I've been waiting for this for a while, and I knew they'd release the sequel to The Elder Scrolls: Arena (the first game in the series), after releasing that for free to download some time ago. This just made my day.

-Gregg

I'm a big fan of the "skate." series so far. The first game was surprisingly good, despite mass speculation on how well the Flick-It controls would work. I'm not one of those people who complained about how imprecise the motions could be, because I didn't really have that much of a problem with them. It just took some time. Anyway, on to the demo.

The first thing I noticed about this game is how much better some of the animations looked. Both the motion capture and the gameplay animation sets seem much more finely tuned than they did in the first game. The ragdoll dynamics, in particular look much more brutal than they did in the last skate. I think this has to do with the fact that each limb is more loose, and things like ankle and wrist joints move somewhat more realistically. The best part of the ragdoll physics are how a faceplant looks. Holy shit, some of the bails I've made looked downright murderous. The head practically disappears underneath the neck and the body sticking up from the ground.

Another thing I noticed about the demo is how short it actually is. Once you customize your skater, and actually get into the game, there are only about ten minutes altogether for you to freeskate. The timer is at least five minutes shorter than the first skate's demo was. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if it weren't for my next point...

The new walking mechanics take some serious time getting used to. By pressing Y on the controller, you can pick up your deck and walk around. The problem with the walking is that it feels like the first six Tomb Raider games. It's tank-like. The only way to get your character to turn easily or quickly is to use the right stick, as if it were a shooter. And even then, it doesn't allow you to move all that easily. This, coupled with the fact that you need to be facing an object to push or pull it, makes the off-board controls kind of messy. But, like the Flick-It scheme in general, once you get used to it, it kind of becomes second nature. Or at least, I can assume it will. Also, while I'm on the subject of the controls, there is no tutorial or indication of how to pull off a one footer. And, if that weren't enough, they seem to have cut your spin speed in half. This is really annoying, and makes pulling off tech flips and half-cabs from manuals nearly impossible. Hopefully the final product will allow you to upgrade your spin speed.

Overall, this is a decent demo. It's somewhat indicative of the final product, even though it is missing some of the key new components that will supposedly make this sequel that much better than its predecessor. Also, it could've been longer. 3/5

Or lack thereof. My opinion doesn't mean shit.