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Today's captions come from my 1990's slang anthology. Radical!
Today's captions come from my 1990's slang anthology. Radical!Today's captions come from my 1990's slang anthology. Radical!

On London's South Bank, just beneath the Queen Elizabeth Hall, there's a patch of concrete where the skaters gather. Kids have been bringing their boards here for over three decades, and on any given day of the week you can find assorted youths zipping about, attempting tricks and chatting with their mates. Aside from the ever-shifting graffiti, this patch of skater heaven remains as constant and unchanging as the nearby River Thames.

I mention this because Skate 3 has a new focus on co-operative play. If you were to base your opinion of skateboarding entirely on past games in the series you might regard it as a solitary experience. In real life, skating is a sociable activity - but while multiplayer gameplay is hardly a new element to the Skate franchise, it's fair to say that co-op has hardly been a major focus either. All of this is about to change, and if EA Black Box has its way, we'll soon all be gathering underneath a virtual underpass to shuffle around in our worn-out Vans and Stüssy T-shirts, or whatever it is that Da Yoof are wearing these days.

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Skate 2 already did a pretty bang-up job of perfecting the controls from the first game, so in broad terms EA has opted for an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach this time. You've got total control over each of your limbs, making both movement and tricking an intuitive process: to pull off a grind, for example, you simply jump and then shift your board into the right position. Veterans will already be well-versed in the flexibility of this system, but this time there will be several features to help newcomers find their feet: A new Skate school will be available to guide players through basic tricks and manoeuvres, while a fresh set of difficulty settings will make the game a tad more forgiveable when it comes to collisions and awkward landings.

With any luck these concessions to accessibility will help to bring in a fresh set of players while retaining all the good stuff from the first two games. You'll still be able to play on the traditional one-mistake-and-you're-screwed settings, but the general idea is to welcome more people in and to get them playing together. Following the events of Skate 2, you're now supposed to be some form of board-riding megastar; your overall objective is to create your own world-famous skater brand, and you'll need to assemble a crew of like-minded chums if you're to succeed.

It remains to be seen quite how the online community will be tied to this campaign structure, but last week's hands-on with the game offered a decent glimpse of things to come. I tried out a trio of game modes, each involving some form of head-to-head competition between two teams of three skaters. The first contest was a six-man deathrace down a steep concrete track, littered with sharp twists and lethal falls. The scoring here used a Mario Kart-style points system, with victory going to the team with the highest overall total. The arrangement throws up some interesting competition, as it's possible to come first and still lose the event. On the other hand it's also possible to skate badly at the start of a race, then pull yourself together and claim the third spot - sealing a win for your side.

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