Skate 2

[Wintermute]

Anyone else edging to play this? I know I can't be the only one.

Demo is supposedly going to be made available on the 7th/8th on Live! according to the rumour mill and the game is on sale the 23rd of this Month.

I loved the first one since it was just as fiddly and annoying as learning to skate thanks to the controls and it made the game what it was.
After 10 years or so of Tony Hawk's games and their slow descent into ridiculousness Skate was just the breath of fresh air needed.

The controls, annoying as they are at first become second nature, I can't for the life of me play a TH game any more and I own 4 of them. Shit feels clunky and cheap.

Skate also fixed videogame skateboarding physics by making it hover at the Realism/Game line giving you a good realistic experience that you could abuse should you want to as opposed to "Hay come grind the entire level in one line".

Skate 2 fixes all the BS from the first apparently, giving you a new city to play in (San Van got rebuilt post-earthquake apparently), control during bails (Tuck, spin, etc), the option to kick the board away mid air (can deck people!), off the board, so you can climb the stairs instead of using session markers or riding back up the hill, skitching, and a stack of new tricks.

Supposedly twice as many challenges which is nice since the Story mode was a bit ant-climactic, twice as many tricks (Grabs, Hand/Foot plants, Bonelesses, No Complys, Fingerflips etc), dynamic environment that gets skate-stopped ruining spots (though you can hire characters to fix that), new CAS mode, you can move stuff that isn't nailed down thereby making a unique spot you can share with others, and actual female characters other than Sammy.

I loved Skate, and the fact the dev team is a bunch of skaters who've listened to the community gives me big hopes for this game.
Going to be one big playground, way it should be.

If you're interested I really recommend the dev Blog since it's got links to gameplay/interview vids as well as some cool pieces on features.

[Hitoshura]

Can't wait for skate 2, still play the hell out of the first. I heard EA blackbox was getting shutdown though. Why they would do that I have no fucking idea because skate is the best thing that has come out of EA. They have so many damn pro's in here this time lol.

[Blabj]

Looking forward to this so bad, the original skate. was such a feel good game, you could just load it up if you're bored, casually ride around and turn it off.

The aditions to this one look awesome, getting off your board was the obvious next step, but being able to drag props around will be awesome. I do hope they've added to the multiplayer game modes, as fun as SKATE is, it'd be nice to have some kind of high score type deal, either a timed run or getting the most points on a certain line.

Looks like they've added a few flatland tricks too, I especially liked one of the videos where the guy gypsy jump/body varials at the start of a run.

edit: Oh and the replay editor looks awesome too.

[Wintermute]

Looks like they've added a few flatland tricks too, I especially liked one of the videos where the guy gypsy jump/body varials at the start of a run.

Flatland tricks, Footplants, and moving props is going to keep me and my buddies entertained for days. Love me a 360 Boneless.

And from what I understand EA Blackbox is being merged into the larger EA company. Though EA have axed a lot of their staff recently.

Mind you, if they get Skate 2 right they could just release DLC for it and rake it in.
Skate scared off Tony Hawk's Pro Disregard for Physics last year so who knows.

[Takedown3]

i just pre-ordered this from EB today, going to be good for sure.

[Blabj]

1 or 2 days to go till the demo hopefully. I hope that all the gameplay features are in the demo, just in a restricted area. Just to get a feel for the new tricks and such.

[Blabj]

Skate 2 demo coming Thursday - Joystiq

[Wintermute]

Skate 2 demo coming Thursday - Joystiq

Believe release is 21st in the US and 23rd for rest of world too.

[Kyo]

Skate 1 is the best skateboarding game iver ever played, I cant wait for two, allthough imma hafta wait a bit to get it, getting street fighter 4, kill zone 2, RE5 and MLB 09 the show and im not done with half the games from nov/oct.

[Wintermute]

Wee update on the Demo, 360 should be up tomorrow, PS3 won't be up until next week (15th).

Skate 2 Demo Hits 360 Tomorrow, PS3 Next Week - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

I'm hoping challenges in the game have been scaled to the community. First time around in Skate the story challenges are pretty tricky because you're still getting used to the controls.

