ATs, stormtroppers or rogue Jedi with precision. The demo for The Force Unleashed proved that the designers knew what worked and focused their energy on that.

Of all the gin joints, in all the world…

Last week had a very up and down feel to it. Applied to quite a few positions and thankfully heard back from two of them. Though it didn’t go as I’d hoped, I’m attempting to be optimistic about it. What happened? Keep reading…