Skate 3 Hands-On Preview

A couple weeks ago (October 28 to be exact), Electronic Arts was nice enough to invite me to see a pre-alpha build of Skate 3 to show off some of the tweaks that the game was going through long before its May 2010 release. This being my first time heading out to a publisher, I was a little nervous, but my love for the Skate series created a lot of anticipation for what I would be able to see.

At its core, Skate 3 still contains what makes the series different from other skateboard games. I got to sit down with both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 pre-alpha builds and have a chance to experience the new focus of the game, Teams.

Teams are the focus of this third iteration of the game, along with the story of Skate 3 about becoming a brand name in the new city of Port Carverton. From the small sections that I was able to play, Port Carverton contains many similar locations of the first two games, but makes them more skate-friendly. Fans who played Skate 2 might agree that the downtown area was a little broken in continuous lines for tricks. In Skate 3, lines can be found and modified much easier.

The overall goal of Skate 3 is to become famous and make yourself into a brand. Progression through the game will create notice throughout Port Carverton with logos showing up in the city. The necessity of teams is important to growing the brand through completing challenges and participating in the online portion of the game. The city contains three new environments, the University, Downtown, and the Industrial Area. Each will cater to different skating styles and I was able to play mainly in the University sections.

The Hall of Meat will be expanded for Skate 3 and for those who complained about the off board mechanics, be very happy. Black Box went back and created new animations for the off board mechanics and they are faster and much more realistic. Along with those animations, additional animations were added for partial bails. Tripping and losing balance look more realistic and if fast enough, bails can be avoided with quick reflexes.

Skate 3 features some new things too, some updated from Skate 2 and others brand new.

Skate Create

Under Skate Create, returning are Skate.Reel and Skate.Create along with the new Skate.Park. Essentially a level creator, having your levels downloaded will effect the brand status.

Honestly, I never knew people created some really awesome graphics.

New Tricks

Darkslide and Underflip. In this build of the game, all of the tricks from previous games were already in, but the addition of these tricks, especially my all-time favorite, the darkslide, were also in the game.

Darkslides are performed by either starting with a kick-flip or heel-flip and mid board spin, holding the right bumper or R1 will stop the rotation with the foot. Properly lined up, the darkslide is very satisfying.

The underflip is performed by an opposite kick-flip motion. It was a little difficult to catch when watching the animation because it’s really fast, but it is in the game proper.

Skate School

Skate School was created to help new fans get a hang of the controls. There wasn’t much talked about it in the preview other than that it will be in the game.

Challenges

The focus of the preview was to show how the team focus would work in online challenges. There are five challenge types in the game.

Domination

Domination is all about posting high scores in areas and at the end of time, owning more spots than the opposing team. With a strong team, posting high scores isn’t a problem, but playing with people new to the series might create a challenge of its own.

Death Race

The returning race mode from Skate 2. It still feels mainly the same, but on new courses.

1up

In a best of three, team vs team, each team has to post the highest score possible. But if one member bails, the trail is over and it’s the other team’s turn. The cool thing about 1up is that teams have to beat or fail the high score before the next level starts. So best of three can actually take some time.

Own the Lot

The level starts with a set of challenges that each team must complete as quickly as possible. Once each member of the team completes the set, that team wins.

Contest

A bit tweaked from previous games, Contest still features both teams trying to post the highest score possible based on terms for each area. Much like the contests in Skate 2, one area might be flip tricks only or grabs only. Contest really shows the ability of those playing.

Considering Skate 3 was pre-alpha, I was very impressed. The engine was tweaked and will worked on further, but all the tricks were present, the core gameplay still feels solid, and the new team focus felt perfect. Skate is the skateboard game for consoles and this third entry in the series is only evolving it further.

My only gripe was that the darkslide exit animation looked a little strange. The board would pop back mere millimeters from the group and the animations were slow, but it’s pre-alpha so I’m sure my small concern will be corrected before the proper release.

And I jumped the shark. Multiple times.