ROSS'S GAME DUNGEON: FREAK OUT - EXTREME FREERIDE

[Ross Scott]

This is a blog post. To read the original post, please click here »

 

 

 

Have a Merry Christmas with a new Game Dungeon! I was hoping to have this video out two days ago, but it's not a "technically Christmas" release like some of my past ones! Despite what I said in the last episode, I recorded and edited this one, since I get nervous about handing things to other people when there's time pressure. It's a good thing I did too, since I ended up needing to throw out most of my footage once I realized it was making me nauseous watching it in editing. That gets covered in the video, hopefully it's not too rough to watch.

 

For those that are interested, check back on December 28th at 12:00 noon EST at twitch.tv/rossbroadcast. I'll be doing a birthday stream where I attempt to beat the last level of Supreme Commander on the hardest difficulty with no saving or loading.

 

COMMENTS

[Icebox]

Feel your pain Ross, here in southern IL we also have a wet Christmas.

[TWKUK]

Huh, the title reminded me of another kinda janky arcadey extreme sports game from around the same time, Freekstyle.

Maybe you oughta check it out Ross, you seem to have a taste for these kinds of games.

[Gigelinho]

One snowboard game which I played a lot on the PC when I was younger is Supreme Snowboarding. Not sure how it holds up today but I remember enjoying it quite a bit back in the day.

 

PS Merry Xmas and happy Festivus to all!

[Tadrix]

About stranding on a mountain: That's because you screwed up difficulty levels, Ross.

There are four difficulty levels for ski runs in Europe (and also, I heard, in Japan?):

 

GREEN slopes, beginner: never-ever level (suitable for children), a place to learn a snow-plow, for example; maximum angle of inclination: 25%;

BLUE, easy, most popular ones; maximum angle of inclination: 25%;

RED, intermediate, for experienced skiers; maximum angle of inclination: 40%;

BLACK, expert: most difficult, toughest ones.

 

Also, there's no absolute standard and actual difficulty for a given color may vary between different regions.

[VincereAutPereo]

About stranding on a mountain: That's because you screwed up difficulty levels, Ross.

There are four difficulty levels for ski runs in Europe (and also, I heard, in Japan?):

 

GREEN slopes, beginner: never-ever level (suitable for children), a place to learn a snow-plow, for example; maximum angle of inclination: 25%;

BLUE, easy, most popular ones; maximum angle of inclination: 25%;

RED, intermediate, for experienced skiers; maximum angle of inclination: 40%;

BLACK, expert: most difficult, toughest ones.

 

Also, there's no absolute standard and actual difficulty for a given color may vary between different regions.

 

In the US there are usually only three levels, green circles, blue squares, and black diamonds (There are also double and triple black diamond runs, but this generally depends on the mountain, and these are usually accompanied with a sign that basically says "If you break your legs, we won't save your ass."). The issue is that these rating are usually relative to the overall difficulty of the mountain. For instance, Snow Bird, in Utah, has one of the steepest green runs in the US, simply because every run on the mountain is very steep and difficult. People who grow up on the east coast, where mountains are generally less steep, consider themselves able to ride blue/black runs, but are often caught by surprise when they come to the midwest and west coast, mostly because our mountains have much steeper inclines. Source: I've taught snowboarding for several years and been all over the US for snowboarding.

 

Also, Ross, if you liked this game I think you would like Amped 3. It's a little dated, and significantly more ridiculous than this game is, but there is a game mode where you need to rack up the largest hospital bill that you can. I think you'd like it.

[jbenefi1]

I kinda wish this game was like GRID and showed the full wipe-out, then let you reverse it a few times.

[Sexypotato]

i really wanna see you do a review of one of the Geopolitical Simulator games

[Reverend_UshankaCat_]

Too bad Skate 3 is console-exclusive, I'm sure you would love it. It's a skateboarding game (duh!) but has a gamemode where the entire point is to hurt yourself as brutally as possible and upon impact you see an X-ray of your skater to highlight the part of your skeleton you just broke, complete with nasty crunching sound (it's called Hall of Meat).

[Frostiken]

Both this and the previous Game Dungeon weren't that great. They're short, light on content, light on banter.

