Skate 2

Skate 2, the sequel to Skate (or "Skate it"?), is a surprising marvel of a game.

I never played the original despite my own wishes, but I recently played Skate 2 (many many times) on the 360. There are a few things that it accomplishes so well, let me tell you about them:

1.Level Design- shit's amazing, its so fluid and connected that it feels like you're skating through a Girl Talk album. I mean making an entire city (San Vanelona) is one thing that's already difficult to pull off, but to also make the whole thing skatable, with foresight on where amazing potential lies to land sweet lines, is a feat of genius.

2.Sound Track -you should have noticed E.L.O. - Showdown, yea the sound track is pretty beast

3.Didn't fail on promises - Unlike certain developers, EA managed to pull off exactly what it said it would; landing tricks are harder and take many tries, but when you land it you're gonna wanna save the replay and show it off to friends. The controls, by the way, are pretty sweet. Similar to Fight Night, you operate the left and right thumb sticks in different patterns to achieve your moves. The left thumbstick is what controls the positioning and turning of your body while the right thumbstick is used for tricks; holding the right thumb stick down and then flicking it up results in an ollie, for example.

My only complaint is that the beautiful world is only scarred by the difficulty of fast traveling. The map is not very descriptive and trying to teleport to locations that you enjoyed become a guessing game. A few hints from gta or oblivion could have helped.