Review: Skate 3
Master the kickflip mctwist without breaking your neck. Then break your neck.
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Master the kickflip mctwist without breaking your neck. Then break your neck.
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Review: Skate 3
- Thread starter Russ Pitts
- Start date
While I am sure this is a great game, it just comes to soon and changes too little since Skate 2. I LOVED skate 2(and skate 1 for that matter) so why should I spend another 50 bucks only a year later for some incremental upgrades. I played the demo(a lot) and it is so much like Skate 2 you could mistake it if you didn't know any better.
I will definitely be waiting a while should I choose to pick this one up, 50 bucks is just too much too soon for me.
I will definitely be waiting a while should I choose to pick this one up, 50 bucks is just too much too soon for me.
Haven't played it, but it's been received well within my skateboarding community.
Played a lot of Skate 2 at peoples houses when we were having drinking games or whatever and I'm sure I'll get a go at this. Should really come out for PC though, I'd be a happy bunny.
This doesn't mention the "Hardcore" mode I've heard loads about, but I'm sure it just makes it harder to do things so you can't double superman backflip.
[small]Anyone who can double superman backflip isn't human anyway, supermans are best left to motorcross.[/small]
Played a lot of Skate 2 at peoples houses when we were having drinking games or whatever and I'm sure I'll get a go at this. Should really come out for PC though, I'd be a happy bunny.
This doesn't mention the "Hardcore" mode I've heard loads about, but I'm sure it just makes it harder to do things so you can't double superman backflip.
[small]Anyone who can double superman backflip isn't human anyway, supermans are best left to motorcross.[/small]
As a huge fan of the Skate series, I can say that Skate 3 is both the realization and failure of the vision Black Box set forth in their original game.
Skate 3 is by far the best controlling skate. The first skate had controls only the simulation hungry could love. Skate 2 tried to strike a balance and just played strangely for both the casual and hardcore player. Skate 3 knocks it out of the park with it's separate modes. Easy and normal have the Tony Hawk pick up and play flexibility you expect. Hardcore truly shines for those interested in pure simulation. The physics in hardcore feel accurate, especially if you've ever been a skater, and the game really turns into how to land one hard, or even simple, trick.
The city in this game is a failure. In San Vanelona, the first Skate had the most architecturally convincing city ever created in a video game. No game, open world or otherwise, has yet made a city as conscious of all the little bits of urban infrastructure necessary to make a city feel real. Skate 3's Port Carverton lacks that insight and in a lot of ways feels like a rush job. It plays like a skate park with some textures laid down on top of masonite ramps. The unique spots with obscure lines just aren't there. And what is there, there's less of. The huge streaming city there for your casual exploration is gone and with it a lot of the pleasure of exploration the first game provided. I can't help but feel Black Box just wasn't allowed the time necessary to build another huge open world by scratch, and that's a pity because they do it better than anyone.
Skate 3 is a good game, possibly even great if you're not playing the game as a simulation. But if you're like me, this game is a frustrating near miss. A game that finally achieved its potential in one area only to regress horribly in another.
Skate 3 is by far the best controlling skate. The first skate had controls only the simulation hungry could love. Skate 2 tried to strike a balance and just played strangely for both the casual and hardcore player. Skate 3 knocks it out of the park with it's separate modes. Easy and normal have the Tony Hawk pick up and play flexibility you expect. Hardcore truly shines for those interested in pure simulation. The physics in hardcore feel accurate, especially if you've ever been a skater, and the game really turns into how to land one hard, or even simple, trick.
The city in this game is a failure. In San Vanelona, the first Skate had the most architecturally convincing city ever created in a video game. No game, open world or otherwise, has yet made a city as conscious of all the little bits of urban infrastructure necessary to make a city feel real. Skate 3's Port Carverton lacks that insight and in a lot of ways feels like a rush job. It plays like a skate park with some textures laid down on top of masonite ramps. The unique spots with obscure lines just aren't there. And what is there, there's less of. The huge streaming city there for your casual exploration is gone and with it a lot of the pleasure of exploration the first game provided. I can't help but feel Black Box just wasn't allowed the time necessary to build another huge open world by scratch, and that's a pity because they do it better than anyone.
