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Platinum Difficulty Warning/Rant


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This is the post I wish I would have read before buying this game, thinking I could spend $13 and knock off an “easy” platinum in 6-10 hours, maybe even having some fun along the way. If you are like me (a slightly over-confident, platinum-lusting trophy whore with a spare $20 or a Gamefly subscription) and read this post, it may not make any difference, but I will still tell you anyway: STAY AWAY FROM THIS HORRIFIC EXCUSE OF A GAME! If you like racing games and simply want to explore a “different” kind of driving game (ie, snowmobiles vs. cars): STAY AWAY FROM THIS TRAVESTY OF THE DRIVING GENRE.

 

I WILL NOW VENT AFTER BEATING THIS DEPLORABLE ABORTION OF ENTERTAINMENT. READ AS MUCH OR AS LITTLE AS YOU LIKE.

 

For reference, I am an average gamer with more tenacity than skill. I am OK at driving games, with platinums for Burnout Paradise, NFS Undercover, and Ski-Doo Snowmobile Challenge. Yes, I completed the platinum BEFORE voting. For speculators who “only have 2-3 more trophies to do” and find the game “easy,” show me your platinum, and then tell me what a cakewalk it is.

 

I give Ski-Doo Snowmobile Challenge an 8. Yes, you can platinum this in 1-3 days, but those will be 1-3 of the most frustrating days of your life. The game is the single worst driving game I’ve ever played, and one of the worst games ever. Ski-Doo is frustrating, repetitious, and NOT FUN. The only reason I completed this game is because there is only 26 races to win. If there had been more events to complete, I would have broken a controller.

 

This game is named Ski-Doo Snowmobile CHALLENGE (in caps) for a reason. For anyone who says, “I beat all the races in two-three tries each,” I have two words: The Digger. I do not believe you. You platinumed the game in six hours?! Really? You are a freak of nature and should be landing F-14s for the Navy, at night, on an rolling aircraft carrier in the middle of a hurricane. North Star, Demon Cup, Pengen Cup, and that demon-spawned-track, The Digger, have all given me fits.

 

This game is not fair by any stretch of the imagination. If you win, it’s part skill and part random chance. The last race I was stuck on was The Digger; I had the best sled, completely maxed out, and the AI bots could still out-accelerate, out-turn, and out-slam me. I eventually won, after restarting the race approximately 60 times.

 

FOR ANYONE CONSIDERING TO ATTEMPT THE PLATINUM, YOU MUST UNDERSTAND TWO THINGS:

 

1. Other motor vehicle games are about driving, which involves STEERING. In Ski-Doo, you RARELY STEER. This is a bouncing, sliding game. You do not control your character. You AIM your character, and hope for the best. You will spend half your time attempting to correct your racing lines, and the other half of the time helplessly watching your character hurtle, slide and bounce into bad lines. If you enjoy doing this for 16-20 hours, this is the game for you. This leads to point 2.

 

2. The computer hates you. Anything bad that can happen in this game will happen to you. Catastrophies will not happen to the other AI racers, just you. If there is an obstacle to hit, you will hit it. If there is a shoving match between snowmobiles and someone is going to crash, it will be you. If someone is going to be labeled Out of Bounds and penalized, it will be you. If someone is going to spin out on ice, it will be you. If someone is going to lose control in the home stretch and go from 1st place to 8th place in sight of the finish line, it will be you. The game loves its bots, and it hates you. In fact, the only reason the AI Bots are there is to prevent you from winning. They are not competition; they are T-1000 Terminators on snowmobiles, whose only mission is to make you crash.

 

NOTE: People may look at their Progress in game and it only shows six hours of racing. I believe this only counts the races you have completed; it does not count the races you have restarted. Time information may not be stored until you cross the finish line, but I do not care to verify this.

