I knew the game world inside and out after endless roaming,hitting up new spots to carve up with my board. Port Carverton was my skate park and I owned it, with each and every spot perfectly designed to provide hours of fun.
The only downside of Skate 3 was that it made me think I could skateboard in real life
I’d spend hour upon hour jumping over the shark at Port Carverton University with my friends, all of us desperate to get the perfect jump. We’d climb to the top of the Observatory and careen down the hill to see which one of us could get down the fastest, often attempting to push my fellow racers off the hill along the way.
It wasn’t just the map which was great about the game though. Skate 3 had numerous game modes to keep online play exciting. Domination pitted two teams against each other to see which could rack up the most points by chaining tricks together. ‘SKATE’ modes took a classic real life game into the virtual world where skaters would try to replicate each others tricks to see who could achieve them all. Honestly, most of the time I would just waggle the right stick around and hope for the best, but occasionally I’d would land a huge trick, the payoff for which could only be marked by yelling at the top of my lungs.
There were also ‘Thrasher’ challenges where you would land a trick to appear on the front of the magazine.
However, ‘hall of meat’ challenges were by far the most entertaining. In these challenges, players would throw themselves off their boards and see how many bones they could break. At spots with big drops, this could result in some hilarious gameplay.
The game also had some fantastic customization options, allowing you to build your own skateparks, ranging from small halls to huge arena-sized parks for you and your friends to jump around on. This customization option was the main reason I kept coming back to the game, designing intricate runs and jumps to show my friends.
The only downside of Skate 3 was that it made me think I could skateboard in real life. This is probably a familiar story with other people who played the game and found out that what they could do so easily on their consoles was seemingly impossible in reality - I for one can’t even get round a corner on a skateboard. The fact that you’re reading this article now just shows that I didn’t even get close to attempting a ‘hall of meat’ challenge in real life.
Nonetheless, Skate 3 is a game which I fondly remember playing and It’s a game that I would strongly recommend if you’re looking for a cheap way to have a lot of fun back over on an Xbox 360 or PS3.
Featured image credit: @Nhakos (Twitter)