 

I know they take vastly more time to produce but I prefer the 30-45 minute videos. The 'point' of Game Dungeon, to me at least, isn't so much the games, it's the tangents you go off on. The Deus Ex 1 video is one of the best for that. A little fifteen minute video about an adventure game where you don't even share the ending? Kind of disappointing.

 

The brief interlude episodes are fine every now and then (Potty Pigeon, Spiderbot, Zany Golf) but the long rambling neurotic episodes are the best. Even worse, we're losing actual Game Dungeon content for this: No awards? No customized intro screen? I remember you (Ross) being excited for the custom intros for each episode.

 

Also it's been a long goddamn time since the last 'follow up'.

[Veyrdite]

I think this video contrasts nicely against the previous Game Dungeon. Most of this one is made up of stories, memories and interpretation. I like it.

 

The previous GD sourced most of its humour from the game itself. It felt like the game was doing the work, not Ross, and that I could get more of the same by playing the game myself. I didn't enjoy this one as much, apart from suggesting an interesting game to play.

 

(This isn't a critique of the way the videos were made. It's a critique of the final product. There are many ways to shell a spoon, and all take time to improve.)

[danielsangeo]

Subs up!

[Glue Man]

There was snow here, but it also rained on Christmas. I almost lost control of my car a few times.

 

Also, throw rocks if you want, but I don't miss Awards Time too much. It tended to repeat what was already said in the video. The awards themselves made for cool icons though.

[Tadrix]

Where did you even get that game (Freak Out)? I'd love to try it.

 

The issue is that these rating are usually relative to the overall difficulty of the mountain.

Same here.

[Lion O Cyborg-Dark Redshif]

Have you considered doing an LP of this game sometime? I'm trying to beat it but a few of the challenges, mostly grinding ones are unwinnable or otherwise far too hard due to stupid rail placement in the challenges, and just as bad score requirements for some King of the Hill and "race" levels.

 

It's similar to Polaris Snocross except this game insults the player's skill level rather than giving the other racers Fast Forward time controls from Blinx.

 

I'm stuck on Broken Back slope 2 challenges and I think both main slopes in Mount Blanca.

 

The terrible music doesn't help, except for Holiday and the menu screen's Adorable.

 

Walking Down I'd say is the worst of the game's songs. it isn't even someone whining; it's just gibberish.

 

Anyway, some rails are tree branches that stick too far out, and the next rail is right out of reach by the tip of the first one, usually at an angle.

 

I try to jump off and land on the next one, I succeed in crashing into the very point of the first tree and lose the challenge. I try to jump to the side or just grind off the end without jumping, I always have too much momentum or not enough, even when braking beforehand and I fail.

 

 

Other times, the game glitches and I don't even grind the first rail when pressing the key. Others, it glitches and I crash against the rail, falling off my skies. The "commute" for want of a less sweary term for getting back to the challenge I just failed also gets really boring really fast, and succeeding one hard rail to instantly hit another makes me panic and screw up.

 

The commute back even can make me forget what I was going to do next to tackle that roadblock.

 

Sorry for the rant but I tend to waffle a bit. Do you have any ideas for it? I tried looking up LPs but I couldn't find any good ones, and 70% of the ones I did find were not in English.

 

Lighter note: it sadly didn't snow for us on Christmas here in the UK, but it did snow last night and most of it is still on the ground outside; I was just taking a walk in the park around 2:30 PM this afternoon.

 

There didn't seem to be any really good snow for boogy boarding down the golf course behind our cul de sac like we used to, let alone skiing, which was rather disappointing because Freakout has got me into skiing after seeing your video and giving the game a whirl on Steam.

[Lion O Cyborg-Dark Redshif]

Where did you even get that game (Freak Out)? I'd love to try it.

 

The issue is that these rating are usually relative to the overall difficulty of the mountain.

Same here.

 

You can get the game on Steam for £8.99 Stirling. I do warn that the photos of people that make the speech bubbles in the menus also make stupid derpy faces when giving tips which gets annoying.

[Zabeus]

In 2019 someone finally did a Let's Play of this and we get to see the ending:

https://youtu.be/_i6w0oDUpTc?t=1222

 

So slight correction to the video (if you haven't already mentioned this in a follow-up), it's not clear that the "dead" guy at the end is wearing skis and he might not be dead. He could be dead though. Probably just passed out.

 

Not going to ping Ross because I assume he gets these if he wants to.