Skate 2 Impressions

[TCrouch]

Quote: Originally Posted by DirtyJerz32

Can anyone with the game answer this question?

Based on my experiences from last night:

You have Own the Spot, Jam Sessions, Best Trick (usually a 3 round affair where you only count air tricks, grinds, and open, etc), Hall of Meat bail contests, S.K.A.T.E., and a Free Skate.

Within each Free Skate environment you also have a bunch of little challenges that you can start with whoever wants to at any time.

I agree with the "sim" comments. I spent probably 30 minutes just doing simple flip tricks to handrail grinds last night in some little plaza I found. I was kicked back in my recliner while playing it, and noticed that I kept pointing my toes or twisting my foot around. My wife was getting a kick out of it. I always make fun of her for interpreting her video game character through her own motions...leaning left when trying to run left, etc. Last night she got to do the same to me.

[goh]

Quote: Originally Posted by aukevin

The video editor takes some time to get used to, and it doesn't seem to have a camera style effect like the last game (black and white, sepia, etc), but the tripod view is pretty sweet.

Acording to the reviews it'll be DLC. I have a vid of one of my simpler contraptions but haven't uploaded it yet nor know if I could find it when I do.

[CS10029]

-High camera is nice, probably gonna switch to it.

-Game is taking forever between cutscenes and challenge screens, kinda annoying. Didn't see anything like that in the demo.

-Graphics look equal to the demo. Cutscenes are still taking forever though...

-OMG, WTF. The loading screens are taking forever. Is anyone else having this problem? What is with the plain white screen?

-The environement seems a lot less empty so far.

-Skated by a bench with some NPC's on it. When i went by the moved their feet in so they didn't get hit. Thought that was kinda cool.

More to come!

[goh]

I can't get into my account so I guess I can't embed it.

http://skatereel.ea.com/members/2/514705.aspx

Only one vid so far of a self made railbox.

Whoever came up with that Razor's Edge spot must've worked for Neversoft and no one told them that this game doesn't have a grind button and it does have gravity. I got it eventually but that was rediculous. I also see they went to the Rockstar school of "OMG A drop of water! Run away!" that or your character is a vampire. It's shallow!

No loading problems here but I have it on PS3. The back of the box says only 720p and 1080i but it went into 1080p. Same deal as the demo.

[Shinyhubcaps]

The game is worth the price of admission if you enjoyed the first. Otherwise, I would be a little skeptical.

The gameplay is pretty good, and I haven't had many problems except for my skater inexplicably falling when I go between on-board and off-board.

The skater customization is, in my opinion, upsettingly bad. No matter what I do to the face, the head looks exceptionally large and heavy. Where some sponsors had 10-20 items of gear last year, there are about 4 this year. Graphics creator makes for some pretty ugly shirts with very few options, but it's a nice addition.

The city is OK, but it has its flaws. There are times when you'll notice something is laid out the same as in the original Skate, and it is nice to see how it's changed. For the most part, though, I haven't found many great spots, and the style of the city is a big step back from the original. No longer do the different sections have their own unique flair. They all kinda run together, and most of them look dark and run-down.

The menus are awful. The map should be more like the map in the last game. Instead, it only gives you the one view, and instead of scrolling with a cursor, you can only jump to locations on your list. It's good for challenges, but bad for marking spots.

Also, unless I'm wrong, you can't manage multiple skaters?

The framerate is inconsistent. It can be brilliant one second and upsettingly choppy the next.

I much preferred when the filmer was invisible.

Despite these things, though, it is a good game. I have played it for several hours. If you liked the first, then the purchase is good for this one. If you did not play the first, you may find the story mode a bit confusing, but you may like the game nonetheless. The biggest test for me will come when I'm done with the career, seeing if I still want to play just to skate around.

[mgoblue]

I am having fun and the career mode seems fun like the first. It's definitely just more of the first, with the ability to get off the board (clumsy, but still helpful). If you didn't like the first, you'll hate this one, but otherwise it'll be hours of fun for us.

[metallicatz]

Spent several hours with it today. I loved the first one because it was by the far the best representation of skateboarding ever. The Tony Hawk series just took it way to far to be enjoyable IMO. I skated for 13 years so I definitely appreciate sim style. I was reading the IGN review today before I bought it and something struck as me lame that they said with regard to the control scheme and pulling tricks...........they said that it was hard to go off ramps and handplant on balconies and stuff. Umm..........what? DUH! This isn't Tony Hawk where you can launch 50 feet in the air off a launch ramp into a grind all the way around the roof of an office building and ollie from there into a boardslide around the top of Yankee Stadium into a tail-slide along the wing of the Space Shuttle as it orbits the planet.

Anyway, It's nice to be able to walk up stairs even if the controls are horrid. Moving objest can also be an exercise in frustration, but I can look past it. And yeah, the respawn can be absolutely terrible at times.

Controls feel the same which is a good thing. The day Skate moves away from realistic skating is tha day I step off. I haven't gotten around to doing much of the new tricks yet......spent most of my time so far completing career challenges and skating around.

The city feels more cluttered to be honest. I like the old San Velona (or whatever it's called) that didn't look the entire city was built to be skated with transitions all over the place. This new city feels more Tony Hawk-ish in that much of the city looks like a skatepark.

The vert controls are something I was hoping they'd refine and so far as I can tell they haven't. The pumping mechanism still sucks. The vert/pool skating in general still sucks. That should be a real focus of the next game. It's just bad. I haven't played a Tony Hawk game in probably almost 7-8 years but even the first Tony Hawk game did vert skating better than this. They should call this game Street Skate. Not a huge deal as I spent the vast majority of my skating career skating street, but I also spent alot of time in the pools so I hope they clean this up next time.

The customization of boards/wheels/etc are good enough for me.

Overall it's a good extension of the first game and i've still more to explore in the gameplay and city. And the Flick it controls are still the best thing to happen to skateboarding as it translates to a video game. It's a very logical control scheme.

[Shinyhubcaps]

Quote: Originally Posted by metallicatz

I was reading the IGN review today before I bought it and something struck as me lame that they said with regard to the control scheme and pulling tricks...........they said that it was hard to go off ramps and handplant on balconies and stuff. Umm..........what? DUH! This isn't Tony Hawk where you can launch 50 feet in the air off a launch ramp into a grind all the way around the roof of an office building and ollie from there into a boardslide around the top of Yankee Stadium into a tail-slide along the wing of the Space Shuttle as it orbits the planet.

I'm sure they didn't mean the pool balconies, but like the extensions by the halfpipe at Slappy's. Those are hard. (So are bonelesses on the lips.)