Update: TransWorld Surf PS2

We recently had a chance to briefly check out a playable build of the PS2 version of TransWorld Surf. Seemingly a far cry from a direct port of the recently released Xbox version, the PS2 game features a handful of reworked elements, as well as some extras not found in its predecessor. The first thing players will likely notice are the reworked character models. They've been made quite a bit less photo-realistic in appearance, and the effect is pretty neat. They're still totally recognizable, but their features are more comiclike than before--they look and feel like video game characters, in short, rather than character models designed to look like real-life athletes.

The gameplay has been tweaked a good bit as well, so as to make the game more accessible and the overall learning curve smoother. Bigger air is now emphasized, and players will find it easier to pull off more-intricate tricks while in the air. A host of fakie moves have also been added, and players can catch air, land, and pull off floater moves while riding thus, which increases the overall trick count. Players will find, however, that riding pipelines has become a bit more difficult--the team decided it too easy for players of the Xbox version to simply ride through the span of a pipeline safely. This time around, players will have to constantly correct their heading in order to keep from crashing into the pipeline's walls. Clearing a pipeline feels like more of an achievement overall, which was probably the point. A whole new location has been added to the PS2 version as well--the beaches of Todos Santos, an island off the western coast of Mexico, near the Tropic of Cancer. It's the final location players will reach in the game, and the waves they'll encounter there are pretty brutal.

We'll have more information about TransWorld Surf for you as soon as we're able to get our hands on a playable version. Check out the media we've provided in the meantime.