Comments on: Poll: Skiing Game?

By: Tak

Tak — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:08:18 +0000

I’ve never skied, but I imagine it’s for the same reason that target-shooting games generally aren’t any fun. There is a real skill (and subsequent personal satisfaction) in being able to put something .22 of an inch in the same spot as another something .22 of an inch from 100 yards away. Skiing, though I don’t know the ends and out, I’m sure has that same sort of sensation. It’s far too… tactile? There is so much that you just have to ‘feel’ when shooting (and skiing, if so) that will not for the foreseeable future translate into a video game.

When you have something that in real life has a very small margin of injury (Olympic target shooting and Olympic skiing) and a high…return on emotional investment, it’s not going to translate well to a simulation. Paint ball games are the same way. But something with a very high risk of injury or death (high speed racing, combat) that most people will never experience translate well, because frankly we have no clue how it’s supposed to be (and at least in the case of combat never want to find out).

By: Snowboard Site

Snowboard Site — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 19:51:17 +0000

I might just be biased because I love snowboarding (in real life), but how come snowboarding games can be awesome, yet skiing games always always suck? I mean, SSX tricky rocks. I cannot even for the life of me think of a comparable skiing game.

By: iainl

iainl — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 11:49:51 +0000

Firstly, I’m morally obliged to say “Horace Goes Skiing”. So, Horace Goes Skiing.

But I also bought SSX On Tour specifically because it introduced the option of skiiers rather than the usual boring snowboarders. Then I discovered that the actual game was a load of rubbish in comparison to Amped 3, and sold it again. Oh well.

The joys of skiing for me are:

1) “oh **** I’m going to die if I go any faster”. This is obviously somewhat difficult for a videogame to imply at a visceral level, which is how come I’m able to get round a virtual Nuerburgring in anything less than about 10 minutes, stand up in virtual gunfights or whatever.

2) Pretty scenery. No, even Amped 3 isn’t pretty enough to make me aimlessly wander down a mountain for very long.

3) The physical joy of reading the snow underfoot to pick a good line through the soft (but not too soft) stuff, where the grip lies and so on. Actually, I thought 1080 on the N64 did a better job of this than most snow-based games. But when you can’t feel it through your boots the reward just isn’t there.

So by the time that downhill skiing reaches a computer screen, it’s just a driving game with funny controls. One where the track and scenery are all various shades of white, and there aren’t any other racers to overtake.

By: Nallen

Nallen — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:48:24 +0000

Never in all my days.

By: Lu-Tze

Lu-Tze — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 10:13:23 +0000

SkiFree has and always will be fantastic.

Winter Olympics for the PC was great until I realised that you could use BOTH Enter keys as the hammer to win button. This effectively doubled my ability at winning about half of the events.

On the subject of “extreme” skiing, SSX:On Tour let you choose skiiers instead of snowboarders, and I know a few people who that really catered to, sadly though I know about 5x as many people who snowboard and didn’t give a toss.

By: DragonSix

DragonSix — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 08:20:07 +0000

There’s actually a curling sim, in Time Splitters Future Perfect. It was a fun bonus :p

By: Vollgassen

Vollgassen — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 22:50:25 +0000

I haven’t played a skiing game I’ve enjoyed since Skifree… Well.. I haven’t played a skiing game since I enjoyed Skifree.

Sequel? Remake? I’d be down.

Skiing down the side of a mountain trying to outrun an abominable snowman.

By: Rockeye

Rockeye — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:53:25 +0000

I had Lillehammer Winter Olympics for the Game Gear because it was cheap. The best skiing event was the moguls, or maybe ski jump. The actual downhill/giant slalom/super g/slalom events weren’t great.

By: Al

Al — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:30:37 +0000

I had the official Lillehammer Winter Olympics game on the Amiga, but, as a skier myself, the skiing part of that was deeply dissapointing. Both Alpine and Nordic. I rocked at the Bobsleigh though.

By: fluffy bunny

fluffy bunny — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:08:45 +0000

I bought and enjoyed Ski Racing 2006, from Coldwood Interactive and JoWooD. It is a very enjoyable game, with responsive controls where you really need to get “in the zone” to succeed. Too bad JoWooD, in their infinite wisdom, decided to use another developer for the 2007-edition.

By: terry

terry — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:06:15 +0000

Simgolf: Winter Edition :D

By: bobince

bobince — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:02:46 +0000

Have yet to play a really entertaining skiing game, but if I ever manage to get the time to produce one I will.

What you want is a Sim/Theme-style bit in which you can place the pistes, lifts, bars, snow-cannons etc. over the mountain and watch the lemming public go round injuring themselves in your resort. Then couple that with a traditional 3D racing bit over the pistes you’ve built, and built-in licensed maps from real resorts, and you’ve got a whole bunch of awesome.