Dang...I downloaded the thing in about 20 mins top. Anyway ya I've played it and I think its really fun. I personally like its better than Tony Hawk since its a lot more realistic.

doesnt tony hawk get repetative after 8 plus volumes??

I liked the demo, except how it times out, I wanted to have a few hours to just try out heaps of different rails and stuff, but every 30 minutes or so I have to get back into it. Then, I have to re-do all the tutorial stuff, which luckily only takes a minute. I liked what I saw though, the only real criticism are the weak stacks, where it looks like the guy is falling over in slow motion after tripping on his shoelace and landing on grass, rather than bailing after a huge spill.

I can see this game going either way, a lack of features could hurt it if they try and push the realistic factor too hard as a selling point, but if they brought it to THPS2 level of perfection, with heaps of awesome levels rather than open areas and storyline like the THPS series has become, and have a heap of character customisation and create-a-park stuff, then this could completely top THPS. Not to mention a heap of online and offline multiplayer.

I was really looking forward to playing Skate but I'm not so sure after playing the Demo. The controls just really stress my hand out. I cannot for the life of me get the Ollie down to the point that it feels natural. It's a rental for sure, because the gameplay sounds like it'll be really cool, but I'm not sure if I like the controls at all.

quote The Blue Flame

The controls are extremely limited, you don't have much you can do. There's barely any flips, grabs are too complicated (3 button presses for a spinning grab trick), and grinding is limited. The camera doesn't help either. Although it works great for street skating, it's absolutely terrible when on a half-pipe or rail. The camera spins and turns when trying to use a half-pipe, and you can't see shit ahead of you when lining up for a grind.

it's not really limited, it's really up to you what to do do, it all just take's practise. the flip tricks are there, you just need to learn how to do them. sa,e with everything else, i've been having a blast playing this and trying to do all the tricks i can.

quote The Blue Flame

The controls are extremely limited, you don't have much you can do. There's barely any flips, grabs are too complicated (3 button presses for a spinning grab trick), and grinding is limited. The camera doesn't help either. Although it works great for street skating, it's absolutely terrible when on a half-pipe or rail. The camera spins and turns when trying to use a half-pipe, and you can't see shit ahead of you when lining up for a grind.

Yeah the controls are so limited that every trick that is in THPG is in Skate... You have to learn just like in real skateboarding, this game is real you have to learn how to ollie and learn how to nollie and manual, then you sprout off of those tricks anything is possible in Skate, and because of physics simulated tricks, nothing is the same twice which is something Tony Hawks cannot do with their control scheme, the grinds are awfully realistic to the point of doing a darkslide is almost as hard as doing one in reality... I mean the control scheme is limited until you get good and thats what EA was aiming for, when you get online or show off your videos online or check out others, you will be able to distinctly see who is good from who is great where as Tony Hawk anyone can input a 3 button combo and do the hardest trick in the game, i mean seriously Tony Hawk is a good game but apart from random gimmicks "Nail-A" mode which actually makes the game so easy if you get some big air lol, its the same as it was 12 years ago... Pretty much no one is playing THPG as a newbie so it gets boring so much quicker.

I played it for the first time last night and actually really enjoyed it. It was somewhat frustrating at first but then once you get use to it it's really fun.

Ya, I decided (for whatever reason ) to play through it a couple more times and now that I'm good at it, I'm starting to like the game more and more. I still have a bit of trouble with varials and inward heelflips but I'm getting much better. Then I watch the end video and some of the spots look amazingly fun. I'm thinking that this will win over the real skaters. Which for a skating game is what matters. Everyone else will be happy and probably prefer the easier button mashing that tony hawk games bring.