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I have a Patreon. Please consider signing up for it. It really helps me out moving forward.  Tony Hawk's Underground 2 is the 6th main installment in the Tony Hawk series of skateboarding games. While earlier entries in the series were based on completing a list of goals within a two-minute time limit (and the occasional competition), later games in the series would opt for a different mission structure. Now, levels became larger, and missions were taken on one at a time as you freely skated around looking for the next person to give you a goal. THUG2 marries these two main concepts together. Like in the first three games, you start off each level with a list of objectives to complete how you see fit, but like in the last couple games, you are still not restricted to two minutes of play at a time. You can also find and switch to other characters found in the levels, who will unlock further challenges. On top of that, the game also introduces Classic Mode, which further evokes the structure of the earlier games. Here, you are skating around levels both new and old, time limit intact, to collect SKATE letters, hit high scores, find hidden tapes, and so on. Then about half a year after THUG2 was released, an expanded upon version of the game was ported to the PlayStation Portable by Shaba Games. While mostly the same game, this version also includes 4 brand new levels. So here I am, and I'm going to be doing everything I can, completing all goals and getting all gaps on the hardest difficulty. For a little more info on skate culture and how THUG2's presentation is actually a pretty strong representation of it, please check out the introductory Part 0 episode! Story Mode                       Classic Mode             Maxing out my stats as much as possible before doing anything else in the game.  Special Level: Pro Skater  Also here's a playlist of some challenges and stuff I've been tackling in THPS1+2 Jamesman fucked around with this message at 17:08 on Mar 16, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2019 03:55
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A couple notes: - If you like what you see, please consider showing your support by subscribing on YouTube, following me on Twitter, or checking me out on Twitch. - I'm also doing a playthrough of the We Were Here Trilogy, a co-op puzzle/adventure games with my buddy P0LARMic. Jamesman fucked around with this message at 23:31 on Feb 25, 2021 |
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Nov 18, 2019 04:00
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Mr. Fortitude posted:Huh. Watching the Boston level and I'm pretty sure I remember it a bit differently. Did the Remix version change any of the goals and levels or is my memory really faulty? I don't believe there are any changes made to levels between the console and portable versions, but I'll do another check. It's possible you're remembering some of the goals from the Classic Mode version of the level. Speaking of Classic Mode, I'm looking for a little bit of input here on how I should tackle it. My current plan is to just systematically do a goal or two per two-minute run, giving me an opportunity to explain and demonstrate, leaning more into the guide aspect of the playthrough. Basically intending to maintain the viewer feeling like this (hopefully); Radio Free Kobold posted:I appreciate you giving us the rundown of your gap lines before you actually do them; it makes it easier to keep up with the action. The alternative would be to heavily practice and aim to get all goals in a single run (which I'm not even sure is doable for every level), which would be leaning more into the showing off some skill, similar to how I redid THPS1-3. However, we're talking about a lot of levels that are bigger and possibly not as familiar to the audience as the classic games, and revisiting old levels offer up brand new challenges to look at too, so I figured it'd be a lot of work for a less enjoyable experience for the viewer. Thoughts?
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Nov 20, 2019 01:38
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 Gonna be checking out Remix for the next few episodes.
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Nov 25, 2019 14:01
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 We're gonna be hanging out on the PSP for a few episodes. Some of this might be new to you guys, like it was to me. Some of you might also recognize these levels from American Wasteland's Classic Mode, but what's interesting is that they "refreshed" these levels to have different goals and different layouts for things like SKATE and COMBO letters and stuff like that between the two appearances just like they did for all the other levels.
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Nov 30, 2019 20:33
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Dec 12, 2019 05:26
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Well, it is a common trope for wizards to be a bit elitist and stuck up.
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Dec 12, 2019 06:45
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 I've been dealing with a lot of stuff going on lately, so recordings have been a luxury. Sorry things have taken such a long break, and I do not know how frequently I will be able to update moving forward, but we're pushing through. Jamesman fucked around with this message at 22:56 on Jan 23, 2020 |
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Jan 23, 2020 22:53
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Feb 2, 2020 01:22
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Tombot posted:Oof, the sound effects in the PSP version are really annoying to listen to, they sound like they're being played under a mound of gravel. They definitely have a lot more compression. I wonder how much it comes across though in the PSP version, versus listening to it in all its glory through PC headphones.
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Feb 2, 2020 03:01
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Feb 22, 2020 03:52
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This was uploaded a while ago now, but I never updated the thread. Probably a good idea to subscribe if you don't wanna miss out on videos because my brain is bad. And here's a video posted today. 
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Mar 20, 2020 17:11
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Tombot posted:Am I crazy, or was Wee Man about the same size the player is? He is shorter, but I couldn't tell you the accuracy of his model compared to real life. You'll soon get a better chance to judge when we get to the next level. The Shame Boy posted:Can't believe Corona Virus is what finally killed Skateboarding Knock on wood, me and mine haven't gotten sick yet. It's just been a lot of other stuff happening that was keeping me from putting out videos more frequently. And that'll still probably be the case for the rest of this LP, because the amount of work I put into it and the amount of time I have to actually put that work into it are still at war with each other, now more than ever. But we're getting this done. I haven't abandoned a project yet since my return, and I'm hoping to keep that streak going.
