Tony Hawk RIDE

I have played the majority of the Tony Hawk games all the way back to the playstation days but the recent incarnations have been below par. Because of the drop in quality I defected to the glorious game that is Skate and Skate2. EA have staged a remarkable rebirth of the genre by completely redesigning the control method and taking the game back to its roots.

I have been intrigued to see what Activision could come up with to counter the emergence of the almighty Skate. With this in mind Activision have revealed their challenger.


A digital skateboard peripheral...

Now this 'could' be amazing but it also could be a horrible gimmicky piece of rubbish that will gather dust in your cupboard while you finish off the last few freeskate challenges on Skate2. But I admire Activision for trying something new and I for one will be first in line to pick this up and try it out.

I just hope my balance is better on this than it was on a real skateboard.

I'll post more details as they emerge because I'll be following this game like a Hawk...no pun intended.

Skate 2 Patch

A pretty good list of improvements here...


-Improve responsiveness of off-board controls, modified left stick behaviour to improve feel of off-board movement

-Eliminate scoring exploit for Hippie Jump 180s in multiplayer Spot Battle

-Eliminate the wipeout exploit with off-board and the Superdude trick

-Fixed mute and stale grab tricks to use proper hand when performed in conjunction with a hand gesture

-Fix the occasionally popping of visual indicators (sign-ups, arrows, etc)

-Added support for custom soundtracks for the PS3

-Face and Body settings will now load properly in saved replays

-Character models will be in high detail when viewing a replay

-Visual indicators (sign-up icons/arrows) are no longer visible in replays and videos

-Remove the confirmation pop-up when retrying a challenge

-Reduce potential for pedestrians to spawn in an active challenge location

-Modified "Can you spell Girl?" challenge so the player starts with the lead

-Remove the 3,2,1 countdown when retrying a film challenge

-All Thrasher challenges unlock properly in the career progression

-When starting an Own the Spot via the Challenge Map, the player’s session marker is automatically set for them

-Updated the online mini-map so skaters appear as the same color indicated in the player HUD

-Improved quality of character images generated for display on skate.reel web profiles

-EXP is no longer awarded for players that don’t attempt a trick during a Ranked game of S.K.A.T.E.

-Modified deathrace intro sequences to eliminate camera clipping

-Online Freeskate Activities (Survival) - Increase the tolerance for ‘skating too slowly’ while in the air

-Online Spot Battle/Hall of Meat - Spectators can again trigger hand gestures during another player’s turn


I'm so happy they have removed the bail glitch as it spoiled the Hall of Meat online mode, nothing more frustrating than glitchers on ranked matches. Other interesting update is the fact that you start with the lead on "Can you spell Girl" challenge, might be able to do this challenge now!! Exciting!!

Shame they did not fix the glitch that I just blogged about, grrr...

Are you an Active Skater?

Got this lovely little achievement earlier today, well I did not get it first try. There's a little glitch with this achievement if you have downloaded any of the new content from the marketplace. When I completed the last challenge there was no little exciting bleep bloop from my TV. Luckily my partner in Skate related crime had been through the same thing, all you have to do is delete the content off your HD then reboot the game and compete one challenge and you should be greeted with 20 hard, yet enjoyably earned gamer points. I can honestly say that this has been one of my favourite achievements on the Xbox so far. I only have 40 more points to get on Skate 2 to get the full 1250, I'm not sure if i'm going to get them though, I hate S.K.A.T.E challenges.

Oh almost forgot to say, Bungie have announced the marketplace release date of the Mythic maps, 9th of April is the glory day for all you excited little people.

One night and a lot of games...

Last night was a great night for gaming. Started out by testing the multi player Peggle which is great. There's the dual mode where each player takes a shot and the one with the most points at the end wins. This is pretty good fun especially when you pull off a last minute come back by clearing the table and landing a big bonus shot. There's an achievement available here called Rock Lobster which is pretty easy to get, all you have to do is win with the flippers on, took me a few goes to get though.

The next mode is where the fun really is, Peggle Party! 4 player Peggle where you have ten balls each to get as many points as possible. The best thing about this mode is the fact that you can view your opponents screens and check out there ridiculous shots. You get an achievement for winning a round, took me a little while but I had great fun getting it. Peggle is the most addictive arcade game I've played since the days of Marble Blast Ultra and Sonic, lost so many hours playing those games.

Anyway after playing this I ventured onto the fairways and struggled through a few more holes on Tiger Woods, got the achievement for winning my first major. My friend accused me of cheating as I made it a 2 day event, pffft, I don't play golf so its not cheating to me. Just got a lend of TW09 on Monday and I've been playing it non stop, its so addictive. I have not played a golf game since PGA Tour 97 back on my parents 2.5 gig PC...good times.

The highlight of the night was still to come as I jumped on Skate 2 with a friend to do some more of the freeskate activities. My good friend Billy has completed them all so he was helping me finish off the last half that I have to complete. After doing two or three he invited in a friend from another forum and we smashed through a ton of challenges including the horrid trick list in the SV stadium. Its been so long since I had a good laugh with someone new on Live. Party chat does turn you into a bit of a recluse, especially on Halo where the majority of people are abusive little idiots.

So all in all a very good day on the old Xbox; achievements, laughter and new friends, is that not what Live is all about?

Muchos Gaming.

Not blogged since Thursday, eek, been busy playing lots and lots of xbox. Played the Skate 2 DLC, Beowulf, Halo Wars demo and a large amount oh Halo3 so lots and lots of reviewing to do.

Skate 2 DLC

For 400 MS points you can pick up Rob Dyrdeks Fantasy 'Factory and a 50 possible achievement points. The skate plaza is based on a real area from Rob Dyrdeks reality TV show which I have never heard of, must not be on TV on this side of the pond. Here's a photo of the real thing as I could not get my hands on a shot of the in game version, from what I can see its an exact copy anyway.

There is some great lines and grinds on the park as well as a rooftop grind paradise, I'm talking ledge upon ledge where you can get amazing combos. If that's not enough there is a whole outside area with a lot of rails and jumps and lots of items to move around and create your own spots. You can also transition of the roof into a massive sewage pipe similar to the one in San Van which is ridiculous fun.

If you get bored of Freeskating there is a bunch of own the spot challenges which I killed with relative ease and a couple of tricky yet fun film challenges. I enjoyed the grind challenge in the park, shows you a couple of grinds that I would not have noticed myself. Once you do all of these there is a street contest in the park which will give you your final 25 point achievement. From the looks of the achievements EA will be releasing three more areas to skate, not sure how i feel about this as the cost will mount up, no doubt ill buy them anyway. I'm a sucker for DLC. Still two hidden achievements that I'm gonna have to look into.

But all in all if your a big fan of Skate 2 then these are definitely worth downloading, bring on more spots for me to murder!

More reviews to follow. ;)

Ignore the crazy font size at the top of blog, cant fix it...