Skate

Loved all 3, 1 and 3 especially!
Will definitely get this, despite EA!
 
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Skate 2 was the peak of the series, Skate 3 started becoming a bit silly/unrealistic… that said it had the best multiplayer functionality by a mile.

This one looks a bit toy imo and I’ve read the physics are dumbed down, graphics are really toy looking as well.
 
I’m a huge fan of all the Skate franchise and Skateboarding games in general.

I’ve been game testing this for EA for around 18 months and it’s come on so much, it’s good fun to play but for sure more of an arcade game now.

Fortnite on wheel is a comparrison I have seen and the visual are very much like that, you can change settings to have a more difficult experience but it’s not aiming to be a hardcore Skateboard sim, if you want that your probably best picking up Session.

Micro transactions and skins will be all over this, sadly. I’ll still play the life out of it as I love Skate it’s great for a quick blast or a chilled out shred and San Vansterdam is huge with some great lines, it also runs great!
 
Played a few hours on this so far... it's fine for the most part but completely lacks personality (Needs Coach Frank).
Terrible soundtrack, NPCs are completely cookie cutter skate stereotypes. No mission types like S.K.A.T.E., hall of meat has been replaced with some arcadey base jumping 'stunt' system. Climbing is a decent enough addition though for getting around the city.

The engine runs pretty well (getting around 70fps at 4k with 7900XT), although it doesn't feel as free as 2/3, kinda like it's 'on rails' for some things. Hard to throw off-axis rotations (flips/barrel rolls) properly, but can accidentally initiate them mid air. Tricks don't pop as high, making it very hard to flip in to a grind on (or even get onto) higher rails.

I was a much keener gamer back then, but with 2/3 I played them for hours straight without getting bored, with this I'm struggling past around an hour.
 
Pros

- The core skate mechanics are very good, comfortably the best out there as are the animations.


Negatives

- Art style is horrendous
- The entire game feels like it’s aimed at kids who don’t even care about skateboarding culture
- There is nothing to do other than repeat the same cruddy challenges over and over and get to level 10 in each area
- No turn based multiplayer modes, I want to take it turns to hit a spot so I can watch my fiends runs, the way things are at the moment everyone just skates at the same time, you never get to watch your mates play which is a huge part of skating culture.
- Replay editor sucks massively at the moment
- The world sucks, it’s just some big crappy perfectly clean cartoon looking city, previous skate games had residential areas, old run down areas etc. everything feels soulless
- stupid dumbed down physics like in skate 3, never ending momentum etc
- too many players per server resulting in other players warping about and player movement generally looking janky af


It needs fleshing out massively and will be dead very soon without big updates given how bare bones it is.

That said the core skate mechanics make it fun enough that someone like me who values the realism of skate 1 and 2 can still have enjoyment playing realistically whilst all the kids fly around the map doing lame stuff.
 
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Pros

- The core skate mechanics are very good, comfortably the best out there as are the animations.

tbh I'd argue that they're not as good as Skate 3 (or especially 2, minus dark flips/handplants), and on a technical level not as good as Session or SkaterXL (although part of that may be that I'm taking a while to get used to the control scheme again)

I agree with most of your negatives, I was especially disaapointed with the video editor - no ability as far as I can tell to cut between different camera modes (like having multiple 'tripod' centres for a clip)
 
tbh I'd argue that they're not as good as Skate 3 (or especially 2, minus dark flips/handplants), and on a technical level not as good as Session or SkaterXL (although part of that may be that I'm taking a while to get used to the control scheme again)

I agree with most of your negatives, I was especially disaapointed with the video editor - no ability as far as I can tell to cut between different camera modes (like having multiple 'tripod' centres for a clip)


Agreed, I don't like the physics or mechanics. Many tricks are missing, things feels too arcadey and doing tricks, grinds etc are all way too easy to do. Even the THPS require more skill to play than Skate now

I loved Skate 1 because it felt harder and rewarding and more realistic compared to THPS games at the time. Somehow time has flipped and now THPS games feel more rewarding to play than the latest Skate
 
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Agreed, I don't like the physics or mechanics. Many tricks are missing, things feels too arcadey and doing tricks, grinds etc are all way too easy to do. Even the THPS require more skill to play than Skate now

I loved Skate 1 because it felt harder and rewarding and more realistic compared to THPS games at the time. Somehow time has flipped and now THPS games feel more rewarding to play than the latest Skate
I have a HUGE 'soft spot' for Skate 1, in large part becuase it took me by surprise - I found the demo 2 days before release and then blockbuster sold me it the night before the 'official' release :D
I instantly felt that I'd never have a reason to play THPS again (which I stuck to until I got dragged to NQ64 for a work do :D )
 
.. And SkaterXL is almost fully procedural in terms of flip-tricks... there's nothing more satisfying in my mind than throwing a clean nollie varial double flip backside 180 over a set of stairs!!
 
Agreed, I don't like the physics or mechanics. Many tricks are missing, things feels too arcadey and doing tricks, grinds etc are all way too easy to do. Even the THPS require more skill to play than Skate now

I loved Skate 1 because it felt harder and rewarding and more realistic compared to THPS games at the time. Somehow time has flipped and now THPS games feel more rewarding to play than the latest Skate

Turn off the grind, vert, and pumping assists that are all turned up by default. Grind assist on 0 or 5 requires you to position yourself much more accurately when approaching a grind, and makes rails etc less like magnets. Fully manual pumping makes things like vert a lot trickier as well. There are quite a few settings that dumb the game down tbh, with default settings you can't vary the speed of your flip tricks, your minimum pop height is maxed out etc

It’s always going to be arcadey though, it’s a continuation of skate 3 which was nowhere near as good as skate 1 or 2 in terms of realism.
 
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