Save Skate 3

This plays just like Skate 2, it even takes joking nods at it's predecessors flaws like when the annoying camera man from the previous two games hands the camera to a new guy and says, "don't talk a lot, they hate it when you talk." They've also replaced the infuriating s-k-a-t-e (horse clone) game with a much more respectable who-can-get-the-highest-score game. The new editor is fabulous, but I couldn't find any way to invite friends to my skate park. What's the point of being able to design a park if you can't ride around in it with friends? The redesigned multiplayer is nice, but it's not really different from the previous skate 2 multiplayer accept the points are linked. You can't ride around in free-mode with friends, you have to hope from location to location just like before. It would be nice to see a giant MMO-like setting. The only time the game comes close is actually in single player. When you add friends, their avatar will pop into your single player game randomly as a computer AI.

Here's where EA ruins the show. A lot of people are complaining about this new money-making strategy that EA is doing where if you want to use the online features you have to buy a $10 activation add-on. The people who buy the game brand new get their very own copy, but that means people who buy the game used have to shell out extra money to play online. That's just something to know if you're buying this game used.

One more thing. Shortly after I got Skate 3, and I got to about 1.5 million boards, my PS3 broke and I bought a new one. I tried to transfer my save file to the new PS3 but EA doesn't feel that I am capable of doing that so they locked it down. Even copying over the save file from a backup didn't work which is disturbing. I loaded up skate 3 and the game went black and wouldn't load anything (on my new PS3). I know it has some strict online features, but couldn't they just link the save file with the online id as I sign in? That would be a lot more responsible than ruining hours and hours of work.

In short: This game is fantastic, it fixes most of the flaws, but it doesn't really improve on much. The editor is nice, but lonely, and whatever you do don't let your PS3 break. _Get more detail about Skate 3.