Shaun White Snowboarding Review

The ski resort feel has been created extremely well

Of course, things aren't helped by the fairly average board you start with, with the better boards costing a lot of cash - something that isn't easy to come by when you're barely making the top three in events. Gaining enough speed to get big air is pretty tricky early on, with your boarder annoyingly slowing down far too quickly on level ground and slightly downward slopes. If you've been skiing or snowboarding you'll know that it takes a fair while to slow down unless you deliberately try to do so - which simply isn't the case in Shaun White. Other than the board there are various items of clothing to buy to kit your boarder out with, but it's not really character creation on par with the very best in the sports genre.

Playing alone is just half of the game, with Shaun White designed as a social experience for up to sixteen players online. The interface is very Burnout Paradise and GTA 4, with all actions carried out using the d-pad, meaning you're never taken out of the game world. With other players you can mess about on the slopes, take part in events (some of which are exclusively multiplayer), throw snowballs at each other, show off or show friends how to access parts of the mountain that they didn't know about. Online play works really well on the whole, although we did experience some lag when we managed to get more than eight players onto the mountain - not game destroying lag, but other boarders were warping slightly.

Built using the Assassin's Creed graphics engine, you'd expect Shaun White to look pretty nice, and it does, at least some of the time. There are some genuine 'WOW' moments to be had here, especially when starting a run from the top of one of the four massive mountains, but there are far too many graphical glitches and issues. The draw distance at times is breathtaking, but this often comes with a sluggish frame rate. Objects and shadows pop into view far too close to your boarder, there's a pretty terrible depth of field effect and your board will frequently pass straight through solid objects - we're fine with some snow over the board, but we're pretty sure a board wouldn't pass underneath solid ice.

What Ubisoft has nailed is the feeling of being at a ski resort. With the sheer size of the mountains, the working chair lifts, the other boarders on the slopes and the general design of the buildings dotted about, it's the best visual representation of the sport to date. It's just a shame that some technical issues get in the way. Something that came as quite a disappointment is the avalanches that take place high in the mountains. We expected quite a spectacle, but the graphical effects aren't nearly impressive enough and don't match the rumbling sound effect that gives a superb feeling of being chased down a mountain.

Online functionality is excellent, but the core gameplay has too many issues.

Something Ubisoft got mostly right is the soundtrack, which mixes modern and classic tracks to ensure you're bound to find something to enjoy, but it might be a little too mixed for some. Blue Oyster Cult's (Don't Fear) The Reaper and Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit stick out as high points, but there are also tracks from Kasabian, Faithless, The Ting Tings and RUN-DMC. We're not so sold on the likes of Corrosion of Conformity and Stabbing Westward, but there are in-game options to quickly change tracks and to choose from set playlists, so you don't have to simply cycle through everything.

It's clear that Ubisoft had some big ideas for Shaun White Snowboarding, but many of these have been hampered by an overly difficult control scheme, cumbersome navigation, a terrible map, too much collecting and a disappointing frame rate. The recreation of the four ski resorts is excellent, the online functionality is well thought out, and at times the views are magnificent, but the game just isn't as much fun as it should have been.