Home Gaming SKATE – Reviewed

SKATE – Reviewed

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SKATE is EA Games first attempt at breaking the stranglehold that Tony Hawks has on the skating genre.

In general first attempts are either terrible or pretty good. SKATE is fantastic, easily better than the last Tony Hawks attempt. However that could have something to do with the sheer number of Tony Hawks games that have been released.

When you start a new career in SKATE you are given the opportunity to create a skater who can be customised in a million different ways.. personally this type of thing always bores me so I went through it quite quickly, however it did seem very detailed if you are into this sort of thing.

The customisation theme is carried through out the game by sponsors and shops offering you new gear whenever you do something good. In one way it is quite nice as you need to choose which lucky company sponsors you and then if you are using their goods when you get photo’s taken you get more cash to buy….. actually I have no idea what you buy, I can only presume it’s more skating stuff but like I said I don’t enjoy that part of the game… I do enjoy money however..

The controls for this game are quite unique and all the actions are carried out through the use of the two analogue sticks, you do still use the triggers and buttons but only to augment your stick tricks. It takes quite a bit of getting used to but once you get it right it does start feeling natural.

However make no mistake this game is hard… very very hard. You are set challenges but in a very nice way. For example one challenge would be to get 10 000 points and do 5 airs and a grind. I can now choose where I want to do this. The entire city is open to you and when you find the ideal place you set the film rolling and do your best to meet the challenge. If you fail you can either try again or just go back to free skating. You need to complete challenges to level up and most of them are quite entertaining luckily.

Some other challenges are against known international skaters where you either have to do the best trick or ratchet up the most points in a certain time limit while listening to some inane but funny commentary. Personally I am terrible at the grind challenges and quite good at the big trick ones…

The other side of the game is owning spots. This I really enjoyed. You will see other skaters in the world and if you follow them they will lead you to a spot. This is a certain object that you need to own. One of my favourites was an old emptied poll that I needed to score a certain amount of points on… Once you own a spot you can then play it in party mode with your mates. Be warned though some of these spots are difficult and buggy. The game will often not count that awesome triple axle, double flip for some obscure reason.. it gets quite annoying.

There is absolutely no way I will ever finish this game as the level I am at now is pretty much the limit of my talents, normally this would annoy me but in SKATE I am now quite happy to cruise around the city and just pull of tricks on a Sunday morning… This is another game that I have no intention of ever trading or selling…

So to the scores based on the 360 version I played…..

Single Player 8/10
Multi Player 1/10
(However this is just due to the multi player being forced through EA Nation which is abysmal for us non live supported countries. It may in fact be really good….)

[Pointless info that doesn’t deserve its own post]On a side note between SKATE, Tony Hawks, COD4 and Medal of Honor EA Games and Megarom are having quite the battle locally. SKATE and Medal of Honor : Airborne are both EA games while the other two are Megarom.

SKATE is much better than Tony Hawks and COD4 kills Medal of Honor… We need a tie breaker here 😀

Last Updated: December 21, 2007

8 Comments

  1. Fred

    December 21, 2007 at 10:11

    Looks a bit boring to me …… will probably be skipped by most gamers in favor off all the other action titles out there.

    Reply

  2. LazySAGamer

    December 21, 2007 at 10:17

    Well it’s not a FPS but it is highly addictive…

    Reply

  3. scotty777

    December 21, 2007 at 11:28

    Hmmm… Who wrote the review (please for the love of god don’t take this as bashing) ? It seems like the review put me off… and made things a tiny bit boring… and most of the things the reviewing said, made me thing about tony hawks project 8…

    any way… thanks 4 the review, I don’t think I’m gonna dive into another skating game as they really are boring and REALLY REALLY hard. 😀

    Reply

  4. LazySAGamer

    December 21, 2007 at 12:07

    Maybe I need to redo this one…. this game is far from boring…

    Never been a skating fan so maybe that is why I am not coming across properly…

    Ag well it’s holiday time and my brain wants a break 😀

    Reply

  5. ewie

    December 22, 2007 at 15:55

    I enjoyed skate a lot more than any tony hawks i played, I bought it because the demo was a lot of fun. And having played SSX = the best sports game EA have made so far, this game give me the same feel to it, Open ND fUN.

    I just wish they would bring out a new ssx for the 360 soon.

    Reply

  6. Nomad

    December 27, 2007 at 08:42

    I just got SKATE, the game is awesome, however, on PS3, there are a few frame rate issues.

    The controls are very similar to Assassins Creed. A puppet master if you will. The left analog controls your body, and the right analog is your feet. L2 and R2 are you hands.

    The game is also similar to NFS, you free roam in a area and look for challenges. I guess you also pimp you board 🙂

    All in all, the game is a breath of fresh air, considering there are 8 Tony Hawks out. I would recommend this title over Project 8. Purely cause it is a different skating title.

    Reply

  7. Vincent Maher

    January 2, 2008 at 20:23

    EA SKATE is the best game I have ever played. I used to skate myself and it is the closest thing to a simulation you will find THPS is an arcade game by comparison. And there are no frame rate issues on the X

    Reply

  8. Skills

    January 24, 2008 at 15:12

    I think thats the point, this game is more of a simulation. Sort of like Pro Evo vs Fifa… I’d be interested in playing this.

    Reply

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