skate.

...so it is a good thing that EA got that mechanic right in this game. For a rookie franchise, this is actually a rather good first effort.

In .skate, you'll play as a skater working their way up the from unknown to sponsored skater to skate legend. The game plays out in a sort of open ended city, where you'll be skating around completing objectives like collecting skate footage and still pictures along with "Owning" special areas around the city and facing other skaters in various skating challenges. Yes... the only focus of the game is skating, and although I am often skeptical of games set in a single setting, for the type of objectives and gameplay you're expected to execute in this game, it works wonderfully.

However, the "story" linking these activities together is pretty much non-existent, which is fine for a skating game except that it TRIES to exist, and just fails with hokey dialogue and pseudo-slang coupled with annoying characters and drab cutscenes that drag the overall presentation of what is a really decent looking next gen title down. Still, with good character models and unique lighting effects including use of several filters gives the game an overall visual design that is unique, yet familiar at the same time.

And the visual design is the only thing familiar about the skating in this game, because unlike the Tony Hawk franchise, EA has opted for an entirely different, analog stick centric control scheme. You'll be flicking the right stick to ollie and perform flip tricks, and using the triggers to perform grabs. The game's controls are intuitive, but the learning curve behind the stick controls are STEEP, and after hours of playing, don't expect to have learned to execute anything more than a kickflip, shuvit, and other variations with any sort of regularity. The flips are all unlocked at the very beginning of the game, it's just up to YOU to learn how to execute them, making a level of challenge that's both a boon, and a hindrance. On one hand, it's all on you, not your character or equiptment, to actually learn this games brand of skating, but on the other, if you're not nailing those tricks with any sort of regularity, you're going to get very very frustrated, and that's not any fun.

.skate is a good first offering for this young franchise. Though it has it's flaws, it's definitely got potential to be a rival to the crumbling Tony Hawk juggernaut.