- Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
Product description
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Takeskateboarding to the next level!Product
InformationCustomized3D Skate ParkInaddition to skating some of
the most legendary skate spots in theworld players can create
their own parks to rule. Players designtheir dream park in
realtime 3D using a variety of rampsfunboxes rails and other
objects with a toolbox of nearly ahundred different parts. All
creations can be saved to share withfriends and played in any
game mode.Create-A-SkaterJust likethe first game players have the
choice to skate as Tony Hawk orone of the many pro riders found
in the game. All of the ridershave returned from the original
Tony Hawk Pro Skater with theaddition of Steve Caballero Eric
Koston and Rodney Mullen. Thebig addition to the game is the
ability to build a character fromscratch.ExpandedTricks and
ControlsAll ofthe tricks that made Tony Hawk's Pro Skater so much
fun to playare back. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 takes it to the
next levelwith hundreds of additional tricks that include
nose/tailslidesnose/bluntslides varial flip a multitude of new
grabs expandedinverts lip tricks nollies manuals and more
realistic switchskating. And when they fall players will see and
hear theenhanced bails nutters knee slides pole wraps board
breaksand wall splats.AdditionalMultiplayer ModesCompeteagainst
your friends in the original modes of Trick AttackGraffiti and
Horse plus a new addition Tag Mode. In additionthe new
multi-player contest disciplines of Regular and BestTrick allow
1-8 players to take turns skating heats in thepetition levels of
the game.MusicSoundtrack and In-Game LicensesThere are20
alternative and hip hop tracks on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater
2authentic music soundtrack. Featured bands include Rage
Againstthe Machine Papa Roach and Naughty by Nature. In addition
realskateboards trucks and wheels can be found from over
50different brands.System Requirements Windows 95/98/Me DirectX
7.0 or higher (included) Pentium 233 MMX Pentium II 266 32 MB
.com
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Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is the sequel to the bestselling and
highly accled Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The original title
sported easy controls, solid gameplay mechanics, and awesome
visuals. These elements remain, as the designers spent their time
adding hundreds of new tricks, slightly tweaking the core
gameplay, and creating both a character editor and a 3-D skate
park editor. Players can create the skate park of their dreams,
choosing a theme and locating stairs, ramps, half pipes, pools,
and rails. After completing the finishing touches, you can put
your park on the Internet for all to admire. Then you can create
your own character to skate your custom park. You can personalize
the name, age, height, weight, style, stance, trick set, and
skateboard of your skater.
Alternately, players can choose a character from a number of
professional skaters, including Tony Hawk, Chad Muska, Kareem
Campbell, Andrew Reynolds, and Jamie Thomas. Skaters will gain
more skills as you progress. There are several skate parks to
choose from, including Marseilles, Manhattan, and Skate Street
Ventura. In the core game, players perform tricks to gain money
and purchase new skating abilities, tricks, or boards. Another
mode is free skating, plus there are several multiplayer
scenarios, consisting of an eight-person judged competition,
HORSE (feel free to choose any letters you'd like), tag, trick
attack, and graffiti.
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Review
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A little more than a year ago, video game players witnessed a
strange phenomenon when Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was released for
the PlayStation console. Up until that point, the entire subgenre
of extreme sports games - after years of having mediocre games -
had a stigma, which caused a lot of developers to stop producing
such games altogether. Then Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for the
PlayStation seemed to come out of nowhere: It broke the lull in
extreme sports releases. It was an incredibly good skateboarding
game that received unanimously high praise. Unfortunately, PC
game players missed out on the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater; but
as the extreme sports market heated up, Activision saw fit to
bring the sequel, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, to the PC. While it
may lack some of the visual flare of today's PC games, Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater 2 more than makes up for it with its
outstanding gameplay.
Though Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is a multiplatform release, it's
clear that each port originates from the PlayStation version of
the game. As such, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 doesn't exactly take
advantage of the latest PC hardware. You'll see draw-in and
fogging effects in some of the open-air skate parks, and the
skater models - while much more detailed than those of the recent
MTV Sports: Skateboarding - are still fairly simple by today's PC
standards. However, the PC version does have cleaner textures
than its PlayStation counterpart. The graffiti effects don't
suffer from any aliasing problems, which results in a very clean
and colorful look for a lot of the game's skate parks; and the
higher resolutions in the PC version are also a welcome addition.
The general design of each skate park is excellent; only one
park has the overused abandoned-warehouse theme. Yet even that
particular skate park has a number of features that make it stand
out from the typical design, such as a helicopter that you can
grind and a small plane with wings that you can use as a ramp.
