Skate 3 Review - PS3

7.5

Gameplay: 7
Graphics: 8
Audio: 8
Multiplayer: 8
Innovation: 7

Introduction

The Skate franchise is now into it's third offering for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Skate 1 and 2 offered a great alternative to the stale Tony Hawk series, with a different approach to the tricks, and a somewhat more realistic experience. As is the EA Way, just over a year has passed, and so we have Skate 3 popping up on shelves. 

Gameplay

The start of the game contains a very well produced, although only mildly amusing sequence of skateboards being produced, right from the trees being chopped down, to being turned into the finished boards. Many well known skateboarders make appearances in the video, although only more hardcore skate fans will get the references here. After the intro you make the trip to the new skate friendly city of Port Carverton to start your goal of starting your own skate boarding empire. Each challenge you complete earns you extra cred which allows you to sell extra boards, and help achieve your aim of creating a major new skate brand by selling one million boards.

The game's usual assortment of challenges are there - a training mode, traditional point scoring skate comps, the Hall of Meat (most creative stack), Death Race (or a downhill race against other skaters), Photo and Video challenges to nail a trick or two for publicity purposes, "owning a spot", following another skater around a course, and a few more. All of these are spread throughout the world of Carverton, and can be tackled by simply approaching one of the spots with a large icon overhead. All of this is pretty much the same format as the last two games, so there is not much new here, other than the new location of course. The game does away with the security guards putting a stop to free skating in some areas, and as if to reinforce this early one one of your pals pipes up "look even the security guard is skateboarding!". 

Control is primarily done through the controller thumbsticks, flipping or ollying the board by flicking the right thumbstick in the correct pattern, while using the left thumbstick to steer. By utilising the top shoulder buttons extra variations on these tricks are possible. While this makes executing a trick pretty easy, the main difficult is landing them. As has been the case for the series, this often proves quite difficult. Stringing together move after move of extraordinary tricks (while more realistic) is definitely a lot harder in the Skate franchise. While a difficulty level option is now selectable at any time, even the easiest setting isn't always straight-forward. 

Customisation has always been one of the strongest points of Skate, and there are plenty of options to keep you busy by changing your skin colour, sex, size and facial features. Brands are bombarded throughout, with all the big names there ready to tempt you to upgrade your player's clothes, boards, or features. Again, cash talks quicker than hard work, and players can opt to simply purchase better items through the ...