Skate 2

Skate 2 is a skateboarding game that follows the first installment and its acclaimed Flick-It control system, in which tricks are performed by tilting both analog sticks to mimic the real movement of feet on a board, instead of the simple button-mashing typical of the rival Tony Hawk's series. The game is set in the fictional city of San Vanelona, which was partially destroyed by an earthquake, and the player can build and modify ramps, rails, and other obstacles directly in the open world using objects scattered around the streets, placing skateboarding in a more believable and interactive urban environment than before.

The PlayStation 3 version launched simultaneously with Xbox 360 in early 2009 and was completely identical in content - the same city of San Vanelona, the same tricks, the same custom obstacle-building system, and the same story mode following a skater's career from nothing to fame. The controls remained built on the same principle of tilting the analog sticks adapted for the DualShock 3, which, thanks to the controller's sensitivity for this game, didn't need the Sixaxis feature or any other motion control at all, unlike some other PS3 games of the time.

Unlike other multiplatform games of the era, Skate 2 never came to PC at all - the series remained exclusively a console affair for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, so PC owners never got to play this game in any form. There were also no significant technical differences in framerate or graphics recorded between the two console versions, so choosing between PS3 and Xbox 360 was essentially a matter of personal platform preference and possibly your online friends' community, not the quality of the game's execution itself. Online multiplayer and uploading custom trick videos worked identically on both consoles, just through different networks - PlayStation Network on PS3 and Xbox Live on Xbox 360 - with the same ability to share your own gameplay clips with the player community.

Why play it: Because the game never came to PC, the PS3 console version is the only choice for fans without an Xbox 360 - technically on par and with the same ability to share your own trick videos.