Congrats to EA games on a superior title! Being able to get off your board now, and making the gameplay more of an open format, really takes a spectacular game and just makes it even more so.

The gameplay is at once challenging and extremely rewarding, so give this title the time it deserves, especially if you have any interest in riding sideways on any kind of board. I come from a skating background, so I’m a little biased, but the second release of this game shows EA listens very closely to their gamers. I’ve never been much into sports games, but aside from 2k games MLB series, EA seems to have the area pretty well locked up as far as understanding how to adapt complex physical activities to the console experience.

I did find the initial few hours a bit tedious, as I tend to fantasize about ramp riding more than anything, mostly as the lure of the ramp looms large in my pysche, so not getting that instant gratification early in the game may have soured my experience.

Once the Career options opened up, however, I found lots of killer activities to endulge in, and now I’m hooked! The downhill races, the new skatepark contests that open up, all the wonderful and delicious subversive activities available (Making money on stylized bails? SWEET!). Oh yeah. I haven’t gotten into any of the online offerings at this point, but the options looks endless and spectacular. The only thing preventing me from doing that is the extra step involved in getting an EA account – would be nicer if they could just integrate my PS3 account