Other parks include a school in Los Angeles, where you must be on
the lookout for a golf-cart driver who would like nothing more
than to run you over. There's also a standard skate park in
Marseilles, France, filled with typical empty pools, park
benches, and ramps. There's even a skate park set in New York,
complete with taxis and their foul-mouthed drivers, as well as
subway cars and tracks. However, there is a bit of a negative
aspect to having such detailed and, occasionally, large levels.
You'll want to spend some time just exploring and getting to know
the area rather than attempting to complete any objectives.
While there are play modes, such as free skate and single
session, that are dedicated to letting you become familiar with
the layout of a particular park, the main portion of Tony Hawk's
gameplay is centered on the career mode. In this particular mode,
you start off with access to only one park and a skater with a
solid number of varied tricks. Your main goal is to go through
each level while completing the necessary a of objectives to
move onto the next level. This mode gives an enormous a of
incentive as well as replay value to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2.
You must complete objectives so that you can gain enough money to
open any of the later parks, and you'll more than likely come
back to the earlier levels to finish off the objectives you
didn't complete. In addition to opening new parks, you can buy
new tricks and new boards for your skater, which become quite
valuable in the later levels when you need to perform some of the
complicated tricks to complete an objective.
If you're not familiar with the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater,
the career mode will be a little frustrating at first because it
can be difficult to complete some of the objectives. For example,
in the first park, you're required to grab five pilot-wing icons.
Getting four out of the five is no problem, but the fifth, which
is located high above the park, requires you to have a
significant a of experience with the game's controls. This
really doesn't detract from the game since there are easier
objectives, and you can always come back to difficult objectives
after you've managed to purchase new tricks and abilities, which
is what Tony Hawk's replay value largely consists of.
Interestingly, the ability to add new tricks and strengthen a
skater's ability really isn't all that necessary until the latter
stages of the game, when most of the parks are already .
With an average skater, it's certainly possible to get all the
way up to Venice Beach park, but once again, in order to complete
all objectives for every stage, you will have to eventually buy
new tricks - though it really doesn't make that much of a
difference. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 offers plenty of value in
the career mode alone.
One crucial aspect to any skateboarding game is the control, and
unlike in the recent MTV Sports: Skateboarding, which had very
loose control and poor collision detection, Tony Hawk's Pro
Skater 2's control is tight and precise. Specific button
combinations pull off their appropriate skateboarding trick, and
there really isn't a problem with your skater performing any
unintentional tricks. The only weak spot is grinding rails and
other various objects because, as you will find, the keyboard and
even a standard digital gamepad may not be precise enough to keep
your balance while you grind. It's apparent that this feature was
designed with analog control in mind, so if you have access to an
analog PC controller, then, by all means, use it. But if you
don't, grinding can become an ordeal, as some of the later career
mode objectives require you to grind for an extended period of
time. A balance meter or something other than the visual cues
from the skater would've helped alleviate this to some extent.
If the career mode somehow isn't enough to keep you interested
in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 for an extended period of time, the
game also includes a complete park editor. The editor is
incredibly easy to use, so those with even a basic understanding
of 3D modeling should have no problem coming up with a functional
park. For more-experienced makers, the editor is diverse
enough that it lets you create some fairly complex parks.
Importing parks made by other Tony Hawk players adds a new
dimension to the game, and it should give the game an extended
life period long after it's released.
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 also has a multiplayer mode, which
gives you a choice of three different modes: trick attack, tag,
and graffiti. Unfortunately, the only way to play these games is
over a local network, so finding someone to play against may
prove difficult. However, the three different modes are actually
quite fun; and the game also features a very fun game of horse
for two players on a single computer, in which you and your
nent must constantly out-perform each other using better and
more-complicated tricks.
It may not be the best-looking PC game available, but Tony
Hawk's Pro Skater 2 has a solid look and a level of replay value
that's unmatched by any game of its type. The career mode will
keep pulling you back as you try to unlock every park, but later
on you'll find yourself trying to find all the secret items and
attempting to complete all the objectives for each stage. It's
also fun to go into the single session or free-skate mode just to
see what kind of trick combinations you can string together.
There can be a steep learning curve if you're not willing to take
the time to understand how different tricks function and how
they're landed, but this can be overcome quickly with a few
free-skate sessions in the first park. The skate-park editor
should interest those who want to completely customize their own
parks, and it's easy enough to use that virtually anyone can
create a park within a short time period. Overall, Tony Hawk's
Pro Skater 2 plays very well - it has excellent scenario design,
great control, and even a nice mix of rock and rap music from
bands such as Rage Against the Machine - and of course there's
the incredible a of replay value. The inclusion of the
original parks from the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater only
sweetens the package for fans of the first game, as well as for
those who are new to the series.--Giancarlo Varanini--Copyright ©
2000 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or
in part in any form or medium without express written permission
of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review
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