Black Box reveals incredible new details about its revolutionary skating game.
Face Any Challenge Most challenges originate from sponsors telling you to go out and get some sick footage. You have your own personal videographer trailing you throughout skate, so the footage is covered; it's up to you to make it sick. But how you get good footy and where you do it is up to you.
When you're pulling off tricks to capture on video, you won't get your standard set of points for pulling specific moves. In other words, don't expect to get to earn 100 points for a kickflip. "The scoring is authentic," Blackwood explains. "We focus on lines, style and measurements -- things that make up a great video part as opposed to an emphasis on stringing together impossible combos and frantically button mashing as many tricks together as you can." If you've ever watched skaters in action, lines aren't some insane series of gravity- and physics-defying moves strung together over a two-minute period. It's more about using the environment to gain speed, stringing together a couple of tricks, taking a breath, gathering more speed, and doing it all again.
EA has deals with Thrasher and The Skateboard Mag, making both integral parts of skate. You'll want your mug plastered on the cover of both as often as possible. Other challenges, beyond making magic on tape and in stills, include bombing hills and skating in jams.
Bombing hills sounds promising. Thanks to skate's focus on physics, speed isn't a given at any time. As you race, you'll need to navigate for steeper hills and learn to pump (shifting on the board to increase speed). You'll also need to sweat traffic and pedestrians. To help avoid splattering against crosswalkers and oncoming cars, you can speed check by powersliding.
Prove Yourself Though much of skate is wide open, there are some more structured challenges. You can up your rep by skating in jams and competing in some real-world competitions. EA signed a partnership with ESPN two years ago and, as it so happens, ESPN is home to the X Games. While EA hasn't confirmed the inclusion of any specific pro skating competitions, it's a fair bet that you'll have a chance to compete for X gold. And with a completely open trick system, this is the first extreme sports game that could legitimately offer a "Best Trick" competition that actually includes gamers creating new tricks.
The Way to Enlightenment So what does fame get you? Aside from more sponsorships and skate immortality. The end goal is opening up Danny Way's Mega-Compound. Based on the real skate park Way is building in Hawaii, the Compound includes the jaw-dropping MegaRamp featured in the past few X-Games. "The results are pretty amazing," Blackwood says, "mostly because, like Danny, the area takes skateboarding to a level not really envisioned or possible for most ordinary humans."
While the Compound is based on Way's designs, Black Box added a few pieces of flare. There's a loop, a bonus bowl, and a "truly huge" cradle. A cradle is basically a concrete dome at the end of a halfpipe. It's the latest in skating insanity and might be a nice capper to a long session of skating around San Vanelona.
The real gem is the MegaRamp, though, which we can't wait to bail on. The closest thing to a rollercoaster that skating has, the enormous ramp may prove to be skate's toughest challenge to conquer. "As with a lot of the skating in our game, it's all about the timing," Blackwood offers as a tip. "If you nail the take off and square up the landing, you're set. If not, you get worked. And worked hard."
For those with ice water in their veins, there's another, more dangerous version of the MegaRamp to be found in skate. "There's a not-so-mini Mini-Mega for the adventurous skaters out there to try, just be sure to have a spotter watch for oncoming traffic."
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Posted: 1 Jun 2007
