So I just wrote a review for Skate 3.  I don't think it's my best review at all, but I do think that I raise a very important point about the Skate franchise and its direction: 
 
Do you really want to play through a story/career in Skate 4?  I don't!  I was dreading playing through all of the challenges in Skate 3 before the game showed up.  I pre-ordered it because I wanted a new city to skate; I played through the challenges to unlock stuff and get achievements. 
 
Get x amount of points at a spot.  Win a few contests.  Yawn.
 
Why is the Skate series cool?  I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think it's because of the ability to create clips of the things you've found to do in the city.  Social, emergent gameplay.  What game does it better?  What the hell does a single-player campaign have to do with that? 
 
I think Skate 4 should be a new city with the existing skate.reel functionality.  That's it.  They can add some mechanical improvements (like the ability to do a realistic-looking flip to grab trick) and a tutorial for total newbs, but the challenges just feel like a waste of time to me.  Just give me a sandbox and a venue to show off what I've thought up to do in it.  Make the game $40 and sell space on the Skate site for people who want to have a lot of clips online (but don't want to go through the process and re-compression of downloading clips and putting them on YouTube).  They can even do what they did with Skate 3 and charge for high-quality footage.  Just don't waste everyone's time with a stupid story.
 
Anybody agree?

I think the whole Skate series is cool because it is more realistic. I mean there are a lot of things that still make it a video game, but when you finally land that 360 flip over a bench, to hippy jump over rail, to tuck knee over the gap, it is pretty sweet. I honestly don't think there were enough challenges, I finished most the first day. What I would love to see is all of those Thrasher photos and such actually meaning something in the end. For example after you finish the all of the Thrasher shoots they should so some sort of special on you, or a highlight of all the pictures you took. Right know you can take a horrible picture that is underexposed with your skater not even in the frame, and it will accept it like it was a triple kickflip 540. So I guess I kind of agree that challenges are pointless, but if they had some sort of reward besides board sales and unlocking skaters, they might be a lot cooler. I am just sick of all these games coming out where you need to depend on another person with the game. I still don't have the team achievements because I created my own team, instead of joining some random one, on the GB one which is probably already full.

I disagree, I went through those challenges with a friend using the online co-op and that's where that game has the fun for me, all of the other stuff it has I've never touched, I've never made a video because I don't care, I just want to skate, and the only way I'll do that and use the best spots is through the challenges.

" Get x amount of points at a spot.  Win a few contests.  Yawn. "

yea i really liked the specific trick challenges as well. killing challenges was great, if not super frustrating at times. my hope for the next skate is a day/night cycle.

"my hope for the next skate is a day/night cycle. "

Alright.  
 
Sk4Te.

" Alright.   Sk4Te. "

The biggest reason I have been turned away from Skate 3 is it's lack of a story, so I gotta disagree. Jeff even said on TNT that if you aren't really into doing online challenges and stuff, than Skate 2 is "kinda a better game". I do not like the direction the Black Box guys have gone, not one bit.

i think you need those challenges just to have some sort of progression and something to complete. i hear you about the stories being so flimsy that they're pointless but i'd rather have some nonsense story mode to give me challenges then just free skating. to the core fans that have bought all the games and the filmer packs (i actually didn't get the pack) the main draw is new environments to make videos. but that shit does get boring, and challenges spice it up while also just showing you new spots. 
 
and about weather in skate 4, i'm not sure you could do much with it. i'd like to see water in fountains not be instant death, you could pull off some cool powerslides and stuff. but a rainy day making everything harder to skate would just be frustrating in my opinion.

" @systech said:

" Alright.   Sk4Te. "

i think it should be Skat4 just to fuck with everyone. "

I think that skate 3 is the definitive skating game and would much rather see dlc for it than a skate 4

" I think that skate 3 is the definitive skating game and would much rather see dlc for it than a skate 4 "

" @Joker369 said:

" I think that skate 3 is the definitive skating game and would much rather see dlc for it than a skate 4 "

Definitive? It doesn't even have local multiplayer. "