I won't go through all of the preview stuff that I went through in
my last post about SSX Blur. Instead, here is the straight dope: the aggregate review for SSX Blur
on gamerankings.com is 72% at the moment. Three websites scored it at 60/100 or below, but most remained a bit more even and threw up mid 70's and 80's.
My Take on SSX BlurSSX Blur is a good game with hard-to-learn controls that is hella fun. If you don't have time to dedicate to learn the controls, especially ubertricks, then don't bother. This is not a game that you can easily pick up and dominate on. There is no button smashing -- though you can wave you arm around like a manic for the same effect, but at best that'll just give me something to laugh at while you're accidentally scoring big points. This is a game for the hardcore, and the experience... the experience my friends is wonderful.
This game is big air, great music and a death-defying sensation of speed that had me saying, "Ohhhhhh Noooo!" as I plummeted off of monstrous jumps into chasms of space that man was not meant to occupy without parachute or space suit. The game is fun, but frustrating early on.
Before I go off on the controls, let's focus on the A/V. The
bloom is dialed to 11; the effects, like your character getting covered in snow after wipeouts is a thoughtful addition; there is some quality lens flare; 60fps is almost always going; and the draw distances are impressive - trees poke out from behind large mountains in the distance and then you can actually just race to that one, special tree and meet it out for a candlelight dinner - the trees are fairly polygonal at their base though, which you hopefully never have to actually notice. Like I did. So, so many times. The music by Junkie XL is as necessary to this game as the mountain - it gets you moving and fuels the need for bigger and bigger air.
Which all, of course, brings us back to the controls. The basic jumping, maneuvering and trick-making are well implemented. Carving, hard turning in either direction, is a learned skill that is required to advance past any Slalom course. Ubertricks are rarified beasts that will only exist in your fantasies for awhile. I still haven't mastered them, but every time that I do see one on the mountain, alone, right in front of me, nostrils flaring at the smell of the cities that cover me -- I stand still because it's the safest thing to do. You don't how they'll react, so I prematurely end the trick just so I don't accidentally add that last backflip that powders me into the mountain.
All of that being said, the game is a blast to play with a lot to offer the single player, career mode experience. I give the game a
8/10. I may go higher once I master ubers, but that probably won't happen for a while.
Final verdict: 8/10
Kotaku, blessed are their robotic powerplants, put up a short excerpt and link to this awe-inspiring exhibition by the toy artist Doctor A. The main feature, as you can guess by the picture, is a wonderful, 1880's wind-up Pac-Man. It is truly beautiful in every detail.