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TOP THREE OTHER ISSUES YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF:

 

1. COUNTER-INTUITIVE TURNING CONTROLS: UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THIS, YOU CANNOT WIN. The driving controls for this game are radically different from any other racing game I have played. The physics of the turning snowmobile are the opposite of reality. For example, if you are losing control in a Ski-Doo turn, releasing the accelerator will not A) help you regain control and B) not help you tighten your line. In fact, it pushes you FARTHER out of line. This is totally against nature. You have to briefly release the gas before the turn, then mash down the accelerator through the entire turn and hope the computer doesn’t arbitrarily give you a bad hop into a wall or obstacle. You have to have split-second accuracy EVERY TURN to maintain a good line. Also, most driving games have a handbrake option to help you drift through turns. This game does not.

 

2. INDESTRUCTIBLE AI: If you bash them three times, they shake their fist at you, but if they so much as tap you once, you will either A) outright crash, B) be spun in a 180 turn, or C) be nudged 45-90 degrees off course, and spend the next 5 seconds trying to correct your line. However, you can land on their heads after a jump and they won’t crash. I literally drove for three seconds pushing an AI bot on my skis. He was perpendicular to the track, completely T-boned, with his helmet two inches above the ground and his sled RESTING ON ITS SIDE IN THE SNOW, and he did not crash. Unbelievable. Oh, and they will never go off course, regardless of how much you bash them.

 

3. “NO CHEATING/OUT OF BOUNDS” NAZIS: This game will harshly penalize you if you go outside the purple lines. Never mind it was the AI who nudged you out. Never mind you were correcting a bad line. Never mind that you are NOW BACK ON THE COURSE! They will reset you behind all the other racers, AT THE START OF THE PROBLEMATIC AREA. The solution? You have to get a better sled. Once you get a better sled, you have a lot more license to do the exact same things without being penalized.

 

GHOST IN THE MACHINE? This game can seriously not handle that you are winning a race. I don’t know how many times I’ve been 1st and had some random event make me go off course, or been inexplicably bumped into a 180 by the 2nd place Bot. Simple moguls put me into orbit, as I helplessly watched AI bots (going the same speed as I was) land in one second, while my character floated for three seconds into the nearest wall. I have had the 2nd place Bot remarkably boost across the finish even though he just crashed 3 seconds earlier. Or I would drift a turn I had taken 3 other times this race, but for whatever reason, this time I received a “bad hop” that sent me out of control into a wall, tree or sign. This game is garbage, and it is no wonder these developers, Coldwood Interactive and Valcon Games, quickly moved on to other genres (See The Fight: Lights Out (Coldwood) and Polar Panic (Valcon) – and those games are pretty awful too).

Edited by poetic_justice_
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MISCELLANEOUS DETRACTORS/IRRITANTS:

 

IRRITATING CRASH CAM: If you end up at a 45 angle in a turn, you will spontaneously burst into flames. When you crash, it will linger on your flaming demise for 3-4 seconds. However, when an AI bot crashes, they are back on their sled within 2 seconds and already accelerating.

 

BRAKES?! WE DON’T NEED NO STINKING BRAKES! L2, your brake, is the instant spinout button. You will lose control if you tap it for more than ¼ of a second. It is WAY too sensitive, and for all intents and purposes, useless. In fact, the brake is beyond useless – it is a liability.

 

L STICK OVERLY SENSITIVE: Once you tap it, and your rider starts to spiral in air, there is a very small chance you can make yourself recover. Aggravating. Solution? Hold R1 or L1 FIRST, and then tap the L Stick in the direction of your desired stunt.

 

FRUSTRATING STUNT CONTROLS: How many times have I tried a Front Flip and saw my character do a Heel Clicker instead? Uh, I lost count. But it’s especially frustrating while trying for the Double Front Flip on White Horse XC, because then I had to restart the entire race to get a second chance at the jump.

 

"DID I JUST DO THAT… OR NOT?" STUNTS: You will land double stunts, including difficult flips and.... you will get no credit for them. Huh?

 

RIDICULOUS JUMP PHYSICS: Any jump that is beneficial to you, the AI (who are going the same speed as you) will jump 5 feet higher than you (landing on your head), and they will also ACCELERATE IN MID AIR, jumping from behind you yet landing in front of you! Any jump that is bad (such as jumps before turns) will propel you out of control into a wall (if you are going the same speed as the AI Bots), but the AI will stick to the track like their skis were coated with super glue. THE AI WILL PRACTICALLY NEVER EVEN HOP ON A BAD TURN, regardless of the fact you are going the same speed as them, and if you are near them, they only have a 0.5% chance of crashing on a bad turn. Solution? There really isn’t one. You can tap X to preload your jump, but it still won’t get you anywhere as high as the AI bots.

