X-Factor:
Organized Play
By Jason Carl
I’ve played snowboarding games before, but never
considered myself a fan of the genre until I played Amped 2 and got my first taste
of fame. Now I’m a future shred star, building my virtual career as
I scream down Amped 2’s beautifully rendered mountainsides
at dizzying speeds, pulling sick tricks for the media, and inching
my way ever closer to becoming the world’s top-ranked dog. That is,
I’ll be the best boarder in my little corner of the
world—when I’m ready, I’ll take on the rest of the planet, courtesy
of Xbox Live. The thing to marvel at here isn’t the
multiplayer modes available for Amped 2: It’s the sheer
variety of options! Each mode—Just Ride, Casual, Event, and
Pack—offers you and your friends a distinct and engaging
snowboarding experience.
Just Ride
Up to eight players share a snowpark slope in this casual,
low-pressure mode. Just Ride lets you work on any aspect of your
career or skills, from ollies to lip tricks. Players can coach one
another, participate in friendly competitions, or just do their own
thing, riding the slopes for the sheer enjoyment of it. Results are
posted to Xbox Live leaderboards, giving you real-time
information about your current scores and standings. Everybody
rides their sticks, and Xbox Live takes care of all the
tedious math, tracking four personal scores for every player—High
Score, Media Score, Best Trick, and Best Combo—across all the
available snowparks.
Xbox Live also tracks your Overall Score, calculated
from your four base scores. This is the score that determines the
top-ranked boarders. If you work your way into the upper reaches of
this category, your friends should be lining up to ask you for
shredding tips! You can sort the scores in each category by your
friends’ names, comparing one another’s ratings and rankings.
Results are posted weekly and quarterly on the Xbox Live
leaderboards, allowing you to check and track your progress over
time.
Sessions
If serious competition is more your thing, fear not: Amped
2 delivers! Sessions mode allows head-to-head competition for up to
eight players, using any one of a number of directed contests. One
player—the host—sets all the criteria for the competition, choosing
the snowpark, the drop point, the duration of the contest, the
victory conditions, and also who will set the criteria for the next
competition. For example, the host might choose the second drop
point on Mt. Hood as the location, the Best Combo Score after 10
minutes of boarding as the victory condition, and declare that the
loser of the game sets all the criteria for the next round.
Naturally, your scores are tracked and contribute to your overall
ratings and rankings.
Events
Expanding on the possibilities of the other multiplayer formats,
you can use the Xbox Live capabilities of Amped 2
to create Events—major real-time competitions for a large number of
players. Anyone can host an Event and choose all the specific
criteria for the competition, including who can participate, the
location of the contest, and which scores matter over a specified
period of time. For instance, you can invite only players who have
an overall rating below a certain number and decide that victory
goes to the competitor who gets the Best Trick score across Mt.
Buller, Mt. Hood, and New Zealand.
Packs
As if all this Xbox Live multiplayer goodness isn’t enough
to make other snowboarding games red-faced with shame, there’s
still more—Packs! No, I’m not talking about roving groups of wolves
(though I suppose that’s a possibility … ). I’m referring to one of
the coolest Amped 2 features available through the marvel
that is Xbox Live. This feature allows you to form a
fellowship of like-minded boarders and roam the slopes together.
Anyone can form a new Pack and invite their buddies to join.
Communicating through chat software, your Pack can decide exactly
how to spend its time. Packs can be as competitive or casual as
their members like. Focus on helping each other improve scores, or
compete against other Packs for glory, points, and bragging rights.
Xbox Live records and tracks the top four overall scores
for each Pack member, so you can follow your group’s exploits on
the Xbox Live leaderboards.
See you on the slopes, stick jockeys!
