Deluxe Ski Jump 4

Deluxe Ski Jump 4 for PC is another installment in a series of incredibly popular ski-jumping simulators. The game was again created by a talented Finnish programmer, Jussi Koskel alone. Deluxe Ski Jump 4 focuses on delivering both a large portion of gameplay and a relatively realistic depiction of ski jumping as a discipline.

Mechanics

The list of game modes available gets expanded in Deluxe Ski Jump 4 for PC. A training mode is very useful when learning how to jump in particular locations, such as Lahti or Lillehammer. The player can take part in a single competition, as well as in full seasons of ski jumping, including the necessity to participate in qualification sessions. Similar to the previous installments, a large emphasis was placed on the multiplayer modes – the players can perform jumps in turns at a single PC.

Not many changes were introduced to the controls, thus the player has to execute three tightly interconnected stages of the jump correctly. Those three stages include the take-off, controlling the character in flight, and landing of course. Judges were also included obviously, who award different amounts of points for jumps. Several additional factors make it more difficult for the player to perform a jump here, including the wind (its force and direction change), rain or snow (these affect the slope), as well as fog, which can severely limit visibility. Interestingly, the player can modify the weather conditions and the length of the inrun to their liking during the training sessions, which helps to improve one's skills.

Technical aspects

Deluxe Ski Jump 4 for PC is the second game in the series to offer full-fledged 3D visuals, and those are noticeably higher-quality than in Deluxe Ski Jump 3.0, which came out in 2004. The game can be played from many different camera angles (above all, a side view, an aerial view, a TPP view and different cameras located in various parts of the jump). Most of the efforts were put in creating realistic character animations and physics behind their movements, though one also needs to notice the addition of infrastructures for particular jumps, cheering fans, or an ability to take part in competitions at different times of day (at night for example, with use of artificial lighting). Although the game's hardware requirements went noticably higher when compared to the previous installments, one can still launch Deluxe Ski Jump 4 on many lower-spec PCs and older operating systems, such as Windows 98 or Windows 2000.

Last updated on February 1, 2017