Skate 3 is a good game, possibly even great if you're not playing the game as a simulation. But if you're like me, this game is a frustrating near miss. A game that finally achieved its potential in one area only to regress horribly in another.
I'll have to pick it up...I was thinking about it, but really unsure.
But...I just bought Alan Wake and Red Dead, and am now utterly, totally, FINALLY broke.
But...I just bought Alan Wake and Red Dead, and am now utterly, totally, FINALLY broke.
Wow you know I found it to be the same thing. I had my rose-colored-just-bought-a-new-game glasses on at first. But the more I looked around the more I noticed the city is rather bland and looks too much like a skate-park. Especially since you can drag everything around. I would have to say that's the reason why the game lost its charm. They had to create places for you to move things around and create objects for a game mechanic. In turn, we lost a believable city.tendo82 said:
I often go back to the original skate (Hell, it's cheap as dirt used today) and just enjoy the swishingly frustrating controls (can still deal with them, just fine) and gorgeous city.
Have they improved the walking off your board system yet? You know, the same type of system used in Tony Hawk Underground that was damn near perfect yet these guys made it stiff, slow and completely uninteresting?
If hey fixed it where I don't walk around like a robot, I might pick it up. Skate 2 was pretty rough
If hey fixed it where I don't walk around like a robot, I might pick it up. Skate 2 was pretty rough
Not a fan of the camera perspective.
I liked very much all the goofyness of games like tony hawk pro skater 3, but a very realistic sport game strikes me as an odd pairing.
I liked very much all the goofyness of games like tony hawk pro skater 3, but a very realistic sport game strikes me as an odd pairing.
The one thing I'm curious with this game is if they've fixed the mission structure. I liked the first game. Found it enjoyable, pretty realistic, and satisfying, yet the mission structure sucked. Hard. Mainly due to the filming segments forced upon you, where you must "grind 30 seconds in one go" or "do this many tricks in however many seconds". The idea was to make you look for spots to fulfil this, and test you as well. It failed horribly, because it was insanely frustrating, deciding if a spot was good enough, or if it was even possible, or it just needed practice. It lacked focus, it might have made nice diversionary side quests, for unlockables, but it broke the entire flow of the game, forcing you to wander aimlessly for good spots when you wanted to just get on with the game.
The strength of the game was wandering aimlessly and not caring, or focusing you on specific spots and tricks the game tells you to do, and trying to nail it (usually short, 15 second segments). Sprawling laziness, and focused fun. The challenges that try to mesh ruined the entire game eventually, when I couldn't even be bothered progressing without doing it. It was a chore.
/rant.
Basically, is it fixed? Oh god I hope it's fixed...
The strength of the game was wandering aimlessly and not caring, or focusing you on specific spots and tricks the game tells you to do, and trying to nail it (usually short, 15 second segments). Sprawling laziness, and focused fun. The challenges that try to mesh ruined the entire game eventually, when I couldn't even be bothered progressing without doing it. It was a chore.
/rant.
Basically, is it fixed? Oh god I hope it's fixed...
I've only played the second game so far, and while I thought it was fun for quite some time, I got to a certain point where players such as I (i.e. not familiar with skating before playing the game) met a roadblock of gameplay that only the most hardened skaters would be able to understand and get past. Combine that with the specific tricks needed for these challenges and the finnicky ollie trick determining machine (both of which I believed were mentioned by Yahtzee in his review for Skate 2), and I ended up trading it in five months later.
I promised myself not to make the same mistake and stay away from the inevitable sequel, but the demo and positive reviews have heightened my interest. It seems like they've made a much cleaner interface this time around (Skate 2's was annoying after a while) and a much broader mission goal system, so I'm really wanting to pick this new one up.
I promised myself not to make the same mistake and stay away from the inevitable sequel, but the demo and positive reviews have heightened my interest. It seems like they've made a much cleaner interface this time around (Skate 2's was annoying after a while) and a much broader mission goal system, so I'm really wanting to pick this new one up.