This May turned out to be a pretty good month for gaming. First off we got Alan Wake and Skate 3, followed by Red Dead Redemption and Split/Second, coming up we have Alpha Protocol and Blur… if you’re rich and geeky, this sure is a good month for you! Sadly, I’m only one of those, and I think we’ve already established that I’m a geek. So, here’s a review of the one game I’ve managed to pick up through all these wonderful releases: Skate 3.

So what’s new in Skate 3? Well, after a lengthy, bizarre, live-action intro starring the pro skaters within the game, telling a story of how a tree becomes a board, we find that “The Legend”, you, has relocated to Port Carverton and has just been dropped by his sponsors after eating concrete while attempting to jump a giant plastic shark. Thankfully though, long time friend and filmer Reda is there to suggest something totally gnarly; start your own board company!

In order to make your company successful, you have to complete challenges such as photo challenges, filming lines, winning races, hanging out with pros and other such stuff. It’s pretty standard Skate fare, except this time around there’s a twist; completing challenges increases board sales, and as you sell more boards you unlock new clothes, skate parks and skaters to be in your team. This opens up a new difficulty level to Skate, as you can now own a challenge, which is pretty easy, or try and kill it for extra board sales. Sadly, if you’re gonna kill challenges, you’re gonna have to be pretty damn good at the game. Most challenges require knowledge of specific tricks to be pulled off at the right time, so if you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll be too busy picking your teeth up off the floor to care about killing everything.

Speaking of grievous bodily harm, Hall of Meat makes a triumphant return, with a couple of tweaks to make everything run smoothly. For starters, you’re not forced into HoM mode should you bail outside of a specific challenge, so you can escape the humiliation of first bailing, and then getting a bad score for your bail. Next, there’s a little target painted on the floor to show you where you’re going to land, perfect for challenges that require you to slam into a specific object. The poses now effect your speed of falling, so should you shape yourself like a torpedo you’ll fly straight down head first, but switch to the “spread eagle” pose and you can essentially glide to the floor. It’s unrealistic, sure, but it’s a nice touch, and makes for some sweet videos.

Ah yes, videos (do you like how I’m keeping up topics? I’ve been practicing). The video editor has finally been perfected as part of the game, rather than having to shell out extra moolah to get content that should already be in the game. So the free camera and advanced options of every other camera are now available from the off, allowing for some sweet footy to be shot. Throw in the new object dropper, which allows you to drop in objects from nowhere within the game world, and you can set up some radical lines, shoot the footage, and be famous on the internets in no time.

Another new feature is the skate.park editor, which works very much like the skate park creators in the Tony Hawk’s series. Sadly, here you have to work your way through the story to unlock the best content for your skate parks, but when you do, the sheer fun you can have building your own little skating paradise is immense. Want to keep it simple and realistic? Go for it. Want to build a giant ramp that launches you into a bowl filled with dominoes, that when slammed into sets off a domino rally? It’s been done, but go ahead and do it again. Your imagination is pretty much the limit, and then when you’re done you can upload your creation to the Skate servers and let other people play them.

Which, sadly, leads me to my first complaint. The EA “Ten Dollar Project” is now in full effect, and up until now it’s been mostly unobtrusive; in Mass Effect 2 for example, buying the game brand new gave you some DLC for free, which was totally unessential to the game and made sense. However, Skate 3 screw you over if you’re buying second hand, as your ten dollars is going to be spent on unlocking the ability to share your content, a feature that has pretty much been essential to Skate’s success. It’s a real shame that this kind of content, one that is a key part of the full game experience, has been locked away because of a desire to crush the pre-owned game market. I’m all for the Ten Dollar Project, just so long as it doesn’t get in the way of people’s overall enjoyment.

Anyway, back to the positive stuff. Port Carverton is a beautiful place, filled with rich, vibrant colours and plenty of places to skate. It feels more open and less corporate, which Skate 2 aimed for, but generally made the game feel slightly oppressive. Having a more open feel makes life easier and the game more enjoyable. Graphically nothing much has changed from Skate 2, which is no bad thing, since the graphics were pretty awesome to begin with.

In fact, the sounds are all pretty similar to Skate 2 as well. Ok, well the whole game is almost identical to Skate 2, but I was still trying to segue this whole thing together. The sounds are there and are good, from the rolling of the wheels to the breaking of your skull against a concrete floor. The soundtrack features some pretty good noise, including personal favourites “Debaser” by the Pixies and “Lee Majors Come Again” by Beastie Boys. There’s a nice mix of rock, metal and hip-hop that’s sure to please everyone.

So as we approach the end of this review and my writing skill starts to dwindle, what can you learn from Skate 3? Well, if you’re going to make a successful sequel, take the current game you have and tweak it slightly to make it better. I’m not saying that I’m against this, but maybe some better graphics would be nice. And content that should be available from the start shouldn’t have to be paid for by someone who was too late to the game, or didn’t want to buy it brand new. All complaints aside, if you liked Skate 2, you’re bound to like Skate 3. It’s a lot of fun, and bound to keep you entertained for at least a week. Which is perfect, cos there’s more games coming out soon…

Score: 9/10

Feel strongly about the Ten Dollar project? Think I’m being too nice to the game? Let us know in the comments!