Skate 3 Hands-on Preview

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.

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.

The next game mode I tried was Domination, a sort of territory-claiming competition in which players fight over designated hotspots placed around the map. If you pull off a trick in the vicinity of one of these markers it’ll turn to the colour of your team, but if a rival manages to perform a better example of skating showmanship, it’ll switch to theirs. It’s a test of nerves, patience and skill – and under the pressure of a ticking clock, I totally flunked it. Failure rarely feels unfair in Skate 3, but it’s hard not to feel foolish when you hit a curb and sail into a tree… especially when you’ve already bailed four times in the past minute.

Still, Skate has always been about the fine line between perfection and utter disaster. When you pull off a flashy string of moves you feel like a pro, and when things go wrong you usually get a good laugh out of the painful results. This dynamic was particularly evident in the last and best mode that I played: 1 Up. Here each team is given 20 seconds to earn as high a score as possible by pulling off tricks. One side sets the bar, then the other has a go at beating it; if they’re successful, play passes back to the first team, with the contest continuing until one side fails. If anyone wipes out, their failure will prematurely end the scoring session – so there’s considerable pressure on anyone who tries a difficult move or combo. If you’re feeling cowardly you might just do kick-flips on the spot for 20 seconds, but sooner or later you’ll have to man up and try something impressive.

I didn’t get long to play Skate 3 amid the chaos of EA’s winter showcase, and yet it ended up being one of the games that left the biggest impression on me. The core gameplay remains as addictive and as satisfying as it ever was, but the focus on team activities really does seem to add something new. It’s all too easy to get drawn into the competition, cheering on your mates and jeering when an opponent comes a cropper. The game looks really nice, too. After the dystopian darkness of San Vanelona in Skate 2, this follow-up has shifted location to Port Carverton – a skater-friendly place built with boards in mind. It’s a city of open, skate-friendly architecture, so expect backdrops to be brighter and more colourful than what we were given last time.

On top of this, EA has promised that the excellent movie-making and board-designing tools will return – and this time there will also be an editor for creating your own skate parks. We’ve yet to see anything of this last addition, but it’s sure to be shown off in the near future – and given the game’s community focus, I’d expect EA to offer something fairly comprehensive. The first two Skates have won the franchise a reputation for quality, so let’s hope that Black Box can deliver the goods for a third time in a row.

Skate 3 will be released on PS3 and Xbox 360 in May 2010.