Skate - First Look Preview

Heading for Xbox 360 and PlayStation3 in the summer (currently pencilled in for an August release), Skate is Electronic Arts' first entry into the world of skateboarding since the 8-bit era of Skate or Die. The marketing for the extreme sports title to-date has hinted that the game would deviate away from the arcade exploits of Messrs. Hawk, Margera, Mullen, and Burnquist - a skateboarding title for skaters.

Currently in development at EA's Black Box studio in Vancouver, Canada, Skate has already been built up as a "skate mecca for both skaters and gamers in search of the definitive authentic skating video game experience"; so says the game's Executive Producer, Scott Blackwood. EA has also been careful to recruit skaters far away from the troupe of Jackass extras, instead enlisting the support of PJ Ladd, Jerry Hsu, and self-styled "avant-garde" skater Mark Gonzales.

At an event held recently on London's Portobello Road, TVG got a first taste on what to expect when Skate heel flips onto the next-generation platforms in a few months time...

Tony Who...?

Holding a veritable monopoly on the skateboarding genre, there's no doubt which franchise is Skate's number one rival. The Tony Hawk series of titles continues to be a major franchise for Activision, with enough annual updates to rival (somewhat coincidentally), any EA Sports title. Every year sees an update with a certain number of tweaks and additions, but at its heart, the core gameplay remains the same. Fast button presses lead to ever-increasing combos and high scores of several million points; enabling players to upgrade their skater's skills and unlock new tricks. After so many years, players know how to execute everything from the basic Ollie and Grind, to the all-important Manual and Revert, along with an array of Grabs, Spins, and perilously superhuman tricks.

Skate is different.

Restricted to a skate park within what will eventually be an open world city based on San Francisco, Vancouver, and Barcelona, it was time to unlearn what we had learnt over the past 8 years...

First of all is the structure of the game, which drops what we've come to expect from a skateboarding game: there are no multi-million combos, no finger-twisting button presses to execute various tricks, and no progression in the skill of the skater. Every trick that can be executed in the game is available to pull off right from the very first push off, and the skater is as agile and as balanced as he's ever going to be. In this way, EA aims to push the challenge back onto the raw skill of the player, creating a challenge as they attempt to drag their skater from the streets to being a pro. The game's structure introduces challenges such as Photo Challenges and Skater Video Challenges, much like Tony Hawk; however, each challenge can be attempted anywhere in the town at any time, enabling gamers to search for and decide the best place to perform.

By far the most pronounced difference is the control system, which literally turns the skateboarding genre on its head. We don't normally breakdown into a detail looking into what button do what in a game but for once, we will.

How do I grind?

The left stick controls the movement of the skater itself; the direction that he moves on the board, and whether he's crouching down or standing straight. The right stick is used to control the board, and is the basis for all tricks in the game from the simple Ollie, up to Heelflips, Kickflips, and tricks that are increasingly more complicated. Dropping the well-established face buttons, performing an Ollies intuitively involves pulling back on the stick and then pushing forward, with the two flips executed by making tick-shaped movements. Expanding this, the left and right triggers control the left and right hands of the skater respectively, enabling a variety of sophisticated grab tricks. Finally, two of the face buttons control the left and right feet of the skater, which have to be pressed in a rhythm to push off from the ground.

It may all sound like quite a complicated structure, and there were many wipeouts from failed Ollies and flips in the first 20 minutes - not to mention that it took time to get over the fact that grinds didn't need manual balancing (or a button press). However, the result of having such a control system meant that there was an improved sense of natural and organic movement in the game (like a freshly squeezed glass of juice). It also seemed that the skater didn't need to attain a high speed to pull off tricks, with an emphasis placed on timing and rhythm over anything else - much like you'd expect if you were skating in your local skate park.

Here comes the science bit

Nevertheless, what was it, besides an original control system that made our brief encounter with Skate all the more impressive? It all rests with how EA Black Box is building the title. Having decided to mould the Skate experience around a solid physics-based experience, Associate Producer Jay Balmer explained how early tech demos concentrated on creating a skateboard with realistic movement and weight distribution. The sound of the board is also driven by the physics; the sound of the tracks and the skater's feet are being programmed to occur when the individual events happen, and not as a single soundtrack - another more subtle instance of how focussed EA are on developing a more authentic skating game then the competition.

Taking it to the next step is the camera system, which follows the action from a typical low "skater video" angle, and features a slight fish-eye lens effect, bending the look of the game world and providing an enhanced perspective on the world around you. As with many titles, a replay option will be open for gamers enabling them to review a cool trick or nasty wipeouts from any angle. If that isn't exciting enough for you, Skate will also include an ingenious feature: the ability to upload and edit your replays to the web, creating your very own skating videos to share with the world. Tapping directly into skating culture, where homemade videos raise the profile of individuals, the feature is a likely masterstroke by EA.