Amped Click for more screens! Publisher: Microsoft Microsoft has been pushing Amped pretty hard considering that it just seems like a simple snowboarding game. But as it turns out, there's a lot more going on with this puppy than just falling down a hill strapped to some fiberglass. Essentially Amped fits into the cozy boots of classic snowboarding games like Cool Boarders. You pick a rider, pick a hill and grind, flip, or stumble your way down to the bottom. While the guts of the game are fairly basic, the meat lies in the robust Career mode, which is just about the deepest we've ever seen. In addition to customizing your own rider's coat, hat, boots and board, you'lll literally take him from the bottom of the run to the heights of snowboarding glory. By completing runs and a variety of challenge types, you'll gain a better reputation and earn access to trickier runs. The look and feel of this game is very strong. You'll occasionally see another boarder join you down a run, and watching him set up for a jump, blast off the lip in a gorgeous puff of snow, do a few twists and land clean is super cool. It's even cooler when you do it yourself, of course. Amped might not redefine the snowboarding genre, but it certainly captures the energy and fun of the sport. Armchair boarders should certainly check it out. - Ben

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The plot revolves around some weird futuristic mountain resort where snowboarders are considered the dregs of the slopes. Throw in an Orwellian big brother theme, a gaggle of thinly drawn characters and a few cut scenes and you'll get the picture…er, sort of.

But don't let the role-playing formula fool you - there isn't much in the way of stat crunching or inventory juggling. The bulk of the gameplay is strictly careening downhill, jumping off ledges and pulling tricks left and right.

Dark Summit features a unique mountain system that actually allows you to start at the very top of the slope and wind your way down through the sub stages in one fell swoop. That's about a straight 7 or 8 minute run. We're particularly impressed with the cool physics - as you run into barrels and other random items littering the mountain, they'll actually roll down the hill with you.

Will this funky little game be able to compete with Microsoft's own Amped? Probably not from a conventional standpoint, no, but there's enough new stuff going on here to warrant the raise of an eyebrow.

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The NFL Fever series was a decent if somewhat overlooked line of gridiron games for the PC, and Microsoft decided to make it their first official entry into the ultra-competitive world of console sports. As the first football game for the Xbox, the comparisons between it and that 'other' football series starring a certain Mr. Madden will inevitably crop up.

The fact is, however, that NFL Fever 2002 is a much more arcadey version of simulation football than the painstakingly realistic Madden 2002. The hits are hard, the game flow is much quicker and the action is non-stop.

Though the action defnitely moves at a quicker pace than Madden, this is still a simulation game at heart. Every NFL team is accurately represented, including very convincing facial mapping and pretty nice body sizes. This is a good-looking game.

However, we're not sold that it plays as good as it looks. It's definitely fast, but that also means it can get a little hard to follow.

The question remains if the overall experience is as rewarding as what many consider to be the premiere football game on the planet in Madden 2002. Since EA's game is also coming to the Xbox, chances are we'll all get a first hand comparison soon enough.

- Ben