Second time through you can blast through the story in an afternoon.

[Wintermute]

360 Demo is up on Live!

But only if you have a Gold subscription.

Edit: 1.5Gb

[Takedown3]

so any details on how the demo has turned out? i've heard good things but since im on a shitty net connection im not going to bother with the download.

[Wintermute]

Well...

The steering handles a lot tighter. By which I mean closer to TH than Skate's longboard type flow. It doesn't detract from the fun and you get used to it pretty quick but I miss the loose trucks. Guess the peeps at Black Box ride them tight.

No downhill sections in the demo so no clue what bombing hills will feel like.

Most grabs have a one-foot variation triggered by pressing the "Push" buttons in the air. Backside Grab and hitting the front foot push (Mongo Push) results in a Judo grab.
Bit akward but soon as you figure out your favourites it'll be second nature. Can also be done with ollies for an Ollie-North/South.

Demo area is a janky home built park so hard to tell just how much more shiny the graphics are. Cut scenes are almost identical to Skate and true to form no-one looks much like their real-life selves.

Off the board is easy "Y Button" but you walk slow as hell unless you use the sprint button, can jump around like a tit off the board too to caveman on the board. Right Bumper is used to grab and move applicable scenery. It's a free move/rotate too not like TH's right angles and 90-degree turns.

New Hall of Meat where you can control your falls to add spins/flips etc to get high scores is akward but I've not been bothered to play with it.

Demo is promising but footplants feel terrible.

Maybe I was too hyped on them or it's just because it's a demo but they feel tacked on and cheap, feels like a last-minute inclusion.
They look badly animated and kill any speed you may have since the trick shoots you up and not along, so whoever did the motion capture probably has the same problem with them that I do. Can't do tricks other than spins or Plant > Late Flip/Shoveits, even then spins are slow.

The fact you can only No-Comply (Mongo Push quick ollie when foot hits the floor) and not do No-Comply tricks still pisses me off. I wanted to No-Comply Tre off stairs and shit ._.

Still looking forward to the game and it looks set to deliver the same way the first did but a bit let down by plants.

Demo is about 10min or so long for the story mode provided you get all the time extensions through doing challenges.

Also includes a HoM mode where up to 4 players compete for highest score/worst bail similar to Burnout's Crash mode and a Spot Challenge for highest score.

[Wintermute]

YouTube - Skate 2 Demo Glitch Outta Slappys Tutorial

Also just noticed damage shows up on your dude if you're wearing shorts/tees. Scabby arms ftw.

[Doombear]

Nice, thanks for the post Mute. I will have to check out a bit more of the demo now =) Have you? Any thoughts on the 'outside'?

I have played the demo a good 20-30 times now, and I am definitely pleased over all. The feel is largely the same, though I do agree that it does feel a bit stiff. I hadn't actually messed with loosening the trucks though, so not sure how stiff it is with them all the way loose.

Looks like i expected it to. Plays well enough for sure. Now just wish i knew how to hit a Hippie Flip. =P I plan on getting this for sure, just not sure if I am gonna get it on release date.

[Wintermute]

Hippie Flips are the same as in Skate I think. You hit the flip pointed at a rail and pray. I hear Double Flips make it easier because there's more of a gap between the board and the body. Never done one myself.

And yeah, outside is huge. Some areas are just missing though and you fall into black nothingness for a few seconds then get reset on the lip of the abyss.

Skitching is fun too (Right Bumper), some insane speed and the stiffness doesn't hurt hill-bombing now I've had a chance to try.

Best part of making it out was spotting a perfect handrail, popping a 180 Laser Flip going for a Crooked then realising mid-trick the rail is skate capped and bailing soon as the truck hit it. Was awesome and heart-breaking at the same time.

[Doombear]

Still trying to get out =P

EDIT: And made it out. This video was a bit easier to pull off i think, as far as escaping Slappys. YouTube - Glitching Out Is Easy!

