Hello internet. I’m Boris, here to provide you a review on one of my favourite franchise’s new installments: skate. 3

How can you change a game about skateboarding? You can’t. Let’s get this out of the way right away. They can use gimmicks like darkslides and new difficulties, but the essence of the game, the controls of the game, the types of challenges–they do not change. Now, what does this game do correctly? As in the others, it has a baddass intro. That is one thing EA has done consistently with this game series, spend money on a great intro that truly does its job: it introduces the skaters. While not orthodox, and often a little over the top, it is humorous and starts the game off right. Now, the game starts you off in a new city, with a new idea: instead of getting out of jail, or the hospital, you’ve just wrecked yourself after some ridiculous stunt. Then Reda, the entire reason I turned off the conversation volume off, decides to start a board company. One, not that easy. Two, not practical. Beside the point.

Now, the gameplay. It is the same tried and true formula that trumped the Tony Hawk series out of existence. Use the left stick to steer, the right stick to do ollies, kickflips, tre flips, etc. It is the same as the other 2, with a new gimmick. You can now catch the board upside-down to darkslide. It’s stupid, in my opinion, but whatever. EA decided to include a new game difficulty as well, hardcore for those who have played. It states physics are more lifelike, and obviously it’s little harder. I skipped straight to this mode. What stood out right away was the pop. You no longer can ollie without crouching, you no longer can tre flip at slow speeds, and grinds are a pain in the ass. The ollies aren’t a big deal, and the flip tricks make it a little harder, but the grinds are damn annoying. I have done about 3 bluntslides without busting my ass, or landing in boardslide, and this makes challenges incredibly difficult. I don’t know what it was, but in the others, landing in grinds was a lot easier, making the game a lot more fun. It was easier to string lines and find flow.

Now, however, it is tough to line up grinds from kickers, making many of the challenges harder than they really should be. Maybe I’m just whining, but I’m a die-hard skate fan, so this kind of makes me wonder how hard it is for others. It’s okay that it makes it harder, but the fact that I can’t just freeskate and have fun without really trying is kinda saddening. Another Major part of skateboarding games, at least to me, is the music included. EA does an okay job trying to cover all genres, but they just don’t include enough. In my opinion, with the massive amount of money EA has, and with the amount of music they put in other games such as Madden, etc., you’d think they’d shell out the cash to make the music worthwhile. Music as a whole is a major thing to skateboarders, and kids that think they skateboard, so it would be a good point to observe. Oh well.

Overall, this is just another installment that could have easily been provided through a $20 map expansion, opposed to a $60 game with nothing new to truly add to the franchise. Yes, it has better graphics, yes it has ONE new gimmick, and yes it has a two new difficulty levels (easy and hard), but it has nothing warranting an entirely new game. I personally am pissed that I spent as much as I did on this game. I essentially feel like I payed for the intro movie.

As I’ve just moved in to a new house, I haven’t had a chance to play the online modes, but I hopefully will be able to comment on that soon, in another article.

REPORT CARD

Story: 48

Graphics: 83

Audio: 68

Gameplay: 86

Lasting Appeal: 60

OVERALL

73