As the disk disappeared into the PS3’s welcoming slot, I felt a buzz of excitement. Could this be the extreme sports title I've been looking for since the Tony Hawk series decided to over-complicate itself and lose its sense of fun? Could it?

Well... no, is the short answer. It's far too buggy for a start. Within the first couple of hours of play I was finding all sorts of problems - my character was floating endlessly in midair; I was stuck in one pose as I made my way very slowly down the mountain; my controls cut out; sometimes the whole game froze completely.



UbiSoft have decided to take the Grand Theft Auto approach and combine it with your usual extreme sports affair, which could have worked so well. But it doesn't. Navigating your way around the maps feels more like a chore than a joy, as does the constant hunt for currency to progress further in the game. If you find yourself making a wrong turn (there is a map in the corner of the HUD, but it acts more like a radar) it’s back up to one of the mountain’s checkpoints to try again, and some of those checkpoints could be a fair distance from where you want to be. I suppose putting a free-roaming element into a snowboarding game, where the only direction you will be travelling in is down, was always going to be pretty tricky to get right.

It's not all doom and gloom, though. There are some good, fun moments within the challenges that bring out the competitive element, especially the no-holds-barred death races where taking out your opponents is advisable before they do the same to you. But after just one run down the first mountain, you realise the control system is not going to be your best friend. There’s no sense of control, making the tricks difficult to pull off and, even when you do manage, there's no feeling of satisfaction. And when you find out that the circle button allows you to throw snowballs at your fellow snowboarders, this takes priority over everything else in the game. But again, after ten minutes, the novelty of knocking someone off balance by smacking them with a direct hit to the back of the head wears off. It’s at this point where you may find yourself switching the game off, putting it back in the box, and taking it back to the shop.