‘Steep’: Free Alaska DLC Hits PC And Consoles In Mid-February, Says Ubisoft

Fans of Steep, the open-world winter sports game from Ubisoft, are finally getting a better idea of what longterm support for the game is going to look like. We still don’t know much about the game’s Season Pass, which remains available for purchase on Steam, PSN and Xbox Live, but we do have early details on a free expansion coming next month. And that’s just the start of this week’s Steep news.

According to Ubisoft, Steep players will be given access to a brand new mountain next month, inspired by the snow-covered Alaskan Range, featuring new an assortment of new challenges and runs for the community to explore. The new mountain will hit PC and consoles on Feb. 10 and will be a free download. Ubisoft hasn’t published specific information about the new mountain, like the number of new challenges prepared for Steep players. But the plethora of activities featured in the base game would certainly suggest the next mountain to hit Steep will keep players entertained for at least a few hours.

In addition to revealing the launch window for Steep’s first expansion, Ubisoft also published the game’s latest update this week, featuring an assortment of changes, performance tweaks and brand new features. Steep 1.04 introduces a new dashboard for the game, a “recurring competitive tournament” called Steep World Tour and a Director Mode for those who enjoy making use of the game’s recording features. This week’s patch also improves many of the game’s core mechanics, including the G-force and jumping systems.

Here are the complete patch notes for Steep, courtesy of Ubisoft/Steam:

NEW FEATURES

• Welcome Dashboard - Displays the most important in-game news and suggests content for players’ current game session.
• Live Page – Provides more info on the Steep World Tour and current series going on, as well as which Community Challenges are available to play.
• Steep World Tour – A recurring competitive tournament open to all Steep players. Check out the Live Page for more details, including tournament phase and ranking information.
• Community Challenges – Challenges made by the Community, for the Community! Selected trail challenges created by the community will be highlighted and made available to all players as a Community Challenge to beat. Look for them in the new Live Page!
• New Customization Items – Shhh… they’re a surprise! More will be revealed in due time.
• Director Mode – Provides more freedom and Replay Mode options (such as camera types and ambiance) for players to get even more creative in their replay videos.
• Hide HUD – And last but not least (and because you asked for it!)… You now have the option to hide the HUD while riding or creating replay videos. You can toggle the HUD display by going into OPTIONS -> VIDEO.

IMPROVEMENTS

G-force System

We’ve improved the G-force system to make its function clearer and more accurate. Some riders expressed confusion concerning how/why they would fall while riding. The biggest hits will now activate the black-and-white dizziness state rather than triggering a fall, as was previously the case. The next hit, however, will trigger a fall.

New Jump Behavior

The jumping system has been improved in order to make jumping more accurate. We noticed that certain complex logical sequences sometimes prevented players from being able to jump. This is no longer the case: when pressing the jump button, riders now actually jump!

Character Barks are heard less often, as requested by the community.

Mountain View Display has been improved. Now, only activities from the highlighted region appear, as requested by the community.

Music Track no longer changes when retrying a challenge. Instead, the same track is played again, as requested by players.

Display of Players’ Icons has been improved with increased visibility.

Challenge Ghosts are now tracked more efficiently in order to better monitor challenges for potential cheating.

BUGS FIXED

• Players remain visible at more than 1000 meters.
• Some crashes occur.
• Players remain stuck on small hills while trying to ride forward.
• Riders spawn into a rock after teleporting to Butterfly Challenge.
• Memorable Moment "1st Daily", "1st Weekly", and "1st All Time" needed for 100% completion of the game.
• First snowboard push-off is stronger than skiing (not intended behavior). Fixed per community request.
• "NEW" message appears on several already completed Challenges, Mountain Stories, and Legendary Quests.
• The score displayed on the challenge panel is not the one from the ghost played.
• The subtitles of the 'Winter Wonderland' Mountain Story inaccurately refers to the “Atacma” desert instead of the correct “Atacama”.
• The Friends Leaderboard displays inconsistent ranking information when you have less than 3 friends.
• Info Panel score resets to its default setting when joining a group, even though the player has already completed the challenge.
• The character will remain in a standing position when the installation of the game is completed during a ride.
• A non-functioning "Medals" button appears on the challenge menu after sharing a private challenge.
• When playing a challenge with a logo, the next played private challenge will also display the logo.
• Mountain Story Barbegazi Ski Orienteering ("Find the BARBEGAZI") objective won't update on the Quest Info Panel if doing clue #2 before clue #1.
• Mountain Story LE GROS ROGNON DU GEANT can only be completed only after hitting the iceberg at the end of the race.
• Teleport to another player in the player's group does not work.
• The Memorable Moment "Score more than 1,000 Freeride points in one ride" does not trigger when the player reaches the required score.
• When selecting a challenge or quest from the Progress Menu while the character is in fixed view, the player can see outside of the world.
• The message "You are close enough to unlock a Drop Zone" pops up after discovering a new Drop Zone.
• The Objectives panel of two Mountain Stories continues to display in Mountain View even after completion (“Mountain Scraper” in Switzerland, “Bird of Prey” in Mont Blanc).
• For a few Mountain Stories, when the player selects it from the Progress Menu he/she is spawned on an incorrect challenge.
• [XB1] Low fps in game while in a 4-person coop session.
• [XB1] All challenges completed during onboarding will lose their scores after finishing the onboarding.
• Wrong rules are displayed for Snow Snake Challenge.
• Icons and panels flicker when the player moves the RS button on the menu after switching between "Rider Tab" or "Profile" and "Progress Menu".
• A second helmet is attached to the backpack when a wingsuit costume is equipped while the wingsuit helmet/ backpack sub-menus are selected.
• The sound becomes briefly corrupted when the user opens the Sports wheel or changes the camera.
• The "GoPro Be a HERO" writing on the paraglide starts flickering when the character swings.
• The "Black and Orange Snowboard Shoes" appear two times in the shop.
• Transporting to a challenge does not occur when selecting it from the "Progress Menu" if the menu was opened while the binoculars were equipped.
• The objective to "Create Challenge" in the onboarding can be validated if the user presses d-pad left and moves the cursor on a trail challenge.
• Slightly glitchy clouds at night during "Say Hi!" Challenge.
• The strong coop session icon appears for a user that's not in the party, under certain circumstances.
• The player will lose the ability to change or play any sport after manually entering ragdoll state inside the wicker basket of a hot air balloon.
• [PC] Removed possibility to jump with LT/L2
• [PC] Fixed narrator in the Benchmark.
• [PC] Fixed several incorrect line breakers in text.
• [PC] Fixed aliasing on the Steam Controller feedback icons and recolored them in black/white style like for all other icons.
• [PC] Fixed accuracy of the head tracking using eye tracking.
• [PC] Changed speed of "Zoom at gaze" using eye tracking.
• [PC] Fixed disconnection of the "Extended View" feature after changing display mode using eye tracking.
• [PC] Fixed several crashes.
• Minor display issues - Thanks for reading this far and see you on the mountain!

Steep is currently available for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. The game’s first expansion, Alaska, debuts on Feb. 10, 2017.

Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes.com and follow Scott on Twitter for more Steep news throughout 2017 and however long Ubisoft continues to support Steep in the months ahead.