Skip to main content

SSX: Deadly Descents takes darker approach to snowboarding

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The SSX franchise has been left out in the cold for the last few years (no pun intended… ok, ok, pun definitely intended, but it’s true). Once, one of the cornerstones of EA’s sports lineup, with the exception of the Wii only SSX Blur, the franchise has been neglected on this generation of consoles, with the last release coming with SSX On Tour back in 2005. Judging by the trailer released at the VGAs, SSX is not only back, but it appears to be taking an entirely new approach to the series.

SSX: Deadly Descents will have you battle both man and nature, as you are part of a team that is determined to snowboard over some of the most hostile environments known to man, from the Himalayas to Antarctica. It appears that developer EA Canada is attempting to treat nature as a gameplay element, where you must do certain things like follow a line of sunlight to avoid freezing, or maintain a certain speed to escape a rockslide. The game will incorporate air drops, avalanches and wingsuits, as well as several more “extreme” features.

Recommended Videos

No word on release specifics for SSX: Deadly Descent, but more on this when it is available.

Ryan Fleming
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Ryan Fleming is the Gaming and Cinema Editor for Digital Trends. He joined the DT staff in 2009 after spending time covering…
NYT Crossword: answers for Friday, November 8
New York Times Crossword logo.

The New York Times has plenty of word games on its roster today — with Wordle, Connections, Strands, and the Mini Crossword, there's something for everyone — but the newspaper's standard crossword puzzle still reigns supreme. The daily crossword is full of interesting trivia, helps improve mental flexibility and, of course, gives you some bragging rights if you manage to finish it every day.

While the NYT puzzle might feel like an impossible task some days, solving a crossword is a skill and it takes practice — don't get discouraged if you can't get every single word in a puzzle.

Read more
The PS5 Pro holds the key to the PS6’s success
The hero of Shadow of the Colossus stands in a temple.

When the PlayStation 5 Pro was revealed, the big buzzword to come out of the presentation was PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution (PSSR). This was PlayStation's "secret sauce" intended to sell the $700 upgrade to new customers and existing PS5 owners alike. Similar to AI upscaling seen in technology like DLSS, PSSR allows games rendered at a lower resolution to be upscaled using AI to appear more detailed. For the PS5 Pro, this means removing the need to choose between a performance mode that prioritizes frame rate and a resolution mode that sacrifices frame rate for a clearer picture.

PSSR is the first time any kind of AI upscaling has been used on consoles ... and will be key in PlayStation's success for its true next-generation console.
Sidestepping the graphical arms race
With rare exceptions, new game consoles have mainly sold themselves based on providing a graphical leap above its predecessor. This was clear as day going from 8- to 16-bit systems, and perhaps at its peak going from 16-bit to 3D, but has since hit a level of diminishing returns. PS5 games are undeniably better looking than PS4 games of the same scale, but the differences are in the margins.

Read more
3 new Xbox Game Pass games to play this weekend (November 8-10)
An alien in armor with a light sword standing in front of a space ship window with a planet in the background.

This is a good week for strategy game fans subscribed to Xbox Game Pass because November's first new additions to the service all fall within that genre. Two of them are real-time strategy game classics from Blizzard Entertainment, and the other is a strategic take on an arcade classic. If you're playing on a console, these additions may not mean as much to you, but for Game Pass subscribers with access to a PC, these recently added strategy game games are well worth your time.
StarCraft: Remastered

The original StarCraft is a monumental release for Blizzard Entertainment. It gave the studio a third pillar franchise alongside Warcraft and Diablo, was one of the first major esports games, and set a standard that most RTS games after it have tried to follow. In 2017, Blizzard released StarCraft: Remastered, updating the classics' visuals, audio, and online features; that's the version of StarCraft that has come to Xbox Game Pass. While there are more approachable RTS games nowadays, PC gamers should check out the original StarCraft if they've never played it before to better understand the foundational building blocks of the RTS genre.

Read more