Things I suck at: 1) Skateboarding. 2) Skateboarding in video games.
I've always been honest about my skateboarding suckitude. And here I am, facing the same music again, with Skate 3.
Skate 3 is clearly a good game. But I can't accomplish much in it.
Still, it seems cool. You portray a skateboarder who rolls across a big city (which was designed and illustrated specifically for this sequel).
You ollie (a basic skateboarding jump, which I can pull off). You rotate and flick the board mid-air during jumps (I can do that, too). You jump the board up onto sidewalk rails and metal edges (I'm cool with that, as well).
But then you face challenges, to combine many wild skateboarding moves across the city. During those challenges, you must skate fast against rivals - weaving through traffic, or pulling off jumps and tricks in skating parks - and you must score more trick points than rivals do, quicker than they do.
I can't do any of that. I've tried. I'm not accustomed to losing. I am The Game Dork L.L.C., a registered trademark with the U.S. government. But with skateboards, I am a big, stupid loser, the end.
I do have the wherewithal to report Skate 3 isn't a huge departure from the acclaimed and popular Skate 2. It just comes with a new city to explore and conquer. Skate 3 is bigger than its two predecessors, and the controls are even more intuitive, easier to handle.
I love the park-building capability. You can erect your own super-high ramps, like the ones that cause crashes on ESPN. You can upload those ramps online. And you can download other gamers' ramps. That's excellent.
Skate 3 comes with a new online experience, where teams of three compete against other teams, or against each other.
The thin plot, so to speak, is for you to build up a skateboarding company. When you beat challenges, buyers are impressed, leading you to sell a lot of skateboards. The game wants you to sell 1 million skateboards, eventually.
