SSX will contain an online pass but it isn’t as restrictive as most. Find out why…

After a long absence, the SSX franchise is back. There was a time when SSX was like the snowboarding equivalent to Tony Hawk. Over time the Tony Hawk franchise diminished and, and SSX never made it to current generation platforms (excluding the Wii). Yesterday at the Spike Video Game Awards, EA announced SSX: Deadly Descents. The game has taken on a much more serious tone.

I was able to check out one of the new Kinect game Adrenalin Misfits from the Konami booth.

Misfits is a snowboarding game. You stand in front of the sensor and bend your body around as if you were on a real snowboard. You stand sideways and bend up to go forward, back to go right and forward to go left. You can also jump to do special moves and stunts.

Ubisoft’s recent DRM “upgrades” have caused many a gamer to take up arms against the company. Not allowing players to play without having a constant internet connection was just the first step in an obviously diabolical attempt to eliminate all of the consumer’s freedoms. The second step is to remove the physical manual.

While the previous paragraph may have been laced with sarcasm, the fact of the matter is that the company will be cutting costs by digitizing Xbox 360 and PS3 manuals and providing them via the disc rather than having something that gamers can hold and read. Shaun White Snowboarding, coming out Fall 2010, will be the first of Ubisoft’s console releases to see the new initiative.

They sure dragged that one out. Ubisoft’s press conference lasted two hours with a lot of talking, a couple big-name celebrities and very little actual game footage.

The focus was on what they liked to call “confluence,” bringing games together with other media including movies, the WiiMotionPlus, the wireless skate deck controller and the web.

Games on display included Assassin’s Creed 2, Red Steel 2, Rabids Go Home, Your Shape and many others…

Just in time for the holiday season, a game that’s perfect for your favorite PC sports gaming junkie has been released through Steam. Shaun White Snowboarding is now available for $29.99 although a hard copy of the game for PC and DS from retail outlets costs the same. The benefit of Steam is that if you find a computer with the Steam client on it that you can sign onto, you can play the game pretty much anywhere. It became an active download in the Steam stores on December 3, 2008. For other consoles and the PSP the game would set you back between $39.99 and $59.99.

The game offers a lot of options and freedom in terms of play. One is the “open-world mountains” that you can board any way you want. Other than the normal snowboarding, you can also have snowball fights, hike through…