Skate 2 is a new skateboard game, similar to the Tony Hawk franchise,Sequel to Skate designed by EA in January 09. Skate 2 excels from the original Skate in game play, graphics, and sound. You start out getting out of jail in the city of New San Vanelona. The city is not the same as it was before you went to jail which seems to be a popular plot for games these days. Now you must pursue your career mode to bring your rep to the top.There are several things you can do in Skate 2 that make this different from the other skate games. If your a person that gets angry at games easily do not buy or even rent this game. You have a huge city to roam around in it's to big for a skate game in my opinion. Fortunately you can go to your menu and pick which activity you want to warp to.
 
The graphics were done very well I have to say that I haven't seen many skate games with these kind of graphics. Graphics are rich for a 3d person game. There are some glitches but not to many. The terrain also looks well with realistic looks, keeping many different terrains skatable, or not skatable? If your bashing your skater on everything possible you will notice your skaters clothes turning dirty and bloody. Overall I think the graphics in this game look great.

The sound for Skate 2 is not the best. There are some wacky soundtracks on this game, some of the songs sound like they sound like the songs most skaters are into. There are few soundtracks so you will probably turn them off. However it is pretty fun to hear the sound of your bones breaking or your body scraping on the ground as your wrecking or sliding across. Voices from skaters are done alright but more expression could of been done at least that's me.

Skate 2 excels in it's game play as long as you don't play this all the time, this is not one of those games you can play forever, Skate 2 gets very frustrating. The controls are hard to use in Skate 2. You wont master this game right away, at least me and my friends had some trouble getting down the tricks you want to do. Leaving us very angry and giving up Skate 2 for the rest of the day. But with hard to tricks also comes the fact that you will see lots of crazy wrecks. The story mode is pretty fun but some of the activities just seem impossible until you beat it after playing the same activity 20 some times.

Skate 2 has lots of options for you to run across. Hall of Meat is my most favorite part about this game. Hall of Meat keeps track of your highest injuries that you have done to yourself. There is also a option to play Hall of Meat. For the most part Hall of meat is a place you go to jump off your board 50 plus feet in the air. Hall of meat also takes you places to hurt yourself up to a certain score, sometimes hurting yourself in a certain way. Another cool thing is Big Black on The big and rob show on MTV. You can call Big Black to get rid of security guards that are trying to push you down. Security guards and other people that you can make mad by taunts need a sever upgrade in AI actions. Another interesting part of Skate 2 is the fact that you can drag items to make your own jumps. You can drag ramps, and rails at the Park's or on the street.

There are other activities as well you can call a Professional skater to skate with you. These include things like spell skate, park competition's, or a free for all battle spot that you can choose, or maby you feel like racing one of your favorite professional skaters. Own the spot is a activity that you have to keep trying to beat your best combo in a certain area. Then there's the best part of Skate 2. The free roaming mode, ever feel like skating off of whatever you want now is your chance. Also allowing you to keep you and your friends occupied by doing the achievements.

Proffesianal skaters
Ray Barbee, Darren Navarrette, PJ Ladd, Tery Kennedy, Chris Cole, Chris Haslam, Dennis Busenitz, Jake Brown, Ryan Smith, Eric Koston, John Cardiel, Jason Dill, Mike Carrol, Rob Dyrdek, Braydon Szafranski, Ryan Gallant, John Rattray, Pat Duffy, Marc Johnson, Colin Mckay, Jerry Hsu, Lucas Puig, Alex Chalmers, Mark Appleyard, and Danny Way

The worst part of Skate 2 is the hard controls. It is very important that if you despise hard to learn games, don't even play this game at least not for more than an hour or so. Mostly if or when you have a high temper.

Other Games you might find fun

Prototype   open world game   http://www.epinions.com/review/Prototype_for_Xbox_360/content_477944254084
Velvet Assassin     stealth action based http://www.epinions.com/review/Velvet_Assassin_for_Xbox_360/content_477943926404
Soul Calibur 4         fighting game females have big boobs http://www.epinions.com/review/Soul_Calibur_IV_for_Xbox_360/content_477307113092
Saints Row 2      GTA open world killing game lot's of voilence http://www.epinions.com/review/Saints_Row_2_for_Xbox_360/content_476877131396
Call of duty World at War 360         first person shooter http://www.epinions.com/review/Call_of_Duty_World_At_War_Xbox_360_Activision/content_477908799108

Recommended: Yes