Wed Aug 31, 2022 4:00 am
Long time no post here, but, I feel like I wanted to get this one out of my system.
So, I've always disliked how the characters look and act in On Tour, and many fans can agree that it was a big mistake to not make them playable in story mode but instead force us to play as a boring, lifeless "create-a-character". However, upon re-reading the character profiles that EA released prior to the game's release, I realized that they did so much more damage to the characters than that. They f**ing immoralized and disrespected them, man. They made them look like complete douchebags who does nothing but partying and sleeping around in their sparetime. They even made Psymon wet his pants in public - like WTF?
Take Allegra for example; in SSX3 she was described as being an enthusiastic young girl with the spirit of a rebel. Sure, there were several hints that she had a bad temper sometimes (such as breaking lots of boards), but they kept her grounded in a funloving way and never once did you get the feeling that she was mean or sloppy, or that she didn't take snowboarding seriously. But according to On Tour, she's now an asshole drunkard who beats up Elise and doesn't give a shit about training.
She's just one example, but she proves the overall point and the same can be said about all the others as well. I guess the only one they didn't f*** up was Nate who's still pretty much the same as in SSX3. Even the new characters don't get away, Tyson for example is described as having killed his own damn dog as a kid. I mean seriously, who wrote this!? It seems like whoever was in charge thought they were writing profiles for a gangster game. The writer also seems to be obsessed with making everyone "edgy" and "badass" without any real reason, not taking into consideration the history of the characters.
I suppose one explanation could be the overall theme of "on tour" making an analogy of the life of a rock star. EA wanted the game to be more focused on real life and sponsorships, and have the characters deal with the pressure that comes from being extremely popular. However, that's not what real life snowboarding looks like. Snowboarders are not rock stars, nor do they live or behave like them.
"Sex, drugs & rock n roll" might've been a real thing, but "Sex, drugs & snowboarding" is just plain stupid.