Skate 2 is a blast. They took the great foundation they laid with the first, and improved on it without breaking it. Being able to get off your board and walk around, while a seemingly minuscule change, completely redefines the game for me. No more rolling around back and forth trying to set myself parallel to a line. Now I just hop off the board, walk to where I need to be, and set off with no fuss.

Aside from being able to run around and move objects, I’m most enjoying the improvements to the bails. In Skate you could get some pretty sickening wipeouts. In Skate 2, it’s an art form. They’re messier, crunchier, floppier and all around more painful. I often find myself hitting some impossible jump just to see how many different objects I can break my skull against.

In a way it reminds me of skateboarding in high school. I was the guy who loved the idea of skateboarding, and wanted to do all the cool tricks, but to whom gravity said “fuck you, eat pavement” every time I tried. I guess you could say I had the heart for it, but not the coordination. To this day I still can’t ice skate or rollerblade. I don’t know, something about it, I don’t know why. I’m a great skier. Who knows.

But that’s fine, because with Skate 2 I get the best of both world. The fun tricks and the sick faceplants.

At this point in the newspost I would continue writing, or remind you that Digital Overload is right around the corner, but it occurs to me that there is a Resident Evil 5 demo on my Xbox that needs to be played.