Skate (video game)

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skate.
Developer(s)	EA Black Box
Publisher(s)	EA
Designer(s)	Scott Blackwood (executive producer)
Platform(s)	Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Release date	Xbox 360 NA September 14, 2007[1] EU September 28, 2007[2] JP March 13, 2008 [3] PS3 NA September 24, 2007 EU October 5, 2007
Genre(s)	Sports game
Mode(s)	Single player, Multiplayer
Rating(s)	ESRB: T (Teen) PEGI: 12+
Media	Blu-Ray, DVD

Skate (presented as skate. in marketing literature) is a skateboarding video game by EA Black Box for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It was released in North America on September 14 for the Xbox 360 and on September 24, 2007 for the PS3 — excluding Europe where the PS3 version was released on October 5, 2007. Skate has sold more than 700,000 copies^[4], outselling Tony Hawk's Proving Ground by a ratio of 2 to 1 on next gen systems^[5]. A sequel to skate titled Skate 2 has been confirmed for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well as a spinoff for the Wii and Nintendo DS entitled Skate It.

[edit] Gameplay

The player controls a custom-designed character to use as their skateboarding fictional town of San Vanelona, a conjunction (in both name and appearance) of the cities: San Francisco, Vancouver and Barcelona. Similar to the HUD of the Grand Theft Auto series, skating challenges are marked on a mini-map, along with stores and subway stations that allow the player to traverse the city quickly. Skate is focused on the player gaining sponsors and notability through photography and video of their skating skills, eventually leading up to the X Games. There are several "filming" challenges that allow the player to choose anyplace within a zone to create a line of tricks to meet the filming goals; the player can also place a session marker to return to a spot quickly after finishing a line. Several "own the spot" locations throughout the city allow the player to try to claim that spot by beating a certain score requirement, thus "owning" the spot from other skaters. Additionally, there are jam sessions and "death races" against other AI-controlled characters. Completing challenges will generally unlock new clothing and equipment items, characters, and additional challenges to compete in. Players are able to create and edit short video clips (15 to 25 seconds) at any time, selecting desired camera angles and video effects, and upload them to EA's "skate.reel" website to share with others^[6].

Dissimilar to the Tony Hawk skateboarding series where most tricks are initiated by button presses, the player initiates tricks in Skate using the thumbsticks, pulling and pushing in various directions and combinations with other parts of the controller to launch ollies, nollies, grabs, manuals, and flip tricks. Mid-air spins, and other unique stunts are also performed in the same manner. Grinds require the player to land on an appropriate surface, with the landing type determining the type of grind that is performed. A line of tricks is generated by continuing to perform tricks without letting a multiplier meter run out. The player's avatar or equipment does not improve in attributes over the course of the game; all possible tricks are available to the player, with one goal to successfully complete each trick listed in a trick book.

Skate allows players to freestyle or compete against other players online in jam sessions, races, S-K-A-T-E (similar to H-O-R-S-E), and Own the Spot challenges, using selected sections of the overall San Vanelona map.

[edit] Demo

The demo was scheduled for release on Xbox Live for August 15, 2007^[7] but was delayed (as stated by Scott Blackwood on the Skate forums) due to a sudden problem with the demo's skate.reel (video editing) feature. The Skate demo was released on August 21, 2007.

According to users of the Skate website, there have been reports of a glitch making users stuck in the login process. These occurrences are due to the profiles not having a link to their Xbox LIVE gamertags. Players must visit their EA account, go to personas, and link their account to a gamertag, and they will be able to choose the Xbox LIVE gamertag as their persona, which then gains access to their videos since the site identifies the username as an Xbox LIVE gamertag.

Despite EA claiming they had sent the demo to Sony mid-August, Sony have stated they officially received the demo the second week of September for testing. Patrick Seybold of Sony officially announced: "I have to confirm this, but contrary to popular reports, I believe that the Skate demo was just officially submitted to us for test last week. Its obvious that many of you want it, and we’ll do our best to get it up there as soon as we can. Hold tight."

The demo is currently available for download at all the PlayStation Stores, which can be accessed through the PlayStation Network. The UK PlayStation Store received the demo on October the 3rd.

The demo lets players skate around the San Vanelona Community Center for thirty minutes and learn how to do various tricks as well as create and edit videos.

Physics and Loading glitches in the game have made it possible to escape the chainlink fenced area of the Community Center, and skate around a small part of the surrounding area.

[edit] Development

This comparison shows the differences between the early (top) and final (bottom) versions of San Vanelona.

Evidence from different versions of EA's official website for skate show that the game has been through some major changes in development. For instance one screen shot, dated "04/06/2007", shows that San Vanelona was originally planned to be a coastal city, featuring a football stadium, harbour and cruise liner. ^[8]

Major changes were also made to the soundtrack. Originally planned to feature "Roadhouse Blues" by The Doors, the soundtrack now focuses more heavily on hip-hop. Some songs appear in both studio and remixed form.^[9]

[edit] Reception

IGN gave the Xbox 360 version of Skate a 9.0,^[10] and the PlayStation 3 iteration an 8.8.^[11] Praise was given to the environments, control scheme, and soundtrack. Criticisms included latency issues with the online multiplayer, odd physics glitches, and the lack of freestyle tricks in both the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game (although it is possible to do lip tricks because of the unique grind engine built into the game). ^[12] However, IGN have since edited their review of Skate, deleting the paragraph to do with complaints of the PS3 version being worse than the 360 version, after sources on the internet lead them to believe there is no difference between the two versions of the game, despite user reviews. IGN has not changed the scoring for the PS3 version of Skate; it is still scored 0.2 lower than the 360 version. Gamespot gave it a 7.5 for the Xbox 360 version of the game.^[13], and a 7.0 for the PS3 version.^[14] The reviews praised the game for a good start and innovation, but was criticized for the in-game advertising and product placement. The PS3 version was also given another demerit the 360 version didn't have: an unstable frame rate. This resulted in its 0.5 lower score. Gamespy gave it a 5 star rating for the 360 version, praising it for the control scheme, presentation, expansive environments, audio, and amount of content. It was criticized for the learning curve, frustrating camera, and the slowdown in online game modes. Gamespy has since given the PS3 version a 5/5 as well. ^[15]

[edit] Sequel

In February 2008 EA games president Frank Gibeau spoke in a presentation for industry analysts stating that the original posted bigger numbers on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 than rival Tony Hawk's Proving Ground. Because of these surprising numbers the company had decided to begin work on a sequel.^[16] Then in May 2008 the sequel was officially announced, however no details were released except the platforms it would be released for, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.^[17]. Skate 2 is expected to be released in 2009. On May 19th a short teaser and a short plot description were released by EA. While no information was given about the gameplay or technical aspects of the game, it was said the game will take place five years after the original in the same city, San Vanelona. It was also hinted that the difficulty will be tweaked.^[18]

[edit] Spin-Off

A spin-off title for the Wii and Nintendo DS entitled Skate It has been announced for a 2008 release. Since the DS and Wii both lack the "dual analog" control schemes that the PS3 and Xbox 360 have, both versions are being specially developed with each system's strengths in mind (the Wii version, for example, will use not only the Wii-remote, but also the Wii Balance Board for a more immersive skateboarding experience).

[edit] See also

• Skate It
• Skate 2

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• skate. Official Site
• skate. In-game Footage