User Review : SKATE

Ups

• Amazingly intuitive control scheme{Keeps it real{You-tube like online community

Downs

• Inconsistent textures{Lack of big-name skaters{Steep learning curve

So does the new guy on the block show the old pro a thing or two....um Hell Yeah!!!

Story:
Okay so there’s not much to the story here. But what do you expect from a sports title. We have ya typical “done 100 times before” rags to riches theme here. The way in that its presented saves it from the cliché bucket. At the start of your career mode, you are forced to watch a clip of a faceless skater which turns out to be you skate around for a while before he doesn’t look both ways when crossing the road and Bang! Gets hit by a bus, and is rushed to hospital. But what’s cool about this is that this acts as the introduction of all the characters of the game in a fun and exciting clip. And once in hospital, you the player become the plastic surgeon and create your skater from scratch, and then you’re off again to re-gain some respect on the street.

"Hey Tony Dork watch this."
Now normally when a game cover has the little iconic EA logo on it, you can expect the game to look very pretty, have a few tag-lines on the back mentioning “ground breaking gameplay” and you can also expect to not expect that “ground breaking gameplay” they were talking about. However it’s my pleasure to tell you we have seen fortunes change on this EA stereotype. In-fact The game delivers on those taglines on the back of the case, and delivers so much that I almost forgot about its presentation.

Its not often that the gameplay of one of EA’s many titles outshines the games presentation but that is exactly the case here, but more on the gameplay later. So if I were to say that the game is as ugly as Rossie O’Donnell….well I’d be lying. Almost had ya didn’t I. You thought the game was going to be ugly aye? “Err no!” Oh well. While the graphics department may never break any boundaries, it certainly has created its own unique art style with bright colors and high contrast rates. One thing that really did manage to catch my eye was the amazingly real/unreal at times physics system. I say “unreal at times” because it has its odd moments were your skater essentially becomes a rubber band and the laws of physics simply do not apply to them anymore. But for the most part, the physics system cracks out some amazing “Ohhhhh!” and “Ahhhhhh” moments that all members of the family will love.

The main problem with Skate’s presentation is for everything it does great it does something a little odd. Take for example the textures. Most textures have been done with a great amount of detail and sharpness and then you have your odd one or two textures that are just plain bland and ugly. For the totally cool physics system in place the pedestrian animations are rougher then Donald Trumps toupee. Other things of important notice are the quite well done and perfectly timed facial animations. There’s nothing quite like seeing your skater bail and to see his meat and two veg firmly planting against that handrail and then looking up to see the grimace on his face. But on song with Skate’s 50/50 presentation, something has to suffer. And as with tradition with EA, the frame rate ounce again fails to impress on the PS3. I don’t really have to dwell on this do I? We should all be familiar with this now. It’s not pretty.

But before slitting our wrists ounce again over EA’s lack of effort with a PS3 port, lets talk about something that might even bring something of a resemblance of a smile to an EMO. The level design is what I’m talking about and how the devs made the different sections of the city have their own feel and vibe. Instead of having trusted hands play with filters to change the vibe of the different sections they have actually put some thought and brains into the deal, to give each section its own unique feel. For example one part of the city is a residential area, and is coated with bright pastel colors, where as on the other side of town is fully commercial with sky scrapping buildings and traffic lights for miles.

"Oh you wearnt watching!"
You may think that “sound” doesn’t play a huge part in skating but by does it make a huge difference when done right. And I’m pleased to say they have got the noises of skating ni-on pitch perfect. From just riding down the street to grinding a 10m long rail, all the sound has been captured perfectly, it all just sounds right. Even slowing down and drifting if you will sounds awesome. It even picks up on what type of surface your skating on. And while most developers would have gone meh “Skating on the road sounds no different to skating on a street pathway.” The devs here have really put in the hard yards and made every crack you skate over pick up on the sound register. Now how’s that for attention to detail.

Voice acting wise, we wont be seeing any Oscars handed out to these guys anytime soon. But they put on a reasonable effort to keep the air muffs in the garage were they belong. It does however pop its head up above the average bucket every now and then with nice little touches such as…Your mate who films you will take the piss out of you every time you bail, this provides some comic relief just in case your bail wasn’t funny enough. And to immerse you more into the Skate Experience the pedestrians will even stop and talk on their cell-phones or comment you on your skating skills. In a “Half Life” leap of faith, your character has no dialogue that just makes your skater seem like the biggest piece of humble pie ever, and well your mate is pretty much your voice. Very much like fat and small guy of American TV.

Expressing yourself plays a huge part in the make up of Skate. Oh and would you look at that….Remember the Titans gem “Express yourself” is in the soundtrack. One of a few bright lights that help out the average crop that makes up the soundtrack. As you would expect the soundtrack will appeal to the punk, rocking, “Look at my Mohawk” type of people. But I can’t help my self but think. “Geez this could have really benefited from in-game XMB so we could have our own tunes blasting out. But oh well there’s always tomorrow or when ever Sony are going to release the so in so firmware update.

"Haha I know you saw that"
Up until now I have written this whole review without committing a cardinal sin. I haven’t even touched upon let alone mention “Tony Hawk” But with Skate beating it on so many levels, I just have to mention it from here on in. Talking about Skate without mentioning the former king Tony Hawk would be like talking about O Bama without mentioning Hillary or talking about the cookies without mentioning the ice cream in “Cookies n cream Ice cream.” You know what I’m talking about.

