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Developed in conjunction with world-renowned snowboarding movie creator Absinthe Films, Stoked captures the pioneering spirit of professional back country riders. Exhilarating snowboarding experiences are born from dynamic backcountry conditions. The riders who brave and master these conditions are the stuff of legend in Absinthe videos and on the pages of snowboarding magazines. The look and style of these riders are emulated across the world. In Stoked, it’s your turn to become a legendary rider and wow the world on the Xbox Live online entertainment network by becoming an absolute snowboarding phenomenon.

Genre: Extreme Sports

Publisher: Destineer

Developer: Bongfish GmbH

Online Play: 8 Versus

Local Play:

February 24, 2009 –
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, February 24, 2009 – Grab your gear and head for the mountains! Destineer and developer Bongfish have announced that Stoked, the open-world, backcountry snowboarding video game exclusively for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, is shipping to stores today. Developed in conjunction with world-renowned snowboarding movie creator Absinthe Films, Stoked offers five huge, open-world mountains, dynamic and changing weather patterns, the participation of X Games champion Travis Rice as well as some of the most respected names in the snowboarding community worldwide.

Features:

• Five Gigantic Real-World Mountains: Leave worn-out resorts behind and travel the world in search of the ultimate back country location. Explore five world-renowned summits. Discover new drop points by helicopter, bail out and experience more than 45 square-miles of open terrain on each peak.
• Dynamic Weather and Environments: Every day the snow and weather conditions change on each of the mountains featured in the game thanks to a dynamic weather and time of day system. Snow accumulates on mountain surfaces, changing the riding experience, opening new paths, and building new trickable features and challenges. Different weather conditions offer different experiences and riding challenges. Choose where, when, and in what conditions you’d like to ride!
• Seamless Multiplayer: Invite your friends to ride with you in instant drop-in multiplayer! While riding together you can select custom helicopter drop points, create competitive or cooperative challenges, or call out tricks for members of your posse to pull off as you snap their photos. When you’re ready to get serious, go up against other boarders on Xbox LIVE online entertainment network in sponsored events to build your fame.
• Style Crafting: As you develop your style, the animation system will adapt to how you play, and the other riders on the mountain will emulate your moves! But doing tricks isn’t the only way to convey a sense of style. Thirty of the industry’s top gear manufacturers, clothing brands and international magazines have joined forced with Destineer and Absinthe to help you build your career. As your legend grows so will your stylistic choices.
• Real Riders, Real Pros, Real Sponsors: Stoked features some of the most influential professional riders and names in the sport: Travis Rice, Nicolas Mueller, Wolle Nyvelt, Annie Boulanger, Romain de Marchi, Tadashi Fuse, Gigi Ruef, and Bjorn Leines. An impressive line up of 30 authentic sponsors also appear in Stoked including: Burton, Blue Tomato, Dragon, Arcus, Von Zipper, Eleven, 686, Billabong, DaKine, Electric, LibTech, Nitro, Northwave, Oakley, Quiksilver, Ride, Hart, Rome, Salomon, TechNine, Vans, Volcom, Anon, Nikita, Raiden, Red, Roxy, Sodalicious, VonZipper and snowboarding publications Method Magazine, Huck Magazine, Onboard European Snowboarding Magazine, Snowboard Magazine and Snowboard Canada Magazine!

Stoked shipped to stores on February 24, 2009 and will be available soon at major retailers. For more information, please visit www.destineerstudios.com or www.gettingstoked.com.

About Destineer

Destineer develops and publishes commercial videogames for personal computers and videogame consoles, and creates PC-based virtual training systems for military, intelligence and first-responder organizations. Destineer is a privately held corporation headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, with development studios in Minneapolis, Raleigh, NC, and Austin, TX, and publishes games under the Destineer, MacSoft and Bold Games brands. More information is available at Destineer’s website: www.destineerstudios.com.

Bongfish GmbH has developed authentic licensed action-sports video games since 1999.

Located in Graz, Austria, the studio specializes in recreating the ’soul & vibe’ of action sports experiences using their own proprietary technology.

Absinthe Films established themselves as a premiere snowboard film production company with the late 90’s. Since then, owners Justin Hostynek and Patrick Armbruster have been pushing the envelope of snowboard film making the world over while remaining committed to environmental awareness and responsibility. For more information on Absinthe Films visit www.absinthe-films.com.

February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

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February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

• 1
• 2
• Next
  

February 24, 2009 –
These days snowboarding titles are less about hitting outrageous tricks and more about capturing the culture of the extreme sport. Stoked follows this mold and is drenched with sponsors, pro riders, and song tracks that are designed to make you feel like you’re right on the mountain. It even goes as far as to offer different helicopters and pilots depending on what region of the world you’ve decided to board. Yes, Stoked has the makings for a great snowboarding experience, but its general design flaws and lack of structure could drive those less than enthralled with the sport away.

Stoked is one of those rare experiences that starts off feeling shallow and boring and progresses nicely into a more free-flowing game. When you start you’re an amateur boarder with no sponsor, no name and are essentially just boarding down mountains for the hell of it. Stoked presents you with a load of runs on each of the three introductory mountains (five authentic slopes are unlocked by the end), and each of these runs has a set of ten challenges. That amounts to a ton of stuff to do; the only problem is that it gets stale in a hurry.

Challenges are broken up into three basic types to start: those that require certain trick types, those that require specific tricks, and those that require you to beat a certain score. It’s doing these challenges over and over again that will likely turn many off to Stoked. Sure, each mountain has a set of pro rider challenges that you’ll need to complete to earn a chance at unlocking a pro-specific trick, but nothing feels all that different until you actually turn from amateur to pro.

It’s at that time that sponsors start entering the picture and different challenge types open up. Keep in mind that I was playing the same challenges for around six hours until more were unlocked, but those that have the patience should be pleased with Stoked’s depth. It took me about five hours to unlock the challenge types, but once I did Stoked instantly became more enjoyable.

It’s too bad that riders are essentially directionless when the game starts. There’s a brief tutorial and there are indicators in the customization menu (which is comparatively light when looking at other titles) that sponsorships are possible, but once you start boarding there’s no kind of progress updates that pop up on-screen or indicators of how close you are to reaching the pro level. There’s an “objectives” portion of the menu that disappears during the challenges, but I suppose something is better than nothing at all.

So how is the actual act of snowboarding? The short answer: it’s a mixed bag. When you land an impressive trick solidly, on flat land, things are peachy. There’s a good sense of reward and the tricks all look slid while you’re in the air, but the problems start when you start tricking off of complex pieces of the environment.

As you make your way down the mountain you’ll see everything from cottages, to broken tree trunks to large slabs of ice that you can trick off of. Sadly the physics in Stoked aren’t quite where they need to be for these to be a viable tricking option. Getting stuck in creases in the environment and random bumps in logs and other objects will send you careening towards the ground for no apparent reason. During challenges that require specific tricks (like hitting boardslide and having the game read it as a noseslide because of a ridge on your grinding surface) this can be come exceedingly annoying.

• 1
• 2
• Next