Skate 3
When it comes to the Skate series of skateboarding games from EA, I’m pretty much a virgin. Sure, I played the original once or twice whilst browsing games at my local Dick Smith, but playing on one of their demo machines for just a few minutes doesn’t really give you a feel for the game. The one thing I did notice about Skate in Dick Smith was the ridiculously hard control mechanisms.
Now that I’ve had the chance to sit down in the comfort of my own home and run Skate 3 through it’s paces, I can admit that my tepid first impressions were way off the mark. Having the advantage of running through the skate school tutorial, I can now see the genius in EA’s thumb-stick control set up; it manages to give the game that all essential ‘slightly more real’ feel to it that other skate games seem to lack.Â
But lets not get too far ahead, there’s a few things to do before I reached the tutorial, the first was sitting through a very off beat video, showing us the birth of a skate board from cutting the tree down to delivery of the final product. An interesting is somewhat bizarre way to start the game. Then it was onto the familiar character set up, where you get to make your skater look as much, or as little, like you as you want. Then you get to name your team and your character.
Now is the time for skate school, and it’s all pretty easy stuff, once you get the hang of the basic thumb-stick controls. After that there are a few more tricks that you have to perform before unlocking the game proper.
At any stage you can go off and free skate, but it’s more fun if you complete the pre-requsite challenges so that you have access to all the challenges, and can start playing the games main story-line.
The story-line is rather basic; you mate wants your help to build a new skateboard brand from scratch, you being the one to put your body on the line, gaining notoriety, and thus selling skate boards.
Skate 3 is a lot of fun to play, with some massive areas to explore and plenty of tricks, races and challenges to complete – which can be done on or offline. Graphically it’s quite a stunner, and the little things make it that much better, such as your clothes becoming dirty and you arms and legs accumulating grazes the more you bail whilst attempting tricks.
As I said before, the play area is massive, and it’s just begging to be explored, and if I didn’t need to get this review written and posted, I’d still be playing, exploring and increasing my skills and notoriety.
If you’ve never taken the Skate series for a run, then pick up Skate 3 right now, it’s the best skating game I’ve played.
Reviewed on: XBox 360
Available on: XBox 360, PS3
Reviewed by:
When it comes to the Skate series of skateboarding games from EA, I’m pretty much a virgin. Sure, I played the original once or twice whilst browsing games at my local Dick Smith, but playing on one of their demo machines for just a few minutes doesn’t really give you a feel for the game. The one thing I did notice about Skate in Dick Smith was the ridiculously hard control mechanisms. Now that I’ve had the chance to sit down in the comfort of my own home and run Skate 3 through it’s paces, I can admit that my tepid first impressions were way off the mark. Having the advantage of running through the skate school tutorial, I can now see the genius in EA’s thumb-stick control set up; it manages to give the game that all essential ‘slightly more real’ feel to it that other skate games seem to lack. But lets not get too far ahead, there’s a few things to do before I reached the tutorial, the first was sitting through a very off beat video, showing us the birth of a skate board from cutting the tree down to delivery of the final product. An interesting is somewhat bizarre way to start the game. Then it was onto the familiar character set up, where you get to make your skater look as much, or as little, like you as you want. Then you get to name your team and your character. Now is the time for skate school, and it’s all pretty easy stuff, once you get the hang of the basic thumb-stick controls. After that there are a few more tricks that you have to perform before unlocking the game proper. At any stage you can go off and free skate, but it’s more fun if you complete the pre-requsite challenges so that you have access to all the challenges, and can start playing the games main story-line. The story-line is rather basic; you mate wants your help to build a new skateboard brand from scratch, you being the one to put your body on the line, gaining notoriety, and thus selling skate boards. Skate 3 is a lot of fun to play, with some massive areas to explore and plenty of tricks, races and challenges to complete – which can be done on or offline. Graphically it’s quite a stunner, and the little things make it that much better, such as your clothes becoming dirty and you arms and legs accumulating grazes the more you bail whilst attempting tricks. As I said before, the play area is massive, and it’s just begging to be explored, and if I didn’t need to get this review written and posted, I’d still be playing, exploring and increasing my skills and notoriety. If you’ve never taken the Skate series for a run, then pick up Skate 3 right now, it’s the best skating game I’ve played.
Reviewed by: