What do you all think?
Firstly, why the hell did they include the create-a-skater portion of the career mode, then only allow you to play for 10 minutes before having to restart? The download was like 1.6gb. What a waste of space.
Aside from that early complaint, the rest of the demo is smooth. The graphics and character models are much improved, which really shows in the enhanced physics engine. The new "Hall of Meat" competitive mode where you purposely bail your skater, then tweak his movements in-air to make him break more bones than your opponent wouldn't be as goofy and fun without those nice physics and models. Even the hud is greatly improved upon (No more foggy black border!)
The trick book is basically the same, they've just improved(!) on it by adding the ability to grab while kicking and grinding - which is just so sick looking. You can now boneless. Enough said. Hand and foot plants have also been added, which were sorely lacking from Skate 1.
The only major change from the predecessor is the new "get off your board and move stuff around to set up lines" gimmick, which is surprisingly very un-gimmicky. The controls off the board feel sluggish and slow, but aside from moving your character, moving the environment is very easy and actually adds a lot to the game. Unlike the THPS skate-park creator, your actions aren't limited to a grid. Yes, you can drag that picnic table up onto the kicker at a weird angle. It's pretty neat. You can even knock shit over, then have to get off your board and set it up again - which adds a nice bit of realism.
I'll be excited to see how the rest of San Vanelona looks and what challenges and videos you'll have to accomplish featuring the "move stuff" deal. Hopefully they fix the running around controls before print time, though!
Firstly, why the hell did they include the create-a-skater portion of the career mode, then only allow you to play for 10 minutes before having to restart? The download was like 1.6gb. What a waste of space.
Aside from that early complaint, the rest of the demo is smooth. The graphics and character models are much improved, which really shows in the enhanced physics engine. The new "Hall of Meat" competitive mode where you purposely bail your skater, then tweak his movements in-air to make him break more bones than your opponent wouldn't be as goofy and fun without those nice physics and models. Even the hud is greatly improved upon (No more foggy black border!)
The trick book is basically the same, they've just improved(!) on it by adding the ability to grab while kicking and grinding - which is just so sick looking. You can now boneless. Enough said. Hand and foot plants have also been added, which were sorely lacking from Skate 1.
The only major change from the predecessor is the new "get off your board and move stuff around to set up lines" gimmick, which is surprisingly very un-gimmicky. The controls off the board feel sluggish and slow, but aside from moving your character, moving the environment is very easy and actually adds a lot to the game. Unlike the THPS skate-park creator, your actions aren't limited to a grid. Yes, you can drag that picnic table up onto the kicker at a weird angle. It's pretty neat. You can even knock shit over, then have to get off your board and set it up again - which adds a nice bit of realism.
I'll be excited to see how the rest of San Vanelona looks and what challenges and videos you'll have to accomplish featuring the "move stuff" deal. Hopefully they fix the running around controls before print time, though!