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Mar 23, 2020 14:10
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 Hi happy weekend.
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Mar 27, 2020 19:37
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Chimera-gui posted:I get the feeling that the implication of Eric's performance in Berlin is that Eric Sparrow isn't as good as he thinks he is hence why he kept trying to screw over the player in the first THUG who was legitimately more talented than him at skateboarding. Recall that Eric edited the video to make it look like Eric was the one who jumped the helicopter and not the player character. Our guy was definitely a better skater, but Eric still has talent. The way I understand it, Eric didn't edit the footage to put him in our place; he hid our footage and filmed his own roof-to-roof air himself later, without a helicopter to jump over. The other guys seem to regard him well enough to want him on the tour, but it also seems like they know he's a poo poo and wanna give him a hard time, and he's trying (too) hard to impress them and just making them regret bringing him along. I identify with Eric. 
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Mar 30, 2020 18:56
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 If you're relying solely on this thread to keep up with this playthrough or anything I'm doing moving forward, there's an increasing chance that you will really want to subscribe to my channel instead and follow me on Twitter. Also linking my Patreon in the first post.
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Jun 25, 2020 19:53
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Hello we're back. Here's a big post with content for you. I needed a hiatus from so much stuff this year because of poo poo going on this year and also because I took on too much stuff at once and was burning out and needed to slow down and do more work behind the scenes and etc etc. First off, I never properly posted Kyoto Pt 2 in this thread, because it was during a time I wasn't sure I wanted to keep posting on these forums. Seems like a lot of you did find your way over to the video though, because you are cool people who subscribe to my channel. If you're not yet a cool person, you can easily become one!  And now here's also Australia Pt 1.  I've also been playing around with THPS1+2 and have posted a few videos where I beat ridiculous score challenges and do level speedruns and maybe a couple other things. If you want even more Tony Hawk and want to see some possibly decent gameplay then here you go! BioEnchanted posted:By the way Jamesman, did you ever play Tony Hawk's Proving Ground? It's one that no one seems to have any experience with, but I've been playing it recently, got to 89% so far. Hi, yes. I played it but never 100% completed it because I got really bored of it and didn't find it to be too fun. I played it shortly after fully completing Project 8, which was a huge pain in the rear end, and I think I just burned out on the games at that point.
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Dec 22, 2020 23:31
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Jan 5, 2021 21:30
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Tombot posted:I'm not entirely sure if the stilted animation on the giant monster was a reference to old movies or just a consequence of being on the PSP. Possibly the former, but I highly doubt the latter. A third option is just 
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Jan 6, 2021 10:26
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Jan 16, 2021 15:27
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Jan 24, 2021 17:56
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There appears to have only been one other LP attempted of this game back in 2013. Best I can tell, they stopped just before completing the LP, with only a few minutes left of story mode and one level of classic mode. So if I surpass that, that means I've completed this LP. If there were any other attempts, they were completely purged and all record of them no longer exists.
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Jan 24, 2021 23:07
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Honestly, the only problem I've had with this game is the result of how I chose to do this in the same fashion as my THUG1 LP. The structure of the game is different enough that it ended up being a lot harder for me to come up with routes and memorizing everything. It's part of the reason why I took a little hiatus, so I could just catch my breath a little and finish up with at least part of the game. I also did everything for the PSP version so I could stop going back and forth between that and the PS2 version because it hosed with my muscle memory. Right now I'm just working on doing the rest of Classic Mode, which has its own troubles, but is overall a lot easier to deal with. And just a heads up, the credits for this game has baked-in music I couldn't turn off, and all the music was claimed. In particular, the Ramones song got the video completely blocked. So I had to mute all the game audio, which unfortunately means muting the character dialogue also included in the credits. I typed up subtitles for it and it's not the worst thing? But still a bit disappointing.
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Jan 25, 2021 01:22
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 Before heading into the final level of Story Mode, we've got another detour back into THUG2 Remix. All the extra levels from THUG2 Remix make an appearance, in some form, in the next game, American Wasteland. Santa Cruz and Kyoto are seen in Classic Mode, and while Atlanta is also in Classic Mode, it is only available as a level exclusive to the Collector's Edition of the game, alongside Marseille. Las Vegas shows up in the main portion of the game as the "Casino" section of the game's map. It also dawned on me that this LP has been stretched out over a year, and I really did not expect that to be the case (same for all my other projects taking forever to finish), and I'm sorry about that. We ARE getting to the finish line on everything though, no matter how slow I may be at doing so. I wonder which THUG2 LP will end first...
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Feb 2, 2021 18:16
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Tombot posted:Also this level looks like it was barely tested, It's probably the buggiest so far. It's unfortunate that there are so many issues with this level. I can't really figure out why things are so screwy with it, but it definitely made it very frustrating to record. You'll see at least another couple fun bugs with this level in both Part 2 and in Classic Mode.
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Feb 3, 2021 03:53
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 This wraps up Story Mode for the PSP version, but we'll be revisiting it for Classic Mode soon enough.
