Game: Skate 3
Platform: Xbox 360; PS3
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Developer: Black Box
ESRB: T
Genre: Sports/Skateboarding
Players: 1-6
What's Hot: Big new city to explore, great soundtrack and production values
What's Not: Online multiplayer is a bit laggy
Review by: Jason McMaster
For the third installment of EA’s realism fueled skating franchise, you once again find yourself pinning your hopes and dreams upon shreds and ollies, however this time things are slightly different. Gone are the pushy cops of San Vanelona as Skate 3 places you in the new city of Port Carverton where skating is not only allowed, but encouraged. The notion of the plucky young upstart has also been ditched, replaced with you taking the controls of an already established skater looking to start up a board company with the help of Reda, the franchise’s ever-present skateboarding videographer.
To get your board company off of the ground you need to get your fame up to the point where skaters flock to your wares on account of your awesomeness. Every contest you win brings your skateboard sales totals up, and the higher your totals, the more you unlock. After a certain point, you start adding skaters to your team for team-based challenges that also translate to board sales. Unlocks in Skate 3 allow you to customize your skater to your liking as well as build your own skate parks and share them online.
Port Carverton is a fairly large and entertaining city to play in with plenty of environmental nooks and crannies to use for your trick busting needs. From helling it down a broken aqueduct to using a dry dock as a half-pipe, there’s a lot of exploring and shredding to be done. As you progress through the city you’ll have a fantastic soundtrack to entertain you with artists from Joy Division to Neil Diamond and Wu-Tang. It’s an eclectic mix but is pitch perfect for the action all around.
Skate 3 controls like the earlier Skates, which is to say that it’s based on realism. For example, long grinds take more than simply maintaining balance, requiring you to line up, make your jump and be aware of your surroundings for the dismount. The controls may be difficult to get used to at first, particularly for folks who have spent the majority of their time on more arcade-y skate games; however the payoff is an unmatched feeling of connectedness to your virtual skater.
Once you’ve adapted to your character, the world of Port Carverton opens up and everything you see is a target for some serious thrashing. As in the other games, there are plenty of opportunities to wander and find challenges as well as being able to teleport to them via the start menu’s challenge map. Port Carverton appears to have been built from the ground up for the express purpose of skateboarding, so you can expect to find a challenge map bristling with tasks to test your skating mettle.
If the single player isn’t enough, you can compete against other players online in a number of events. There is a downside to this, though: latency and server issues are a serious pain. While playing online, there is a slight lag to your movement, which doesn’t sound like much, but with a game as twitchy as Skate, you need precise reaction times. Luckily the ability to share created skate parks helps dull the pain of a lag induced face plant.
For long time fans of the franchise, Skate 3 will seem very familiar, however it’s hard to argue with a successful formula and this formula has worked like gangbusters so far. With hours of challenges, both online and off, and a large city to explore, it is well worth it to anyone who enjoys a well designed, open-world experience. Skate 3 solidifies the series as the premiere skateboarding franchise.
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