Skate 2 - Game of the week

[ganeshbala]

Skate 2 - Game of the week

The serious skating game for serious real- world skaters

Skate made waves in 2007 with its daring challenge for Tony Hawks' crown as the quintessential skateboard sim. Unfortunately, it was also a hugely unbalanced affair.


The learning curve was so steep you needed a Stannah stairlift to negotiate it, it was choc-full of irritating bugs, and the interminable 'loading' screens were enough to make you eat your own controller in pure frustration. Now EA has round 2 all ready for us. Let's take a look and see if they've been listening to their critics.

At first glance, Skate 2 feels busier and more polished than its previous jaunt. The fit-inducing framerate issues with the annoying juddering has all but disappeared, and the character animations are smoother and even more natural than before. Those who played the first game will be well familiar with the unique 'flick down, flick up' controls on the analogue stick for ollies and flip tricks, which obviously make a reappearance here.


If you're new to the world of Skate then this will all seem a bit alien at first, but with practice you'll eventually get into a rhythm of deftly launching from trick to trick, stringing each one together with manuals and grinds. Yeah, we're still trying to get to that stage ourselves.

The one thing that might help beginners get used to Skate 2, however, is the ability to get off the board, walk around and move all kinds of objects (grind rails, ramps, boxes) into exactly the position you want for the perfect trick. Unfortunately though, the running about on foot is particularly badly integrated, with the controls feeling like a clunky afterthought.

That said, it can be invaluable sometimes when you're at the bottom of a set of tricky stairs and wheels are a little inconvenient. And this links perfectly into the online feature that lets you create your own elaborate skating spots and upload them to the EA community. Other people can then play on your creations, move them about some more, and inevitably decimate your own mediocre score. You may as well just accept that now.

Skate 2 has a feverish fixation on being part of some kind of counter-culture. It has this overt message of 'sticking it to the man' running the length and breadth of the story, giving it a kind of tragic Beatnik overtone.

It's all about subverting the law of the land and making the whole urban world your playground. This is all well and good, but you're also sharing the city with other innocent people who don't give much of a monkey's who you are. Sure, there are security guards on your case about skating on their beloved - and ridiculously named - 'Mongocorp' property, but push come to shove, you inevitably end up hurting a fair few people on your adventures.

Crashing into pedestrians and cars as well as other skaters is a frequent and often bone-crunching occurrence, and you can't help but feel a bit sorry for the poor hapless young oik you just put in traction, just to nail some gnarly pop shove-it off the top of a dumpster (as if we know what that actually means). What it essentially boils down to is that, in the world of Skate 2, you embody somewhat of a douchebag. But if you can live with that, then so can we.

A couple of hours of exploring the huge, impressive city and getting used to the controls will keep you well occupied. But before long, you'll want to enter some competitions and get your career kick-started.

This is where the loose but believable storyline comes into its own, introducing you to the characters (including real-life heroes like Eric Koston) willing to help you make a sponsor video and take shots for magazines. You'll start to build up a dossier of contacts and places to show off your new skills, which thankfully you can warp directly to rather than waste hours dodging oncoming traffic and security guards throwing huge girly hissy-fits.

The competitions themselves, though, vary so wildly in difficulty that you may as well be playing two completely different games. Freestyle contests in huge swimming pools with other skaters seem to be an utter cake walk, with points racking up like you're fishing with dynamite. But try to attempt a game of S.K.A.T.E (the imaginatively transcribed version of H.O.R.S.E), and you'll lose. We guarantee you'll lose.

A lot. What seems to be the precipitating factor is that it's relatively easy to pull off some incredible tricks in the air if you have enough height. All you need is to mash a few buttons and wrench the analogue stick around.

The problems really arise when you're asked to pull off specific tricks or string a sequence together in one go. Cue hitting pause and scrolling through the extensive trick-guide to try and find the one you're after. And even then you're lucky if you can nail it first time.