Got out a few times with about 7 mins to spare. Found one Spot called Books. Was a pretty simple spot but i had fun just trying to get a higher and higher Spot score. Starting to think i have to get this on release now... as I have had to go back and play more of Skate 1 just to keep me busy.

Have fun out there!

[Freijah]

bumping this with some thoughts

I too have nothing but praise for Skate, it was innovative, whilst not letting it's innovations get in the way with bells and whistles, it just worked. You could turn it on and were pretty much free to skate a city. Sure, there were a few unlockable locations but they were never really the highlights. It did have it's problems; No fixed cameras in the replay editor, and making videos was slow and glitchy. Also trying to set a start point got frustrating because you couldn't just walk there. I would have preordered Skate 2 if it had been the exact same game with better replay editing (faster encoding, slots only limited by HDD space, and fixed cameras) and ability to walk to locations. Whilst the demo is close on that, it's not that simple.

Firstly, I praised Skate for it's lack of bells and whistles, everyone did. So which guy in the office had the grand idea of tacking on arcade trinklets all over Skate 2? The on-screen indicators and more opressive, distracting, and unimmersive. Flashing indicators hold your hand through the opening tutorials, the animations seem stiffer and more procedual, there's instantly a feeling of less fluidity. The walking animations highlight in a completly comidic way, although falling and getting hurt is alot more fun now, the bail animations and physics are great.

Moving on from those terrible first impressions, the arcade overlay and hand-holding, there is actually some good elements under there. Firstly, more trick variations, with plants, fingerflips, grabs during grinds and more being added. Yes, the off-board animations seem clunky and unfinished, but it's there as a utility, you can explore by foot and setup start points in those hard to reach areas, and navigate spots much easier (can walk up that 20-set, not try and find the way to skate up to the top), so really, it works perfectly. Secondly, had a break-through moment last night when I finally had a look at the replay editor. FIXED CAMERAS, HELL YEAH. I did a simple boneless onto a rail, 50-50, which dropped me down into a transition as I rolled away. I went to play with the replay and, discovering the tri-pod camera, I must have replayed that trick about 50 times, with a huge grin. This is what Skate missed the most. A few other things... Cutscenes look amazing now, someone said they are identical to Skate? I really dont think this is the case. Ability to create a female skater. Dirt and board wear and what not.

I think some 'feel' or weight from Skate is missing in the Skate 2 demo, but I am gonna buy it or not on the strength of the video creation. When I see how that turns out on release, I'll make my decision.

[Kaisha]

Am I the only one who feels that the off-board controls are extremely unintuitive? The time it takes me to maneuver my guy around is insane for something that sounds to simple, especially in tighter corridors. Reminded me of a worse version of Tomb Raider:AoD.

I've only recently just played the demo for both, and I have to say, aside from 'problems' with it that I have (which the older Tony Hawk titles did, specifically, doing a 180 degree turn on the spot when your board bumps against a wall at a specific angle, as well as maneuvering about in tight spaces), I quite enjoy its control setup. Will seriously be considering picking up #2 if they manage to make the walking-around controls less stupid and sluggish.

[Wintermute]

Am I the only one who feels that the off-board controls are extremely unintuitive? The time it takes me to maneuver my guy around is insane for something that sounds to simple, especially in tighter corridors. Reminded me of a worse version of Tomb Raider:AoD.

I've only recently just played the demo for both, and I have to say, aside from 'problems' with it that I have (which the older Tony Hawk titles did, specifically, doing a 180 degree turn on the spot when your board bumps against a wall at a specific angle, as well as maneuvering about in tight spaces), I quite enjoy its control setup. Will seriously be considering picking up #2 if they manage to make the walking-around controls less stupid and sluggish.

Off the board is basically Resident Evil tank-controls which has no flow at all except when you're moving shit around which is ironic, and the wall bump has always been there at low speeds.

On the board controls are fantastic, and after a few days you won't be able to go back to a Tony Hawk's game.

Very doubtful any issues in the demo with controls/feel will change in the final product. As I understand the demo was released just as the game was being finished off/final checks before getting ready for distribution to retailers.