Skate 2 Demo Available, Impressions Here

[goh]

The demo is limited to Pete's Back Alley and Slappy's Park so no you can't tell. In the post demo trailer (wich appears to give away the entire story) it looks like you can have Big Black come into illegal places and beat up all the security people.

The only new trick I managed to pull off was the Superdude flip. Moving stuff around is cool,much better done than in TH. Injuries are awesome.

You have to remake your skater every time and it looks like they put everything that's available to buy into the demo,a lot of it's locked but it's there to preview.

Overall it's improved in every way.

To adress something in the closed topic it's not going on PSN because they gave their people the holidays off and so no one was there to certify it so it's pretty much all pushed back a week.

[ezekiel55]

Quote: Originally Posted by GSW

is it a timed demo like the last one... i spent some major time on that bad boy

Yep, and its much shorter than Skate 1's demo.

You start out with 5 minutes on a timer, and as you acheive objectives time is added on.

Like you, I spent a ton of time in the community center in the last demo, unfortunately its much shorter this time around.

[Vast]

This is sounding like a must buy.

[GSW]

Quote: Originally Posted by zekey55

Yep, and its much shorter than Skate 1's demo. You start out with 5 minutes on a timer, and as you acheive objectives time is added on. Like you, I spent a ton of time in the community center in the last demo, unfortunately its much shorter this time around.

thats bad news.

ahh well after next week ill be playng the full version anyway

[goh]

No video uploads in the demo so don't spend 2 minutes setting something up,2 minutes trying to hit it untill it falls over (it was supposed to fall over when I actually hit the trick) and you have to spend another 1:30 setting it up then finally hit it with 13 seconds left only to find out you can't save it. (and it didn't fall over...cause it was supposed to that time)

[laforr77]

Well, I liked the first one, but I haven't been following the progress on this game. Apparently everyone already knew the game was gonna run at 60 FPS instead of 30, but It was a welcome surprise for me. Improves the overall look of the game just on that. Like other have said, it feels like the controls have been tightened a bit, and I have been able to pull the trick I wanted with a little more regularity. The trick guide is also improved, with a small explanation of the trick to go along with the motion. Not a big deal for vets, but newcomers should like this.

[Digital AK]

I tried it yesterday, and my feelings for it are mixed.

Good things first:

The framerate is higher than the first one, although in replays and bails it drops a bit. But overall it feels more fluid.

Bail animations, and animations in general are cooler. The way the skater's body adapts when it lands sideways or hits something is even better than the first one, which was already very good.

The board itself really feels like it's in contact with the ground as you skate.

Being able to kick the board away and abort tricks mid-air is really cool, as are the big gap bails after you kick the board and crouch in the air!

Now, the bad stuff:

The graphics and lighting seems worse. I can´t quite put my finger on why this is, but everything feels more cartoonish. I suppose they had to reduce textures or lighting quality to get higher framerates, but in can't tell what it is yet. The models look good, maybe even better than the ones in the first game, but the clothing styles look worse, more cartoonish. The way slim fit pants get wider at the bottom is an example of this, like the "phat" look on one of the Tony Hawks. This was a let down.

Although the animations are more fluid, the physics are worse. I think the ollies are way too high, they pop without "effort", and the skater crouches way too much (again, like the latest Tony Hawks) when popping an ollie or landing stuff. It feels like you're skating underwater!

Finally, the biggest let down...

The spin physics are terrible! The the board seems magically "glued" to your feet when you do spins and land high flips is terrible. I'm not sure how to put this, but in the first game, it felt like the skater and the board were two separate things. Here, it's like the board follows the feet. This is most obvious when you do a 180 flip. The board advances and the recedes a bit, following the position of the feet in the air, but since it isn't in contact with them, it shouldn't do this.

These complaints might sound a little stupid, but i skated for 9 years and when Skate came, i was really blown away by how real it felt, from the controls to the physics. There was a certain riggidity to the skater that made it feel real when responding to hits and landings. And now it seems all too floppy and programmed.

I'm from Portugal, so please excuse any errors while typing.

[Blzer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Digital AK

These complaints might sound a little stupid, but i skated for 9 years and when Skate came, i was really blown away by how real it felt, from the controls to the physics. There was a certain riggidity to the skater that made it feel real when responding to hits and landings. And now it seems all too floppy and programmed.

These complaints sound exactly like what I have been seeing since jumping on the Skate 2 bandwagon. The cartoony models, the flip tricks being "attached" to the player (I saw a YouTube video last night with replays showing it), etc.

I'm torn as to whether I should buy this or not. I have a PS3, so it's still another week before I try the demo.