Overview
Skate 3 like the first two games, developed by Black Box and published by EA. This time your coach or game host is none other than Jason Lee. In Skate 3 your overall aim is to start a skate company and sell decks. So you start a crew and your focus from start to end is to win and own your way to glory and selling decks as you go. Skate 3 tends to focus more on the online aspect so much so that strictly solo players might feel this is very much a tweak rather than a total new game. But let’s face it; with this series does it matter? We fans don’t want an overhaul. We don’t want the magic that makes this series “feel” so good tampered with.
Gameplay and features
The graphics look a little better or cleaner than before – smooth, faultless and maintains a solid framerate. The sound-track is typical to the genre and includes some great new tracks to bring this title bang up-to-date.
The controls feel familiar and if anything, they feel a touch tighter than before. Gameplay is as sharp as ever and fans can as usual get lost just skating around for hours, just to get that authentic SKATE feeling that does such a good job of imitating the real thing. Now included are ‘darkside’ grinding abilities and ‘under-flips.’
As mentioned earlier, it is clear that the focus is the social aspect so there are many new online features. It makes sense as skating is a very social sport so things like getting a crew going and hitting the online challenge system are things that should keep fans of the series skating for months to come. So I would say for the true fan there is so much bang-for-buck with this one simply because of it online features. You still have the single player modes like S-K-A-T-E and photo shoots for magazine covers etc. but the game truly starts to seem like an evolution when you take it online. I felt like the obvious online focus left the career a little lacking when compared with the previous titles, it even felt easier and therefore quicker to get through than before.
The co-op mode is polished and very well done. All players in a multiplayer online session can together complete any of the challenges and get credit for it as well as sell more boards. The object-dropper will allow players to create and build skate parks, customizing until your hearts content makes for a great online experience. You can also trade parks or just download off your friends. Again the customizable skate parks will ensure that Skate 3′s life will last a long time for fans, as new skate spaces will be created by the community instead of waiting for official DLC like with Skate 2.
What I loved
- Customization features.
- Low camera angle for realism.
- Graphics.
- Soundtrack.
- The glorious ‘flick-stick.’
- Online replayability.
- Breaking bones on purpose never gets old.
- Co-op mode is well done.
What I disliked
- Not the longest shelf-life for offline play.
Conclusion
I think Skate 3 caters more for the hardcore fans now more than ever. It has a rich and rewarding online experience which is tailor-made for those that are willing to invest the time in the game. You need to spend some time online to really see how this title offers more than before. I still would recommend it for offline only I suppose, how many hours does an adventure game offer? Six to ten hours, Skate 3 should give you that amount to. It is just you might not find too much different from the previous title if you stay offline.
In the end this is still one of the most rewarding series’ I have ever played. It recreates the feel of skating so well and effortlessly and in with the deep online elements, 3 will remain my favourite in the series.
Zombiegamer rating:
Skate 3 is also available on Playstation 3. For more visit the official game site.
You can buy Skate 3 here.
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