Imagination is a strange thing; it comes around and hits you as fast as a snap of the fingers, in the advertising business, so my imagination does have its certain dose of wandering in the average day. Now, speaking of imagination – picture this. An SUV jammed packed with psychopaths for patients, if you’re done mental imagery then number two – picture that same SUV snowballing down a mountain. The bizarre part is that in all probability you’re thinking an avalanche – Well if so, you are not very far behind in the world of imagination – but what is for sure is the fact that you’ve just successfully crossed the border of reality and an approximation of lunacy in disguise of the Xbox 360 game – Amped 3.
Amped 3 is not the boring ass straight-forward extreme sports game, even though at times it does seem so, though it’s also not as simple as hauling a bus-load of maniacs down a hill. The style and solid technical performance does keep the game up there in close contention of a six step slide and hook though it has the same percentage of flaws to match up with the whole concept being the “in-game”.
Set in similar scenes from the earlier two versions, which was basically shredding it up on six huge mountains, each featuring multiple, interconnected areas that stream continuously from top to bottom. Navigating is made uber simple easy with a trail map which gives a little insight on each mountains goal drop points. There's tons of stuff to do, like unlocking new hills, gear, clothes, sleds, snowmobiles, stat boosts, respect, and of course, coin.
Amped 3 has a super-cool graphical touch but add no functional boosts, which are missed throughout the game to an extent of self inflicted pain. The game’s physic point of view is at its worst best, wherein the main problem is not mastering the new 360 controller but the whole concept of science of physics. I think the creators were the wankers in the science period in the back seats of convent boy’s school.
Speaking of physics, stuff like speed boosts, carving, and 'style' tricks can be painfully frustrating. The sole reason is the fact that your boarder seems to float around a lot, getting too much air in strange places and not enough when it counts, or sticking to and accelerating up rails like a train car. The camera angles don't help to the cause, as it's hard to tell just when to let go of a trick or hop off a rail. Okay!! That’s it for Science class today, a big plus in the game is the story of the game with scenes that off-beat to levels of major weirdness, the sight of stop-motion animation, 8-bit games, hand puppets, boy bands, Russian game shows, shady Mexican condiments, and even a roasted pig's head on a spring trying to explain what's happening. Though for the people who like their games unadulterated the graphics are exactly what feed’s on your ego.
The snow effects are cool, but look disjointed from the rest of the game. However, the characters are lifelike, more so than the freaky clay people of other launch titles. The music section does not falter by any long shot given the fact that Amped 3 boasts of three hundred tracks with an added option filtering via record labels, also giving you the added advantage of considering what is garbage or not as quickly as a 40 odd year old couple’s quickie. Overall, Amped 3 provides all kinds of groovy style and content but wraps it in a somewhat dismayed game-play. Here’s to hopeful wishing that the next edition brings to Amped 3 an impact that is sure to get you hitting the slopes way harder, maybe even with friends.
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