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 Not a bad game. No, not bad at all. I had the first Blazing Angels, and although this one has a few of the same problems it's still very much improved.
The demo put you into a theatre of operation along the coast with plenty of entrenched German defenses. Flak guns, destroyers, spotlights, spotter balloons, enemy aircraft and other immobile ground targets. You get the choice of three planes for the demo that has varying stats but similar weapons.
You start by shooting down slow moving V2 rockets, then move onto ground targets in several locations. The tactical map makes it easy to get around much like that found in the Ace Combat games. Then you have to defend an amphibious force as it moves towards the shore. A bit trickier as you need to avoid the spotlights that will mark you an easy target for AA guns aboard several destroyers patrolling the coast.
The graphics seem a bit better than the first game, but still not 360/PS3 worthy. Explosions look kind of odd but the smoke trails and spotlights look great. Get directly in the path of one at night and your blinded until you get clear of it, not easy to do with your doing strafing runs a few hundred feet above the water or treetops!
Sound is decent, but doesn't stand out. The first game had this problem as well. Everything seems to be a tame representation of the sounds you'd expect, but nothing comes out really loud and intense, not even machine gun fire or close flybys. That was one of the things I loved about Secret Weapons Over Normandy and Crimson Skies, the variation in loudness and directional audio.
Control is slick and smooth, very easy to pick up and play and again they have the arcade/sim styles depending on your preference. For the demo I used the "Arcade" style. LT for lock-on of a target, RT for your guns, RB for rockets/missiles, Y for your tactical map. Then you have your two analog sticks, Left for steering and pitch, Right for speed and roll. Very simple and very easy to master.
Overall I liked it. A big improvement over the first one when you add it all together. But I'll probably still rent it first. It may be a weekend love affair and after 5-10 hours or so it may get a bit boring. Especially with Ace Combat 6 overshadowing it this fall.
Just finished playing this demo a few minutes ago, not a bad game. I'm a Tony Hawk fan so it was interesting to play a non Hawk skateboarding game for a change. So most of my impressions will be comparisons between the two, i.e. challenger versus Champion of the market-share at the moment.
The demo starts out with a few quick tutorials to get you familiar with the controls. You use the triggers for grabs, left stick for spins and steering, the X and A for pushing off with your left and right leg respectively and the right stick for your ollies. Although in theory that sounds easy enough, pushing off 2-3 times for maximum speed, then swinging your thumb to the right stick to prepare for a jump will take a bit of getting used to, as you need to hold the right stick down when you do it. I well imagine a motion control alternative would be more practical. Not as easy to pick up and play compared to TH, only because of the pushing off that is necessary and the buttons used to do it. Grinds are automatic, as you only need to use an ollie to jump up onto it, then it's just a matter of balance.
Sound is fantastic, the wheels, grinds, jumps, all sound great and very realistic. graphics are good, though there was a bit of frame-rate stutter and pop-in that may be attributed to it being a demo. I wasn't super crazy about the camera angle, though maybe that will be another option added to the final build. It was a behind 3rd person off to the side a bit, like if you were 3 feet tall on a board behind the player following them.
Graphics are decent, but as it's a demo I won't judge them on that regard. If they remain the same for the final version it won't turn anyone's heads.
Overall I don't think either franchise will hurt one another. There's enough difference for both to co-exist. Though I will say the biggest drawbacks were the camera and the use of the right stick, both can be fixed with more options or the control with motion sensing.
Is Skate a sim or a arcade title? Well it doesn't seem to have the high flying crazy multiple tricks of TH, or the speed for that matter. It does take a lot more effort, timing and skill to pull off great moves. In my opinion it's a bit of both. This is one of those games that is hard to write about until the final version hits shelves but until then hopefully some of this makes sense.
Played the Beautiful Katamari demo on the X360 a while ago. For those of you wondering it's around 432 meg in size. As usual it's an addicting, fun and yet simple game, though the demo itself was a bit on the short side. Anyone who has played the PS2 versions will instantly be familiar with this one. Those who've never played it, imagine a puzzle game where you roll around the environment sticking objects, animals etc to your ball building it up as you go. Then add a time limit and obstacles to make things more challenging. Simple? Yes. Addicting? You betcha!
The best part of this version IMO is the achievements that will accompany it. This game will make me want to work hard for those 1000 points. The multiplayer aspect of it may even convince me to get off my ass and get Xbox Live Gold. Keep an eye out for this game this fall. 
http://namco-ch.net/beautiful_katamari/index.php
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