Game review: Skate 3 - PlayStation 3

My lack of balance and co-ordination have been enough to convince me not to hop on a board and attempt any ollies or spins.

At 35 years old I’d look plain stupid if I tried it for the first time now. That would just be two grazed knees waiting to happen. Besides, I don’t think I could use lingo such as ‘rad’ and ‘sick’ without sounding like a total tool.

Despite never hitting the halfpipes, I’ve always been partial to, and quite good at, skateboarding in video game form.

I’ve played a few titles over the years but none of them as impressive as Skate 3 from Electronic Arts.

This game offers a world of fun for skateboarding aficionados and more casual players alike.

The main thrust of the game is that you’re trying to establish a new skating brand and you need to improve your reputation and notch as many board sales as possible by competing in events and completing various challenges.

Board sales equal points which unlock more of the content, although this career mode isn’t nearly as restrictive as in many other games, with a lot of freedom and choice available from the start.

For instance, as you begin creating your brand you can you choose your logo as well as design a personalised board and clothing for your skater while also customising other members of your team.

The action takes place in the city of Port Carverton which features numerous large, expansive and varied locations in which to test your skateboarding skills. It’s not the liveliest place I’ve seen in a game but there are enough people and traffic around to give it some personality.

You can cruise around the city almost at will to perform tricks, take part in photo shoots, make films, enter contests and generally show off on your board.

Many items can be interacted with and moved about. If you see a particular crate and wonder what tricks your skater can pull off on it, simply drag it around and find out.

You can even set about creating your own skateboarding paradise using the editor option. Trying to build a credible skating environment will be daunting to novices but it’s worth doing because parks can be shared online, which helps to boost those board sales if other people download your creations.

You can also download other people’s parks, which marks Skate 3 out as another one of those games with potentially limitless new content to keep things fresh.

There is a strong focus on internet play throughout Skate 3.

As well as parks other user-generated content such as photos and videos can be shared among the community.

As part of the wide-ranging options for online enjoyment of the game, you can complete challenges in a co-op with friends as well as form or join a team of skaters to compete against rival crews.

Controls in the game manly revolve around using the left stick for body movement and the right stick for performing tricks, though the shoulder and face buttons also play their part.

The controls are as intuitive as virtual skateboarding controls are ever likely to get, though they can be a bit fiddly sometimes and mastering them takes some effort.

The game has a fairly steep learning curve and getting good may not happen straight away. You might feel like a skilled skateboarder from the start but actually becoming one is a different matter.

There is work to be put in if you want to nail the more impressive tricks.

There are three difficulty settings for the controls, which helps to ease in newbies.

Even if you do struggle a bit early on the game has a very likeable laid-back feel to it and never feels punishing or patronising.

Presentation is up to the usual high standards of EA games.

Animations are smooth, with skaters feeling good and weighty.

There are excellent physics in the game, with skaters falling off their boards and slamming into objects in a believable (and fun) fashion.

You’ll spend a lot of time flying off your skateboard but rather than the game poking fun at your failings developer Black Box has been nice enough to include a Hall of Meat feature which actually rewards painful moves.

Aside from the occasional choppy graphics moment, odd camera angles or my skater getting stuck somewhere, the game’s performance has been very good.

Audio in the game is great, with some decent music tracks to listen to while skating around. A bit of star quality comes in the of My Name Is Earl actor Jason Lee who provides the voice of skating coach Frank. There are some nice meaty sound effects for when you crash too.

The way it’s shaping up Skate looks set to be another EA franchise which gets a new release every year or so, each instalment marginally improving on the previous one with modified features and gameplay tweaks.

In the same way footy gamers would have weighed up switching from Fifa 09 to Fifa 10, you’ll need to show caution when deciding whether to upgrade from Skate 2.

That said, there can be little doubt that Skate 3 is the best version in the series so far and the best skateboard video game yet seen.

Skate 3 serves up a lot of diverse content, a lot of creativity and a lot of fun.

For skateboarding fans who are newcomers to the Skate line, Skate 3 should be an instant buy.

As one myself, it’s also easy to recommend this game to other non-skateboarders – for one thing, you won’t be able to hurt yourself doing it!

Verdict: 8.5 out of 10 – It will be interesting to see how Skate 4 and beyond can innovate and improve on the formula, but for now Skate 3 is the pinnacle of console skateboarding.