We got around to playing Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder the other night. It's like crack. Tracy and I played it for a few hours Thursday night, then she decided to take some time while I was at work Friday to get in some practice behind my back so she beat me several times Friday night. Too bad for her she worked all day yesterday, so I got to stay home and actually read the instructions. Heh. I kept quiet about it until she got home and asked if I wanted to play. I told her I'd kick her ass and she scoffed at me. We started out with Horse (sort of like the basketball thing - one player does a trick, then the next player has to beat the point total of the other, and it goes back and forth until someone doesn't beat the other, then they get a letter). She did like a 180 or something for like 50 points on her first go. I hauled ass over to the wall and did a handplant for like 3500 points. Heehee. She wasn't as amused. We played a few more games before I finally told her how to do plants and slides.

It's weird seeing how far video games have come. I remember a skiing game on Intellivision with an aerial view of a rather sparcely detailed course, and the "skier" (really just a couple lines for the skies and some little blobs that nearly resembled a person) didn't do much more than angle in one direction or the other when you turned and went up a little when you jumped. The sound effects consisted pretty much of a "shoosh"-type sound as the slope scrolled by and I think a little thud when he fell. Now we have this incredibly detailed 3D world, with fairly realistic looking people who actually move their arms and legs and stuff. But what really got me thinking about it is the sound. This game has a soundtrack of 12 songs that loop throughout the game. Instead of little computer-sounding bleeps, we get full CD-Quality songs by bands like Papa Roach and Alien Ant Farm and even guys on the slope yelling at us to slow down or get out of restricted areas. Can't wait to see what gaming's like in 10 years.

Off to go shred the slopes before I head to work.

mood ~  impressed