Further impressions...
I'm starting to warm up to this game. I'm still not all that impressed, and yet the sum of all the additions are adding up.
I've found that walking is made easier by using the right stick to help you turn. For the most part you can only use the left stick to go forward, and then once you're moving you can use it to steer as well. So nudging the right stick to initially steer helps, because it turns the camera.
The new moves give the game a bit of a different feel, especially the foot plants which give you more to do on flat ground. The finger flips are a nice addition too.
Upon further examination the bails, when they don't glitch out, are done pretty well. But yes, you do get that glitch that sends you flying... Sometimes 5-10 feet in one direction... Sometimes about 30 up into the air.
The new camera angle is great. You turn it on from the video options while playing (you can't find it in the main menu). It's really nice to have this higher camera angle, especially while exploring and for the races.
If anyone is worried about the premise of Mongocorp (or whatever) getting in the way... Don't be. If doesn't interfere with the skating hardly at all.
I'm noticing a lot more detail in the city. I also found a cool little spot that could only be reached by moving a ramp and jumping over a wall. It was a small little area with a few movable objects inside along with some ledges and small quarter pipes. Very cool. Hopefully there are similar spots around the city. It's stuff like this that I think the series should focus on: cruising around a big city finding spots to skate... Places you can shape into your own, and not necessarily by always moving things around either... Because that's pretty much what the core of skating is: taking a fixed landscape that doesn't even look like it's even really a place to skate, and yet still finding a way.
Oh yeah... Heard the song "Rock the Bells" by LL on the soundtrack... Nuff said.