Not to be gross...but this game is orgasm inducing. Don't play without a towel.
Dont worry about the crappy ranking though, as you continue on the tour, you quickly gain a respective amount of hype points (not to mention a nice little something in the bank), which as they increase, your ranking does the same.
Theres no lodge as in SSX 3, but from the map menu, you can go to the barber shop (new haristyle, new facial hair, etc.), the clothes store (shirts, jackets, gloves, hats, goggles, pants, boots, all the regular stuff) and you can go to a board shop (where you can either buy a new racing, trick, or combo board) Just like in SSX Tricky, your character gets better as they use a better board, so start saving up for the 100% board (a mere $2,000,000)
Don't worry though, it shouldnt take you too long to amass this amount and more, which if you want to buy everything, is about $5,000,000+ more.
After you actually get to the tour and begin to take part in the actual tour races and slopestyles, you're surrounded in complete and incredicly vivid and complex levels. Not only are the graphics incredible, but the levels themselves are massive in the amount of alternate routes and shortcuts you can take.
I haven't gotten around to playing the multiplayer feature or the freeride yet, but when I do, look for an update to this in my blog or on the SSX Union boards.
Overall, this is one of the highlights of my entire collection and one of the better games I've played for a while.