Skate Skate Skate
Skate 3 begins with a fantastic live action video following an array of residents of Port Carverton, a fictitious place of grandiose diversity that just so happens to be an ideal place for skateboarders. The video follows a pair of hillbillies hunting and shooting the elusive Big Foot, and then proceeding to strap him/her (it?) to the roof of their car. It then begins to follow the production of a skateboard, from lumberjacks sawing down trees to be brought to a lumber mill, to factory workers pressing designs onto unfinished planks of wood. The video ends in a fake televised event, with Rob Dyrdek commentating in appropriate news reporter attire, showcasing an unknown skater attempting to cross a large gap, but who unfortunately fails to land the trick and smashes, head first, into the ground.
This is where the intro video ends and Skate 3 begins: You open your eyes to find yourself lying on your back, and that you are in fact the aforementioned unknown skater. You focus your vision to see your friend Reda standing above you, who then convinces you that you should start your own board company and stop skating for the man. Your first step in doing this is to name your company and choose its logo. From there, you are able to design your skater with a more than adequate character customization system, featuring a multitude of options for both the physical and cosmetic aspect of your skater.
The only real goal of Skate 3 is to complete varying challenges, such as performing a myriad of tricks in a certain amount of time, to grinding certain rails, to bailing off your board and breaking certain bones, et cetera. Every challenge you complete in Skate 3 increases the number of imaginary skateboards you have sold in the game, which in turn unlocks items for you to further customize your character with with the skate editor. There are six milestones for how many skateboards you have sold in the game, with each milestone granting you another member for your skate team. An aspect to the challenges that makes them far less arduous than they could have been is the ability sign up for certain challenges anywhere, while also being able to teleport to challenges if it is required to be in a certain part of Port Carverton for them.
I found the gameplay of Skate 3 to be quite enjoyable, although at times I felt like throwing my controller across the room in a fit of rage. To perform almost any trick in the game involves flicking the right stick in various directions or in a certain pattern. From a simplicity perspective, this may have seemed like a good idea. However, most of the time I found myself attempting to do the trick I wanted, but getting the pattern off by a fraction and then accidentally performing a different trick. Many of the races in the game got quite annoying at times, as opponents seem to be much faster than you and will almost always speed past you if you slow down at all. Another annoying facet was the fact that the cars in Skate 3 seem to drive around in some frenzied pattern, and will, most of the time, stop in front of you while during a race, causing you to fall over, crippling your chances of winning. Also, during some of the longer stunts in which you must perform a list of different stunts, you must perform them all without falling off your board, as that will restart the challenge.
The NPCs that roam Port Carverton seem to be there for one reason, and one reason alone: to get in your way and infuriate you. Now, you can press down on the D-Pad to perform a taunt and scare them away, but then what is the point of putting them in Skate 3 at all? They definitely did not help to make Port Carverton feel more alive, as they walked around as if they were the human remnants of some sort of nuclear apocalypse. This is most evident in the game’s jam sessions, where at points every skater must perform tricks on the same rail or gap, causing every bot skater to hit you in mid air or while you try to execute your stunt, ad infinitum. I found that, for myself at least, if I wanted to have fun with Skate 3, I had to play on the easiest setting, where the game’s physics were the most forgiving. Skate 3 includes a great park editor, with which, when not in a challenge, you can place a plethora of objects into the environment, and even grab them and move them around however you wish.
Graphically, Skate 3 is a nice looking game. It is never breathtaking, nor does it do anything exceptionally, especially in terms of foliage, yet it gets the job done without ever looking bad. I did, however, notice a sizeable drop in framerate whilst going full speed on occasion, including some tearing here and there. Sonically, I very much enjoyed Skate 3. Its licensed music ranges from artists such as 3 Inches of Blood to Neil Diamond to Ol Dirty Bastard; everyone who plays the game should be able to find a song or two they enjoy. Although, with me only liking a select few of the songs, I found myself playing the same songs over and over again, and then eventually simply turning the licensed music off entirely. When I did this, I was able to notice the superb sound effects Black Box put into the game, from the exceptional clashing sounds when you run into something metal, to hearing birds chirping around me as I skated through town.
For the most part, multiplayer is where Skate 3 shines: almost every challenge in Skate 3 can be played online with a total of six people; two teams of three. With skate.Reel, you can view footage recorded by you and others in the Skate 3 community; with skate.Park, you can create your own parks with the park editor, and then put them up for others to download, which will then grant you more board sales everytime someone downloads it.
Overall, Skate 3 is very much a game that, (now, obviously this is entirely subjective) if you cannot get some of your friends to buy the game for multiplayer, or you do not particularly enjoy skating in real life, you may just want to rent. Now, do not get me wrong, I quite enjoyed Skate 3 as a whole, but the few annoyances I did have with the game became very apparent as they occurred more than once.
