What Do You Think of Snow? (Roundtable)





SNOW is a new open-world winter sports game coming to PS4 only. What are your thoughts on the concept of an open world game like this? Should other franchises, such as Tony Hawk, follow suit?



Phil Varckette: When I was younger, I enjoyed some of the Winter Olympic games on the Genesis and PS1. I always enjoyed doing the ski jump. So when I saw this game, it piqued my interest.



The only thing I'm worried about is how fleshed out it will be. I obviously have no evidence to back this up, but it feels like it could just be one of those rush jobs or a cash grab. I certainly hope this isn't the case. I'm also not sure how the open-world concept will work with this, but that is intriguing.



We only got to see Skiing, but I hope we get snowboarding too. That's a blast when done right. As well as the aforementioned ski jump. That is a must have for me. A fun, well executed, winter sports game could be a great time waster this winter. Let's hope for the best.

Robert Kollars: I am a lover of open-world games, especially when it comes to fringe sports titles. Obviously we don't know a lot, but what we do know sounds like like it could become a very popular title, especially if it truly is a free-to-play and not pay-to-win. The fact that it is only starting with skiing isn't a huge plus, but the idea of an interactive, open-world skier, with an in-depth photo mode, could be enough to push the title, until they can at least add snowboarding.



This will be a title that I will keep my eye on for sure, and at this point I am excited to get my hands on it. There is still a lot of information users need to hear, but if handled properly, SNOW could make a true impact in the indie market.



Caley Roark There are a lot of questions about this title left to be answered. The "free-to-play" angle is a huge question mark for me, as is the online performance and actual gameplay.



However, if everything turns out well, this could be a big hit. It will be in a large percentage of the user-base, enabling a vibrant online scene. If the gameplay works, it will fill a niche that hasn't been touched in a serious way in sometime. Open world also opens up the ability for the producers to institute a wide range of creative play modes.



Depending on how turns out, I could see other fringe titles finding there way onto modern consoles using this model. Instead of annual releases, producers could update new courses, modes, and even sports into an already populated world.

Ben Vollmer: It's almost a surprise that it took this long for an open-world sports game to be announced. Still, with so many questions left unanswered (as Caley mentioned above), it's hard to get very excited for a game that doesn't look great graphically and has the vaunted free-to-play model.



That said, it's certainly a low-risk/high-reward for gamers. The one upside of the free-to-play model is that you are more or less given an extended demo to see how you like things. At the very least, SNOW promises to be an interesting experiment -- one that I hope pans out.



It will be interesting to see how successful the game is, given its unique take.



Dustin Toms: SNOW is a genius idea, something that should have been done long ago to stay current with PCs. But now that home consoles are just as powerful as a solid gaming computer, we should begin to see more open-world games pop up out of the blue (don't forget about Forza).



The free-to-play tag is nice, but it leaves plenty of lingering questions. If it's as good as advertised, keep an eye out for franchises like Tony Hawk and SSX (maybe EA Sports BIG will make a splash) to jump on the bandwagon.



Expect pay-to-win, though.