So I’ve lost count on how many Tony Hawk games have been made, but surely someone has told the devs that the franchise is turning into that old dog that cant learn new tricks. And at the start of Skate, you will probably have the very familiar feel of “Oh here we go again” as the game starts of very Tony Hawkish. You know what I’m talking about. Mould your skater into how you want him/her to look, cover its bits and pieces with rags and you’re away. But as soon as you’re introduced into the world of Skate via a tutorial you will automatically notice this is no standard affair. You can blame all this on the revolutionary flick-it control system. Now normally I wont touch the word “revolutionary” with a yard stick as it gets thrown around the gaming industry to freely in my opinion these days, but this new control scheme is just that “Revolutionary”.

You can do a shit load of stuff these days with the humble right analogue stick. If you think about it you can knock the heavy weight champion of the world out, you can make that vital big hit that wins you the Super bowl, you can have guys falling in all directions in Basketball and Soccer, You can slip one by the goal keeper in hockey. I mean the only thing it hasn’t done yet is find Osama Bin Laden. And now the right stick acts as the legs of a skater. Oh and did I tell you that a skaters legs are important! So in the motion of pulling down on the right stick, the skater will bend his knees in anticipation of an Ollie and once you flick the stick up, and Ollie is exactly what happens. So what if I were to move the stick down and then flick it up on an angle? I hear you say. Well a kick flip would take place of course. So what if I were to move the stick down and then………..Oh come on if you haven’t picked up on how it works now check your self into the mental retardation clinic.

Flip tricks are not the only moves you can pull of with the “flick it” system. The “flick it” system controls everything besides grabs which are done with R2 and L2 and even so the “flick it” controls have an effect on your grabs, by being able to tweak them. All this just means thousands of moves to master. As you could imagine, this could all get a little confusing, as there’s never been such an intuitive control scheme like it. So you will be thanking EA’s Black-box for giving the game a slow start and a tutorial which just ezzes you in at a nice pace. Your also given a trick book which can come in handy latter on as it tells you how to do pretty much every move.

A way to grab the attention of a gamer pre release is to simply spray out the words. “Sandbox gameplay” simply saying that stirs everyone’s cup of coffee. So when Neversoft said this during production of “Tony Hawk American Wasteland” the gaming community saw this as perhaps the saving grace for the franchise. Turns out there was technically speaking no loading screens, but all it was, was areas splitted up by “loading tunnels” there for pretty much making the areas your standard levels. So when Black Box announced sandbox like gameplay and level design for Skate everyone held their breath and waited for the sense of Dejabu to occur. I’m pleased to say all those who held there breath are dead as the sense of Dejabu didn’t occur and we do in fact have the sandbox gameplay and design we were promised.

This is sandbox gameplay as it should be. The level design is nothing short of astonishing. The flow between the different sections of town is seamless, and the fact that all the skating lines are natural is quite the achievement in itself. There’s no half arse “Me popping through your screen slapping you in the face” obvious half-pipes here. Take that Tony Hawk. It all just feels a bit more realistic with skate, and that just so happens to be the factor that skating fans have been crying out for lately in the gaming industry, and skate provides in spades. And just like in real life, a secret “rad” spot is just around the corner for those more adventurous people.

Now to proceed through the game, you’re going to need to complete various challenges. Yep I think that’s no 13 of the cliché’s of gaming 101. This is sadly to say one of the few disappointments with skate, as it doesn’t do anything new or outside of the box. Yes you have death races, which effectively is racing on a skateboard, but who didn’t see that one coming. However I see the challenges as just mini tutorials, particularly the pro-challenges were other pro skaters teach you new narly, rad, sick flip busters and what not.

Be at the park in 5.
Ever wanted to show your mates or the world your replays of a game? Well now you can thanks to “You tube” I mean Skate’s online system. I seemed to have more fun uploading pics and videos of my bails and rip busting skills then I had playing online. This was all thanks to the little lag you may suffer during gameplay. Its only a little bit of lag, but in a game where timing is everything, and I mean everything It really does effect your experience and the chance of winning. The game modes available are all what you get offline. You have your game of S.K.AT.E, which is Skates equivalent of Horse. You also have your “Highest score out of three runs” mode and the “highest score achieved in a minute” mode. But perhaps the free-mode may catch your attention. Just like those teenage punks down your local Skate park, you can have a free session with other skaters just, well skating. The problem here is that you are limited to a little bit of the section of the map.

Uploading videos and watching others posted by the community is a hoot. To see others unfortunate bails and run in’s with the crazy physics is hilarious. You can just spend hours on end watching these vids. But its not just videos that you can upload, your also able to upload some snapshots of you at work. Weather you take that saying as in skating, or finding yourself in compromising positions with nana is up to you.

Conclusion:
In a way Skate is a sort of a landmark in gaming and in a way is taking the same path as Fight Night did when that surprised everyone. With its revolutionary control scheme and rock solid gameplay SKATE easily out kick flips its competition. When a game makes you want to stop playing only to re enact what you did in the game in real life, you know your immersed into the experience and that exactly what you get with skate. Now about my real life skating skills…

Gazza22©

Score

9.0

Graphics

The challenges may be your average stones, but the same can’t be said for the "realness" and the control scheme used.

8.0

Sound

Inconsistent at times but has its own unique look. Physics are a blast to see in action.

9.1

Gameplay

The only downer here is the lack of some great voice acting and the "one genre" soundtrack, but other then that you will be hard pressed to find better.

8.0

Fun Factor

A game best played in quick sharp blast's for quick thrills and laughs but getting run over by a car at full speed never gets old.

8.5

Online

The lag will kill the experience but who cares when there hours of funny videos and pics to be watched and looked at.

Overall

8.3

[Jeebus]

That's a long-ass review.