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Joystiq Interview: Skate's EA Blackbox, new screenshots

by Jared Rea { Jun 13th 2007 at 10:05AM }

When it comes to games not called Halo 3, EA's Tony Hawk killer, Skate, is most definitely near the top of our "most anticipated" lists. In our last preview, we dumped an unbridled amount of praise upon it and for a very good reason: it embodies the feeling of skateboarding more than any game to date. For those of us who've spent our lives skating, getting our hands on this title was practically a spiritual experience.

And so, we sought more information from the good folks at Canada's EA Blackbox and have returned with an in-depth interview with its creators. From online multiplayer to recorded films and why we won't be seeing female avatars, there's something for everyone in this Skate love-in.

Gallery: skate.

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Joystiq hands-on: Skate

by Jared Rea { May 11th 2007 at 9:27AM }

Skateboarding, like punk rock and Lindsay Lohan, is rebellious by nature. And however crass and in-your-face the scene can be, there is a fine line between being a rebel and just being a dick. When you successfully complete a series of intensely complex button combinations that total up to millions of points and you're rewarded with a virtual Bam Margera farting in your face, it certainly feels like the latter of the two.

The foulness of this scenario, however, is a perfect metaphor for the Tony Hawk series as a whole: it's crude, low-brow and ultimately out to beat you down. Over the past eight years, Neversoft's Tony Hawk series has had more in common with something like Killer Instinct than it has the craft of skating.

Skate is a disruption. It's the 800 lb. gorilla tossed in a cage full of hapless puppies. Its rebellion, like skateboarding, is through mere existence. It isn't just challenging the rule of an eight year tyrant, but the very notion of how "extreme sports" titles are handled.

God save Tony Hawk because Skate is coming and it is heavy.

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