Just the other day, it seemed EA Black Box came out with Skate. I remember playing it not all that long ago, and being pretty impressed by the analog only controls. I was a fan of the first few Tony Hawk’s, but it was always kind of a chore to hit those Mortal Kombat-like button sequences to do tricks.
By looking at the success of EA Black Box’s Skate, it looks like I wasn’t the only one to think that, and now the videogame world will be treated to Skate 2. When, who knows? Unlike the game-a-year factory that EA usually is, the team working on Skate 2 has no set release date. They’re taking their time to make sure that Skate 2 will live up to their first success.
Learn more about Skate 2 after the jump.
Things have changed since the time of the first Skate. The city is now run by the large corporation that is rebuilding San Vanelona. As any good skate punk knows, big corporations hate skaters.
What this means is that the authorities are no longer content with chasing you off or writing you tickets. Expect to be treated as full-on criminal for your skating antics with “The Man” physically taking you down if he catches you.
Essentialy, that’s the gist of the story. But, really, how much story do you need? The first Skate moved the control scheme away from long button combos to the analog stick, giving the game a more organic feel to it. Skate 2 continues in this direction by fleshing out the tricks, and finally allowing you to — hooray! — remove your feet from the skate board. Not only does this feature open up a slew of new tricks, it also allows for you to do footplants.
By having the ability to remove one or both of your feet, the player can pretty much footplant on anything. Footplants, kind of like the manual in Tony Hawk games, will allow you to link one set of tricks to another. In addition to the footplants and the set of trick that you can do with them, you’re also now able to do handplants. This is controlled by the shoulder button, but as you can see in the video, only helps to give the game a more truer skateboarding experience.
Another way that the team is hoping to create a sense of realism is by making items in the game movable. Items such as picnic tables, garbage cans, and anything else that looks like it can be moved, can be placed by your skater on foot. As a person who used to skate, this is probably one of my more favorite features. As any skater knows, the world isn’t designed for skating; and with this feature, you can move the table in front of that ramp and make your own trick, just like in real life.
Finally, not to be satisfied by all the new gameplay enhancements, the Black Box crew also felt like giving you all new locales for you second run through San Verona. Yep. All the places to skate are, as I’m told, brand new to the game.
So with all that goodness, it looks the fans of the first Skate can rest a little easier. EA Black Box seems to be hitting all the right stops, so far, and if they keep it up, the finished product will definitely be something to look forward to.
