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#ssx The new SSX will be a heavily networked game, so you'll never feel lonely snowboarding. A presentation of the new game at EA's Gamescom press conference in Germany today focused on the game's many ways for people to compete against each other. More »

Speaking on stage at EA's Gamescom press event, SSX creative director Todd Batty announced several new features for the upcoming xtreme sports title. The game looks to be heavily influenced by EA recent racing titles, with Batty noting that every time a player records a personal best on a particular event, a ghost of the run will be uploaded for their friends to compete against.

Players will also be able to set up customized events. These events can be global, with Batty stating that up to 100,000 players will be able to compete simultaneously in real time. SSX will also feature an Autolog-like service called Ridernet. Powered by the same engine as Autolog, Ridernet will allow players to "like" certain drops and will recommend new drops for the player to try. The service also keeps track of friends, allowing players to vote them up -- or down if they're just too good.

Finally, EA announced the pre-order bonuses for SSX. GameStop will include a bonus character, Eddie Wachowski (watch out, he's tricky), his elite snowboard and a "bonus boost." Origin, Amazon, Best Buy and Wal-mart will all receive one character's elite snowboard and a bonus boost. See the full list after the break.

To be honest, I was completely overwhelmed by the reaction to SSX coming out of E3. In the early days of this project, there was a lot of debate internally at EA about how many SSX fans still existed and how much interest remained in the market for games like SSX, and even some of the games we have taken further inspiration from such as Burnout and old-school Tony Hawk. The huge reaction to our launch trailer at the VGA‘s was the first indication that the SSX fan base was still very much alive and as passionate as ever, but actually meeting some of these people and seeing their reaction to what we are building first-hand was truly inspirational. Of course, with that passion comes a lot of strong opinions on what else we should be adding to the game or bringing back from the old games. We know we can’t possibly please everyone, but our fans should know that we are listening to everything they say and that the team is killing themselves to try and make the very best game possible.

Here I spoke with Jeff Rubenstein of the PlayStation.Blog about how we use NASA satellite maps to create new runs, including the PS3-exclusive Mount Fuji level.