(continued from previous page) ...expansive fictional city, which combines 3 primary areas bounded in reality. EA Black Box manages to create a wonderful city with incredible detail. San Vanelona offers various hotspots. San Vanelona is expansive and that’s unforgettable. The air is real, the people are real, and the city is real. The animations are vibrant and are truly adapting. As you move the control precisely, you see the feet of the skater precisely moving as well.

To make the city come alive, the sound scheme is amazing. The background is filled with people discussing their daily lives. Furthermore, the music is superb in its own respect. The blend of a beautiful city coming alive with rich sound and music creates for an unforgettable experience. Luckily, this has its advantages. With the amazing city, comes an amazing atmosphere that promotes true skating. The only limitations in Skate are your board and your imagination. Don’t expect different skill sets per board and what not that complicates things.

Even though the environment is amazing, the cities expanse has an effect on consoles. There are some technical hitches when it comes to loading in areas. Sure, an extensive load time teleporting is expected in some places, but you will also see them in areas where they should not happen. Its not like load times are poured on this game, but markers tend to auto reload if the player goes out of range. Even though the loading is annoying, once these happen, the seamless skating in the city makes it all the more worthwhile.

Skate itself is not so much a journey but a way of right. For countless hours, you can skate and skate and not concern yourself about the missions. It’s up to you. You don’t have to play the career mode. And honestly, it’s not that inventive. But, if you want to unlock a few special locations in the city, you have to play the single player mode.

The career mode basically is the same thing as the Tony Hawk series. You are attempting to become a famous skater by scoring on Thrasher and Skateboard Magazine. You can work your way through both career lines at the same time, choosing between events and leisurely cruises around San Vanelona as you please. The difference between the Thrasher and Skateboard Mag are minimal, but Skateboard Mag is more careers oriented with photo opportunities and what not. Whichever one you choose, you get two sponsorships for. You'll be able to select sponsors for your board, wheels, trucks, and shoes. The chosen sponsor's gear then becomes free to you, but by the time you get to that level---you can afford to throw away cash.

The primary highlight of career mode is mainly the X-Games. The X-Games define the incredible detail Black Box focuses on throughout Skate. Throughout career, the announcer is spot on with the sounds. But when you arrive at the X-Games its actual host greets you. Luckily, Black Box didn’t go overkill on this aspect. The announcers were used at the appropriate time and didn’t force a dull relationship with you.

Lastly, the online community in Skate is amazing. Most gamers want to skate with friends and what not. Along with this, Black Box through in official hosting of 30 second clips on the website. You can watch videos either straight in the game or on the website.

Multiplayer in Skate enables six gamers to a skating extravaganza. There are death races, jams, and skate trick competitions including--skate. Want to skate just for the hell of it and do nothing? Head to free skate mode. Only downside is the city spaces are limited.

Another downside comes in the form of clan formations. Many people have “Crews” - Girl, Hawk, Toy Machine, and the like. Skate does not support a clan function of any sort to define players in a group of their own for videos. A bit of a shame really. Combined with a full city online, it would have made this game nearly perfect.

EA has delivered a revolution in the genre of skateboarding games through Skate. With its unrefined controls, beautiful visuals and a spectacular attention to detail, it quickly becomes an addicting experience that's tough to stop playing, ... (continued on next page)