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EA’s game-changing “Skate” series (the creative force that pushed Activision’s hand in a terrible, terrible move to “fight back” with Tony Hawk: Ride) has just had a new demo release on Xbox Live and Playstation Network. “Skate 3,” which hits stores May 11th, now has a playable singleplayer and multiplayer demo for all of us to enjoy.
The demo starts off with Coach Frank (a character with the incredibly and instantly recognizable voice of Jason Lee, or “Earl” from “My Name is Earl”) helping you get started. If you’re familiar with the Skate franchise at this point, this should be no problem.
At this point, I noticed that the physics in this game feel slightly more snappy than in the previous installments. Not sure if I’m seeing something that’s not there, possibly due to my lack of playing a Skate game in quite some time, but everything feels much more responsive, especially the flip tricks.
Frank’s got some annoying things that he says over and over. Each time he chuckles, while I grumble under my breath, cursing the writers for not coming up with some more one-liners for him to blurt when you screw up.
Whatever. His short-shorts and knee-highs make it worthwhile.
You get the low-down on controlling your board, ollies, flip tricks, grinds… The list goes on and on. Then you get to do some missions.
There’s a really fun one, when the only goal is to bail off your board after airing off the roof of a library.
Skate 3 introduces a really awesome and graphic way of showing injuries, giving an x-ray effect on your body as you crunch and crash into the ground. Only on the bones that are affected, though. It looks sweet.
The mission has you do several different poses as you fall to your demise. The bone-breaking sound effects are better than ever. I’ve cringed a few times. I love it. When they had me do the spread-eagle pose, I landed straight on my stomach. My spine, head, and one leg broke. I’m hooked.
When I got to the free skate, I felt like a child in a candy store. I was pulling off tricks that make real-life pro skaters look like novices, and I was loving every second of it. Until I reached the demo’s boundaries.
Fine, whatever. I understand, I can only explore so much. (Even though there are some pretty awesome looking spots RIGHT outside the boundaries. Good strategy, EA. I tip my hat to you.) But then I got a “Demo Expires In” counter after a little while. That’s a bit of a bummer. It doesn’t really stop me from playing the demo more, it just makes it so that I have to keep launching it again and again.
Oh well. I finished up with my allotted trial time, trying to get in an awesome trick or two before the timer hit zero. And then I relaunched the demo to — Wait, what?
After the timer runs out, it just restarts me at the first mission, without me having to relaunch the demo myself?
I have developed a newfound and intense love for Electronic Arts. Thank you.
With my auto-extended time, I decided to give the multiplayer a shot. I hopped on the Playstation Network and connected to a game of Domination. I happen to also be at a different location, which is nice.
Two teams, red and blue, are pitted against each-other to “own” a spot, by scoring the most points on it. My team won (obviously), and it was a really good time. Like always, Skate conquers online play. Probably much more fun with friends than with strangers, but I still had a lot of fun with it.
The other mode of online play available in the demo is called “Own The Lot.” The description for this one says “So many activities! Try to complete as many of them as you can to own all the lots!”
Unfortunately, I was unable to try this one out. I joined several games with the intent of playing a round, but everybody just treated it as Free Skate and never started the session. Sounds like fun, but I guess I won’t know for now.
There’s also a level editor in place for the game. I haven’t touched this too much… I guess it’s useful if you want to set up tricks and whatnot, but I just tend to enjoy working with what I’ve got and seeing what I can pull off. Regardless, that’s a nice feature if you’re into taking time to set things up.
All in all, this demo’s a load of fun. I was a huge fan of the first two installments, and this one keeps the fun going. It doesn’t seem like they’ve added anything new that’s really game-changing or revolutionary, but they don’t have to. They’ve got a great formula with this series, and some slight updates and added features make the new game worthwhile.
This is one I’ll be picking up shortly after release (or, at the very least, giving it the longest Gamefly rental ever, and THEN buying it).
Check out the demo when you can; it’s worth your time.
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