Skate 3 came out last week, all other games have been irrelevant. The replay editor is as awesome as ever, tricks are so much easier to pull off and the whole world being bigger is excellent. 2 major improvements stand out though, firstly losing the security guards and skate-proofing from Skate 2. Yeah it made for a better storied game but made skating around much less fun. This time things are simpler, no evil corporation, just a big city that welcomes skaters, a big list of challenges and the words "go nuts". Going nuts is also improved by much better off-board controls. Then there's challenges being split into "Own" and "Kill" criteria. Owning a challenge means just doing the bare minimum to pass, so later challenges aren't made insane by ridiculously specific pass criteria. Those specific pass criteria are reserved for Killing, killing challenges gets more board sales (S3's exp really) and achievements but otherwise they're just for bragging rights. Having challenge objectives split like that makes getting to the end of the game and unlocking everything waaaay less frustrating.

Less good though is the park editor, not dropping items into the regular city as that's excellent for just tweaking a near-perfect line. Making parks from scratch though is something of a mess due to the editing being almost permanently in precision mode, so while it's possible to make fun stuff, it's damn near impossible to make something worth uploading quickly like in older Tony Hawk's games. Suggested improvement would be to add an overhead, grid-based 'simple' editing option for Skate 4. Other problem is not allowing for forming teams from randoms for team-play online games. I'm naturally in the Destructoid team on the PS3 and there are 3 of us, so I'm pretty much going to have to join another team if I want to play team games. Solo online works pretty well though, though this being PSN there are glitchers and cheaters everywhere. So some problems and some improvements, no real new problems though, Skate improves with every game, I guess when you perfect the base of your game first time round there's nothing left to do but tweak it until it's perfect. They're not quite there, but S3 is better than S2, though it's worth having all 3 just in case you want to go back to San Vanelona.

Quick note, I'll not be recapping for the next 3 weeks as I'll be sans-computer in Canada. Any Toronto people want to chill while I'm over there give me a shout.



NIERO - Front page, now available in black and white. But not yellow. Racist.

* - How to shop with a casual gamer
* - Brilliant article about how we always look favourably on our first encounter with a series
* - It's up to us to make games succeed



A - Response to the front page article on multiplayer not really evolving
A - Bradshaw adds more fuel to the tired Games as Art argument
S - Llexan starts explaining his summer games list
S - The Pitch Black challenge, go take him down
S - Old school games - Way of the Samurai



C - Win Enkido's copy of Valkyria Chronicles!



E - Last call for the SSF4 tourney
C - A set of random thoughts from Daxelman



N - Here's the latest Famitsu scans from Crunshii
T - Haylzorz's more thoughts on Splinter Cell Conviction, contains spoilers
T - Mike's initial thoughts on Red Dead Redemption
V - Let's Play Hitman Blood Money, the shortened, more entertaining version



M - P4KO rocks the Power Rangers movie theme
F - Thoughts on family gaming, and a review of Four Lions



L - Why the hell would you drink orange juice with pulp?
V - It's no Left 4 Bed, but Young Scot shows the joys of driving fast things off a cliff doesn't get old
C - Ehh, nothing everyone already knows
C - Formatting is your friend



F - No.
F - Haven't gotten to do this in a while, FORUMS!
F - Mac bragging and self-fapping. You'll go blind you know


(NJ)

FPotD