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Feb 9, 2021 18:36
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Feb 16, 2021 17:51
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You know, I always assumed it was made up for the game. It seemed like such an outlandish design for a location, that I just never considered it could be based on a real place. And yet, now having seen the pictures myself and thinking about it, it actually makes perfect sense that it's a real place, and I should have known.
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Feb 16, 2021 21:40
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 Story Mode is finally done! We've got a bonus level to explore next time, and after that, we move on to Classic Mode. I plan to post the rest of this LP with a bit more frequency, as it's been going on for a long time, and there's no real reason to keep it going on for another 3 months or something.
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Feb 23, 2021 21:24
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Honestly, if it wasn't for the gaps, there wouldn't really be a whole lot of stuff I would have enjoyed about Story Mode. It gave me a challenge to focus on (memorizing and completing them all), because the actual goals of the game didn't provide much challenge themselves. And I tried my best to blend the gaps and goals together to not dwell on one thing too much over the other, but I found that harder to do this time around. In THUG1, you were more structure in its mission layout, and were actually asked to do skateboard things, so it made it a lot easier for me to plan out everything. "Oh, I'm heading over to this mission, so I can do these gaps along the way. Then during this mission, this gives me an opportunity to do these gaps." repeat for entirety of the game. Here, there felt like much more of a separation between the antics of Story Mode, and everything else. That lack of flow made it a lot harder to route out, for me. And yeah, the story itself is very minimal, just kinda framing each level and also invalidating everything you do in each level. On one hand, it can be seem as an evolution on the classic format, but on the other hand, we already had things trending in another direction with THPS4 and THUG1 that felt fresh and interesting. This is kind of like taking the worst parts of both worlds. But even the worst parts of a Tony Hawk game (up to this point) are still pretty darn good.
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Feb 24, 2021 01:19
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Yeah... RIP THPS1 1+2 Activision really managed to do everything right and then decided "OK that's enough" and went back to being Activision.
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Feb 24, 2021 03:49
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Feb 25, 2021 23:30
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 I have some questions I'd really like some folks to answer for me, please. 1. Since I've been back, I've done videos for THPS1 up to THUG2, and a little bit of THPS1+2. During this time, have I inspired any of you to play these games? (Either for the first time, or again.) 2. How do you feel about the way I've done the videos for this LP? 3. Do you think I'm a good skatemans?
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Feb 27, 2021 18:28
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Tombot posted:2: While I did enjoy your playthrough of the game, you do spend a lot of time standing around explaining what you are going to do and not actually doing it, this mostly applies to the gaps. Understandable that this kind of downtime can be boring, but it's by design that I try to make sure people know what's actually happening. Things can often happen really fast in this game, especially when you already know what you have to do and how to do it, so I felt that explaining things would better help people keep up with the action when it happens. I also thought maybe these vids could also serve as aides for those who revisit these games. The Classic Mode videos might be a bit less slow for you, since I'm contained to time limits. The exception will be when we encounter levels I still need to get gaps in, but in those, you could just totally skip ahead if that doesn't interest you at all.
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Feb 27, 2021 23:26
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The Shame Boy posted:I liked how you trashed focus mode at first as something not really necessary if you are skilled enough and by the end even as skilled as you are you were still using it for certain things Focus ended up being a bit more of a crutch I relied on as the game went on. It makes things easier, but is rarely a necessity for completing challenges. But anyone who has done an LP knows that skill depletes once you start recording, AND once you start opening your mouth, so I used it more than I was expecting just so I wouldn't have to do as many recording attempts. On top of that, the added precision went a long way toward aligning myself or getting certain timings down, as sometimes some spots/lines/setups are wildly different depending on your stats. So yeah, I was wrong about how useful I would ultimately find Focus Mode.
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Feb 28, 2021 01:26
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 Please stay until the end if you like seeing me really challenge myself.
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Mar 2, 2021 19:17
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 First new (old?) level showing up in Classic Mode. Please keep in mind there are chapter breaks if you really don't care about gaps and just wanna see me doing the goals.
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Mar 3, 2021 20:05
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Tombot posted:Edit: I'm almost certain the helecopter took off after you grinded the rotor blades, I don't know if it crashed or anything like that. I can confirm now that not only did the helicopter take off, but it was also a gap in the THPS3 version of the level.
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Mar 4, 2021 01:43
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Mar 5, 2021 15:31
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Tombot posted:Y'know it's strange, you mentioned the gymnasium a couple of times, but I don't think you stepped foot in there even once during that video. The gym itself is just a half-court with bleachers in it, and I guess they never really figured out any real purpose for it, in terms of utilizing it for goals or gaps or anything. In the remake, there's at least one gap in there and a textbook to grab, and actually isn't terrible to incorporate in runs! It's kind of interesting how they were able to take a different perspective on old levels and see how to utilize them in different ways compared to the originals.  As you can see, not every level is getting the "Everything in one run treatment," but I want you to know that the ones that are, were a huge pain in the rear end to do and the most stressful part of this playthrough by a wide margin.
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Mar 6, 2021 16:48
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