As a former skater (although, once a skater - always a skater) I loved the first game but it had a few things here and there that needed tweaking. I was scared they wouldn’t put much work into the sequel...man, was I wrong! They tweaked the fuck out of it and for the better.

The game has two main modes (party mode doesn't really count): career and online. The career mode plays itself much like the previous game, although now Reda is your guide. I have to say, the challenges are so much better and more challenging. The Alien Workshop manual challenge was great, as were a lot of the others. And with the completion of the Pro-specific challenges, you also get your company-specific board sponsors. Other challenges such as contests will give you your truck and wheel sponsors. One thing I found a lot better this time around were the Magazine challenges, as well as the random extra challenges...they were very well thought-out and established a good challenge level.

A big difference in this game is two-fold...One: you can get off your board, and Two: a lot of spots are skate stopped. Wow...seems like the real world to me. The game makes it so that when getting off your board, you can get up to random spots and also start over if you bail. Walking around allows you to move certain obstacles and create your own micro spots as well. On top of that, it gives you the ability to do no-complys and one-foot tricks. Granted, Judo Airs went out with the '80s but they are still fun. As for the "skate-stopped spots"...this is where your friends come in. When you find such a spot, just call up Mikey, pay him some cash, and he de-skate-stops it. I wish I knew a Mikey back in '95...there were lots of spots that needed him. Another bonus friend you can call is Big Black who gets rid of security guards for you.

Ok, so the online mode...fucking excellent! I had so much playing this with Boogie and BMoney - it wasn’t funny. One mode is "freeskate" where you pick a spot and just skate around (public or private), and then you can select from a "Challenge List" and do challenges together. Some of them are co-op, some are individual, but all fun. The second challenge set-up is very similar to the old game where you play in "Ranked Matches". You can either play "s.k.a.t.e.", "spot battle", "jam", "best trick", "death race" or the all-new "Hall of Meat". All of these are done a lot better this time around and seem smoother to play. I haven’t messed with the "Hall of Meat" ones yet because falling is the one thing I do not want to be reminded of from my skateboarding youth.

How do I feel about this game? Let’s put it this way: I play it every day and can’t put it down. My wife hates that the only time the PS3 is on lately is to play this game...but you know - tough shit; I let her play Oblivion for months. I suggest you pick this up asap and add me on the PSN as redstr718 so we can play together.