Skate 3 Review

Grab your decks because it's time to team up and throw down with EA's ‘Skate 3'. It's time to say goodbye to Skate 1 & 2's ‘New San Vanelona' and say hello to the sunny seaside city of ‘Port Carverton'.G This new and realistic setting works a treat especially with Skate's complex control scheme making an engaging single player experience. Port Carverton is a sprawling urban haven that is home to a handsome, concrete-heavy university campus, a cluttered but line filled seaside dock and more skate parks than you can shake your deck at. Knowing how successful the previous Skate games were, it was no doubt that EA would go all out on this one, and having a humble fan base who are more than happy to offer ideas of their own,EA were not short of new ideas to put in to the game.

Since the Skate series debuted in 2007, it has approached the nuts and bolts of skateboarding from a simulation perspective. Tony Hawk players might be able to pull off a 50-50 grind with the push of a single button, but Skate players must carefully line up, time and execute each trick with a tilt and flick of the controller's two analog sticks. At first, this complex system can feel punishing, but once you get the hang of it, the game's controls become the foundation that each player can use to develop their own virtual skateboarding style.

Along with a new game comes new moves. EA's researchers have gone all out to find the latest and best new moves with some still in the trialing stages. Some of the the new moves introduced to the game are darkside flips and underflips, don't worry if you can't understand all the skater terminology, they have a little menu to help you out with that too. But that is not the only thing that is new, EA have introduced a new concept called ‘teams' where you can create and customize up to five characters to skate with you and be a part of your business in the game. These characters can be called upon at any point to skate with you, or as they would say "sesh it up". Teams don't stop at single player, you are also able to create an online team to compete against other online teams (this was due to popular demand to make it more clan friendly). New merchandise has also been added to the ‘edit skater' menu, including new shirts, decks, trucks, and even hats!

With a game like this, where you are trying to capture the beauty of the sport, getting the graphics perfect is one of the main priorities and again, EA have not let us down. With every single movement and trick made to be as realistic as can be and making the skater react with the environment adds up to an amazing picture, but EA still haven't overcome the problem they faced in the last skate; water. Every one knows you cant skate on water so it really has no place in the game, but the maps contains ponds and pools for you to jump over but if you land in the water you fall off you board and begin to do some stroppy swim and appear to drown, where as in Skate 2 you would just reset on land, so I can't really say that has been made better, but I think EA is getting there.

Now one of the main attractions to Skate games is its story or campaign, and with skate 3 it really doesn't differ that much from the previous versions, except for this time you are no longer trying to be a pro skater; you already are. Now you have set up your own little skateboard business and the story progresses with you making a name for it by doing competitions. The story mode is on a basic free roam basis and you can pick and choose from what you want to do, be it street contests, death races or the good ol' favourite hall of meat challenges, in which your basic objective is to bail ( fall off ) in the most painful way you can.

To coincide with the games stunning graphics, the games sound track isn't half bad, I mean for a game all about skating what sounds do you really need apart from the sound of wheels rolling? The way this game has been created makes the sound and vision co-exist amazingly, we no longer have constant crowd noises or loud bird tweets. Every sound is where it should be in the right pitch at the right time and it doesn't drag on. Yet they couldn't do too much with the sound for the game so they instead have a play-list of music constantly playing, almost drowning out every other sound. The worst part of the audio is the songs, they sound like something my dad would listen too.

The Skate series is not only famous for their single player, it also has an amazing online community where you can download and upload user created maps or zones, share clips and pics, join and start teams and challenge other players to beat your top score on the famous ‘own the lot' mode. To back up such a vast community EA has set up a website especially for skate fans, to customize boards and share clips. The main thing that attracts me to the Skate series is that you can replay the game so much and almost never get bored; there's always one part you haven't skated at, or one lot where someone has challenged you.

Which brings me on nicely to one of Skate's amazing features, the ability to record and upload clips of you shredding it up. This ability goes extremely well with Skate's dramatic camera setting, and having the ability to change the angle, saturation, brightness and zoom level means skaters can get the most out of their experience and are able to share it with others.

Skate 3 also revamps the tutorial and in-game aids. Featuring Jason Lee as the entertainingly eager Coach Frank, amateurs are invited to enroll in the Stereo Skate School, where even the most inexperienced virtual boarders can learn through in-depth instruction. New training techniques, such as mid-air holds and a motion-tracking trick analyzer ensure that this iteration's tutorial amounts to more than just an exercise in trial and error. Flexibility is the key with the new Skate School, allowing you to participate in as little or as much of the tutelage as you want; Skate 3's training is the most accessible (and palpable) of the series' tutorials.