SKATE 2
Oh, and a large chips please
The original EA SKATE game was something of a revolution for the skateboarding sub-genre, which had been dominated for years by Activision's Tony Hawk games. EA's pretender to the thrown qucikly became the heir apparent, freshening up a category which looked hackneyed and uninventive in the light of the new release. So, SKATE 2 carries a certain weight of expectation upon its shoulders, and we sat down with EA for a play-test, hoping that SKATE wouldn't become derivative in sequel form.
From a premise perspective, we're certainly being offered more of the same, albeit on a larger scale, the series once again returning to the skateboarder's paradise of San Vanelova, a city which, following some kind of disaster, is now less-than a haven for boarders - a world of boarding opportunity, with no one to enjoy it. Naturally, your going to have to break down a few boundaries put in places by the city's new megalithic corporate controllers.
EA's Jason Long is here to tell us about the new game, and he reveals that the city that forms the entirety of the game world - San Vanelona - is actually an amalgamation of three favourite skateboarding cities: San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona. Long tells us that EA have doubled the number of tricks and added a raft of fresh objectives - as well as tacking-on the 'Hall of Meat' mode that's also present in Skate It, EA's skateboarder for the Wii. Hall of Meat bares something of a resemblance to Sony's PSN release PAIN - and its all about undertaking certain-death stunts at key points in the game - and trying to injure yourself in as horrific a manner as possible.
This self-destructive game mode keeps a brutal account of your myriad injuries during various leaps and collisions, keeping a tally of how injured you are - and adding another competitive element between players. 75 challenges are on offer, but this side of things forms just one small part of SKATE 2's vastly expanded world.
Visually, EA have really gone to town on San Vanelona, deliver a glistening but empty metropolis, complete with huge environments and varying locales for you to explore as you make your way through the city. For a skateboarding game, the level of detail is commendable from what I witnessed, EA having upped the frame-rate to a solid 60fps, showing off the power of next-generation consoles. In this game one of the most interesting innovations is that the board is a separate, real-world object, as such as you can get off your board and carry it - as well as become separated from it during particular moves.
Such moves will see you racing towards something like a table, leaping off as you reach it, before jumping down the other side onto your still-moving board. Its a small touch, but it adds to the sense of realism, EA's Long noting with pride that all of the moves in the game have been successfully completed by a real boarders somewhere, at sometime. You can also leave your board somewhere, should you wish to, and this too will have potentially innovative gameplay applications. Control is also an area where EA seem to be refusing to take short-cuts. The right stick controls your body, while the left stick controls your board - making unusual tricks easy to pull off but hard to master - as you battle to strike perfect physics-based moves. Balance and momentum are of course key - and having played the game and failed miserable, I can assure you that in SKATE 2 pulling off even simple tricks isn't just a matter of quick button presses.
The game's complexity is all wrapped-up in the 'flickit' system, which sees expanded control options linked to buttons. Even in the alpha code I experienced, the gameplay was looking pretty complete, and it looks as if SKATE 2 will include plenty of customisation potential, the title integrating over 100 movable object types, allowing you to push items around in the game world to create your own space for particular tricks; or just for the hell of it. This will allow you to create new lines, EA seemingly trying to tap into the current sandbox craze, allowing you to do whatever you want within the rules of the game world.
The city may be visually arresting (Long points out to me the glorious orange glow which infuses the world with that 4/5pm late evening 'vibe'), but there are also some more adventurous environments to take in. Beyond the edge of the city is a mountainous area, where proceedings do require a certain suspension of disbelief as you engage in Death Races and several kilometres of more natural terrain.
SKATE 2 isn't due out until early 2009 - but already the game is looking like an impressive expansion of everything the original game stood for. With an impressive open world-style environment, and with various challenges and diversions constantly available to the player, the concept has been built on in all the logical directions. The control scheme also includes some fairly bold changes implemented by Black Box (the game's Vancouver-based developer); Jason Long telling us that the title should, overall, be quite accessible, whilst rewarding players who put in the time. With literally tonnes of new moves, real skaters and plenty of skate-ambience in the visuals and the audio - we're expecting this to titillate fans greatly when it arrives next year.
Comments
This game looks well good
you can hippie jump caveman throw ur board out from under ur feet move objects and boneless looks imense
can u pik up your bord?
This is soooo sick i have skate and cant wait for skate 2
COME NOW!
got it on hold =]