Skate 3 Preview

So, i loved Skate and Skate 2 on the Xbox 360 (my console of choice) but im sure they were pretty similar to their PS3 counterparts. I downloaded the Skate 3 demo from XBL Marketplace the other night and even though the demo is only 20 minutes long, i found myself playing it for roughly two hours. Just trying to get the hang of the newly included "Darkslides", "Darkflips" and "Underflips." A Darkslide is where you flip the board (using the inovative Flick It system) a half rotation and slide a long a rail on the griptape, a darkflip is the same but without the grind, you catch a flip trick and flip it back over from a half rotation. An underflip is where you flip the board a half rotation, then quickly flip it back.

The start of the demo is very heavily voiced by My Name Is Earl star Jason Lee, as Coach Rick. He gets you started on your merry way to being a skating superstar, telling you the tricks of the trade and things you need to know.

After you finish with Jason you are sent out into the world to complete some challenges, including a couple Hall Of Meat challenges and a couple old school Photo and "Do the specified trick in the specified space in the specified time."

Not only is there new tricks and new challenge types; the creative side of Skate has also had an overhaul, with the graphic creator being much more user friendly, you can now also make your own skate parks by dropping objects into the world anywhere and anytime you want. Also! the create-a-skater menu has been improved greatly. Sounds pretty tops to me.

So. Skate 3... yeah, bring it on! Its about time the game was set in a new place and Port Carverton looks just as good a place to rip as San Vanelona did, New San Van was quiet a let down, but Skate 2 was better than Skate 1... so.. mixed bag there. Skate 3 seems to have brought all the best things from the first two games, grabbed some new stuff along the way and spawned what looks like could be a perfect skating experience (Take note Tony Hawk!)

Skate 3 is to be released on May 14th in Europe and i say, bring it on bro! Im ready to shred


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