 

AI REMOUNT TIME Vs. YOUR REMOUNT TIME: How can an AI bot crash, get back on his sled, and still be in front of me? When I crash, I always lose at least 5 places in the race. These guys only lose 1 place, if any!

 

ICE: Don’t even get me started. How many hours of my life were spent restarting races because my lead was blown by the deplorable ice (The Digger). The AI will never, ever spin out. You, on the other hand, have an invisible label on your sled that reads, “SPIN ME” and the computer is more than happy to oblige.

 

YOUR SLED = CRASH MAGNET: You will inexplicably be drawn to trees, signs, and walls (especially in midair) that no other racer on the course will touch. What makes this game so awful is you literally spend one-quarter of your time in the air. You are trying to correct your racing lines, but you can’t, because in midair you have almost no control. So you are constantly bouncing around when you land, hitting obstacles and other riders. And any flat straight always you would use to accelerate are riddled with moguls, which destroy your traction, further bouncing you around.

 

ORANGE = THE BAD COLOR: Anything orange is non-mobile and will stop you almost instantly. I know, I know. In real life, a 130+ horsepower snowmobile will knock over a flimsy, orange mesh barricade. However, in this game, the orange mesh will make your snowmobile EXPLODE. And the orange hay bales? In real life, they weigh 150-220 lbs., but in Ski-Doo, they weigh 2000 pounds. You cannot move them, regardless of your speed. Think of them a K rails. Also, orange cones are made of steel. They will not bend; they will wedge under your skis and make you flip or lose control.

 

STICKY “SPIDER WEB” SIGNS: I don't know how many times I've touched a sign coming off a jump or a corner, and suddenly, I can't move. The computer will not let me go forward or reverse; I’m simply stuck. It then labels me as "Out of Bounds" and I have to wait 3-4 seconds for it to crash me. In the meantime, I watch all the AI bots roll by, completely blowing my lead. Solution? You can hold SELECT to reset to the track, but your lead is still blown.

 

0 FUN = 0 REPLAY VALUE: Unlike Burnout Paradise or Midnight Club, Ski-Doo Snowmobile has no replay value, unless you are into masochism. This online multiplayer is non-existent, the trophies are NOT FUN, the races are frustrating, and the rewards are worthless. My advice is to stay away from this “easy” platinum.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...
Awesome and very fun read thanks , i agree with you on all the points but once i get used to the game it became easy for me.

 

exactly... i struggled on 2 sweden races and they took maybe 7 attempts at most... otherwise 3 or less... the stunt ones i beat my 1st time... as you unlock sleds it became a joke... just let off the accelerator instead of using L2... platinumed the bitch in 6 hrs basically... very simple

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  • 2 weeks later...
exactly... i struggled on 2 sweden races and they took maybe 7 attempts at most... otherwise 3 or less... the stunt ones i beat my 1st time... as you unlock sleds it became a joke... just let off the accelerator instead of using L2... platinumed the bitch in 6 hrs basically... very simple

 

Exactly my thoughts. Easy platinum.

 

The only pain for me was the Online Acrobat, did it once and forgot to do a trick to get it to pop. So had to do it again.:mad:

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lol I agree this game is a joke, I mistakenly got this off of gamefly seeing the low time to plat. I almost sent it back as soon as i put it in then I started to get better at "aiming" my sled. Hopefully Ill finish platinum tomorrow A truly horrible game... I should break the disc and say it came that way to ensure there is one less copy out there.....

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Holy Hell.... that looks like a post I would leave while pissed off:D

 

The game offline was EASY!! & online was easy because due to the fact that there is NOBODY online me & a friend got online & boosted the stunt points trophy on an empty race track... BTW: I still have the game, so if you need help I can help you get (P) if you like. My PSN ID: chewbacon

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