Skate in the city footage...

Wednesday 9 May 2007
When we last saw EA's Skate - a back-to-basics skateboarding sim - we were equally enthralled and excited by its hugely satisfying board-based action. But, with this brand new video rolling into our laps recently, we've started to have a few worries. Will Skate's beautiful simplicity be undone by its grand ambition?

Pass your eyes over this new video in a cursory fashion, and all you'll find is another example of the game's entertainingly believable tricks and neat natural lines. Watch closer, though, and you'll no doubt have a few questions, like: "Why are there just taxis on the road?", "Why does everyone look so dreary and wooden?" and "Why is that security guard running like a short-circuiting robot?".

However, the game appears to have been pushed back - we were originally told it'd be out in June time - and there's no doubt that the developers are hard at work smoothing out the creases. We really hope so, anyway. Skate could be one of the games of the year thanks to its addictive and balanced gameplay, but only if EA can create a similarly well crafted world to wrap it in.

Pass your eyes over this new video in a cursory fashion, and all you'll find is another example of the game's entertainingly believable tricks and neat natural lines. Watch closer, though, and you'll no doubt have a few questions, like: "Why are there just taxis on the road?", "Why does everyone look so dreary and wooden?" and "Why is that security guard running like a short-circuiting robot?".

However, the game appears to have been pushed back - we were originally told it'd be out in June time - and there's no doubt that the developers are hard at work smoothing out the creases. We really hope so, anyway. Skate could be one of the games of the year thanks to its addictive and balanced gameplay, but only if EA can create a similarly well crafted world to wrap it in.

Ben Richardson is a former Staff Writer for Official PlayStation 2 magazine and a former Content Editor of GamesRadar+. In the years since Ben left GR, he has worked as a columnist, communications officer, charity coach, and podcast host – but we still look back to his news stories from time to time, they are a window into a different era of video games.