Overall: Amped 3 is the latest in the successful snowboarding series. The previous two have focused mainly on the gameplay and semi-realism of the mountains. This time round, the mountains are huge, the graphics have been given a significant overhaul, but the area that this game shines the most is... The cutscenes. Not many games' strongpoint is their cutscenes, in fact, the in game movie sequences are usually what makes a decent game into an embarassing one. Not Amped 3. The cutscenes of Amped 3 turn it from a decent game into a hilarious one. Not for many years have I genuinely laughed between furious bouts of gameplay and truly funny cutscenes. Trust me, these have to be seen to be believed. Buy the game now, if only to see the cutscenes! Gameplay: Gameplay as usual follows the Tony Hawk's set fairly closely, with the obvious exeption of being able to snowboard up a mountain, which is only possible because of the addition of a fun snowmobile which also has its own set of tricks. I find snowboarding to be a much more relaxing sport than skateboarding, and I often find myself just cruising down the mountain aimlessly, busting tricks etc. The non-relaxing aspect is the newly added sledding mode which is rather unaccurately named. A more appropriate term would be &" as that is what the aim of sledding is. If you rack up the highest hospital bill, you win! Crazy, yet satisfying. Graphics: The one major flaw in Amped 3 is that the graphics aren't nearly as good as other 360 games like PDZ and Oblivion. The rock textures are bland, and the rounded boulders hexagonal. The snow is alright, however it is not much of a noticable improvement over the previous games snow graphics. The boarders themselves look alot better however, with good attention to detail going to the clothes and gear. Sound: I also found the soundtrack to be rather bland, if not huge. (300+ songs!?)I much prefer to cruise to my own music. The characters voices are fairly average, however I appreciated the option to make my voice either "chilled" or "punk". After years of Tony Hawks games, having a boarder who's voice isnt the most annoying sound on the planet is a welcome relief. Suggestions: Make all the mountains have multiple zones, not just the first 3.
Made in Canada