As you stare down the track, looking down the treacherous path that lies ahead, you take a deep breath, adjust your goggles, and get your skis ready as you charge out of the starting gate and try your best to have the fastest time down the hill. You are competing against other skiers, for that coveted number one time. That is essentially the premise of this game, as you take your skier and aim to be the best skier. In ORF Ski Challenge 2007, you have many different options to customize your skier, the track you race on, and even the weather conditions as well. It's easy to control your character, and you also get some great music, and much more in this title. 

When you first start up the game, head on over to the options menu to customize your skier. You can choose a male or female skier, as well as different designs for your skis and different colour outfits as well.  Once that is done, you have 3 different modes you can try out. It would be best to start with the training mode, to get accustomed with the controls. Be warned, these tracks are not short, but are quite lengthy ones.  They will take you a fair amount of time before you can complete them. Once you think you get enough training finished, you can move onto qualifying.  But here is the tricky part, and I'm going to warn you about this feature.

Once you enter the qualifying mode, you will get a prompt of a login and password screen.  If you wish, you can register yourself.  It asks for a bunch of personal details - mostly where you live, your name, zip code and so on.  Of course, you can always give gibberish if you like. Once that is done, it’ll connect you to the server, and you can compete in a qualifying race.  If you manage to beat the qualifying race, you will be able to enter the race mode, where you can compete against other skiers for the best times.

Once you do start playing, the graphics are done really quite well. From the snow as you race down, to the different weather effects (such as the sun and even snow), to even the individual fans who cheer you on, and the different sights such as chair lifts and more. It all looks very nice, and you will definitely need a fairly decent system to really experience its beauty. The music is composed of some nice tunes. Some are a bit... strange, but most fit in with the game.  And some really give you a push with the speed and excitement that is being pumped out by the artists on these music tracks.

The only real concern that I had with the game, was the whole idea of having to register to qualify. I can understand why it is required, as the site does keep track of registered profiles, and records them for the best times and all that.  But if the feature was optional, that would have been nice. Granted it is free and it is your choice, you can still experience a lot of the game through the training mode, being able to customize to your hearts content if you do not wish to participate in this manner.

Nevertheless, this was a fantastic game, and I definitely recommend that you check it out.  Especially if you like to ski, or are just a fan of skiing in general. It’s called ORF Ski Challenge 2007, see it for yourself.

UPDATERS NOTE
The game has been updated in 2009, and contains several improvements.