Let's get one thing out there before I talk about the demo. I loved skate. skate. was the embodiment of a perfect free-for-all game. You don't need a mission or sidequest or bunch of collectibles in skate. Just go out, get on the board and try and mess around. I spent days on that game, trying to find the perfect line, making every trick inch perfect. Then, well, I'd look at the video and not upload it because of EA's servers. But the point is the game was a masterpiece, and it still is. skate. 2 on the other hand, not so much.

First gripe is the story. Skaters being oppressed by the city, sweet spots being locked down and raised security everywhere. Now I doubt it's as bad as the opening makes it sound, but does this sound like a good idea for a sequel to a game where the fun came in freeskating and making your own lines on anything possible? Why would I buy a skating game where I can't skate on everything? Like I said, probably exaggerated, but still.

I opened to the obvious tutorial, even after skipping saying I don't need help. Fine, I'll go through the motions to get some skating action. The game felt smooth and looked a lot nicer too. Then it asked me to get off the board and climb the stairs. Moving your character on it's feet is so terribly clunky and slow. I know you can hold A to make them run faster, but going up the stairs, that does nothing. I don't know how much of a feature it is in the game, but damn the mechanics of your skater off the board feels terrible. Another thing I should mention is spending a good 30 seconds trying to pick up a knocked over rail. You have to be in the precise spot for some items, which I can see getting kind of annoying.

But in the end, it's skate. After the arbitury tutorial teaching me things I already knew, I got to mess around in the park for a good 8 minutes, mostly on the funbox. Speaking of which, it doesn't tell you how to lip which I find weird for a demo that plonks you in the middle of a mostly dominant vert park. But now I'm just pulling hairs for the sake of it. Once you get past the "story" progression, it's still skate. The game flows seemlessly and is as easy to pick up as it ever was. All the demo made me want to do was play skate. again, which is great. I'm still looking forward to the game. Let's just hope those faults are as minimal as possible.

P.S. - Stop with the timed demos for fuck's sake. Limiting us to 8 minutes for no reason whatsoever is just going to stop players playing it further and getting to grips with the system.