I have just been reading about the Skate 2 patch that will be available to Xbox 306 and PS3 owners soon that seems to fix and improve a lot of areas in the game.

I’m sure that there will be other future patches – but this one seems to clear up quite a few annoying issues:

• Improve responsiveness of off-board controls, modified left stick behavior to improve feel of off-board movement
• Eliminate scoring exploit for Hippie Jump 180s in multiplayer Spot Battle
• Eliminate the wipeout exploit with off-board and the Superdude trick
• Fixed mute and stale grab tricks to use proper hand when performed in conjunction with a hand gesture
• Fix the occasionally popping of visual indicators (sign-ups, arrows, etc)
• Added support for custom soundtracks for the PS3
• Face and Body settings will now load properly in saved replays
• Character models will be in high detail when viewing a replay
• Visual indicators (sign-up icons/arrows) are no longer visible in replays and videos
• Remove the confirmation pop-up when retrying a challenge
• Reduce potential for pedestrians to spawn in an active challenge location
• Modified “Can you spell Girl?” challenge so the player starts with the lead
• Remove the 3,2,1 countdown when retrying a film challenge
• All Thrasher challenges unlock properly in the career progression
• When starting an Own the Spot via the Challenge Map, the player’s session marker is automatically set for them
• Updated the online mini-map so skaters appear as the same color indicated in the player HUD
• Improved quality of character images generated for display on skate.reel web profiles
• EXP is no longer awarded for players that don’t attempt a trick during a Ranked game of S.K.A.T.E.
• Modified deathrace intro sequences to eliminate camera clipping
• Online Freeskate Activities (Survival) – Increase the tolerance for ‘skating too slowly’ while in the air
• Online Spot Battle/Hall of Meat – Spectators can again trigger hand gestures during another player’s turn

EA have rolled out the list of the Pro skaters taking part in the next installment of the Skate franchise.
Favorites like Danny Way and Rob Dyrdek are present as are many new faces.

What?  No Tony Hawk…?

Pat Duffy
PJ Ladd
Mark Appleyard
Colin McKay
Marc Johnson
Jake Brown
Dennis Busenitz
John Cardiel
Alex Chalmers
Ryan Gallant
Jerry Hsu
Ray Barbee
Mike Carroll
Jason Dill
Rob Dyrdek
Ryan Smith
Terry Kennedy
Brayden Szafranski
Darren Navarrette
Danny Way
Chris Haslam
John Rattray
Lucas Puig
Eric Koston
Chris Cole

The press release we have ALL been waiting for has finally hit the streets in the usual EA “all – and nothing” style.

Skate 2 is coming! 

The facts as we know it are:

• Skate2 will be developed for the PS3 and Xbox 360
• Skate2 is “in development” – no firm information as yet
• Skate It will be released for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii
• Skate It WILL feature the use of the Nintendo Wii Fit Balance Board
• Skate It will be released in 2008

Here is the EA Press Release in full:

GAMERS SKATE BACK INTO ACTION… THIS TIME ON NINTENDO WII AND DS
‘Skate It’ Delivers Popular Flickit Controls and Introduces Support for Wii Balance Board to Deliver Unique Skateboarding Experience

GUILDFORD, UK. – May 12, 2008 – Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS) today announced Skate It, a new game in the award-winning Skate franchise that taps into the heart and soul of being on a skateboard. Designed exclusively for the Wii™ and Nintendo DS™ systems, Skate It has Nintendo players riding with the skate pros, owning the best spots in San Vanelona and pulling off the sickest tricks using the popular FlickIt controls. Loaded with all-new gameplay features, Skate It breaks new ground by introducing innovative support for the Wii Balance board which gives players a fresh way to create their own signature skateboarding style.

“We knew it would be an exciting challenge to bring the soul and feel of skateboarding to the Wii and Nintendo DS,” said Scott Blackwood, Executive Producer – Skate franchise. “With fresh new designs and gameplay components built from scratch, we’ve been able to, once again, capture the true experience of skateboarding in a completely innovative way.”

Skate It unleashes the FlickIt revolution on to the Nintendo platforms, letting gamers use the Wii remote or the Nintendo DS stylus to string together their best tricks for the ultimate skate line. The Wii remote becomes a skateboard and reacts to gestures that mirror actual skate flips and moves. Players can also deepen this experience by planting their feet on the Wii Balance board. Skate It brings the hit Skate franchise to a new level of creative ingenuity and gameplay excellence.

Skate It will ship in 2008. The game has not yet been rated by the ESRB.

Separately, Skate 2 is also currently in development for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system and the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system.

About Electronic Arts
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA), headquartered in Redwood City, California, is the world’s leading interactive entertainment software company. Founded in 1982, the company develops, publishes, and distributes interactive software worldwide for video game systems, personal computers, cellular handsets and the Internet. Electronic Arts markets its products under four brand names: EA SPORTS™, EA™, EA SPORTS BIG™ and POGO™. In fiscal 2007, EA posted revenue of $3.09 billion and had 24 titles that sold more than one million copies. EA’s homepage and online game site is www.electronicarts.co.uk. More information about EA’s products and full text of press releases can be found on the Internet at www.electronicarts.co.uk/press.

EA, EA SPORTS, EA SPORTS BIG and POGO are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. PLAYSTATION is a registered trademark of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and Xbox 360 are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Nintendo DS and the Wii are trademarks of Nintendo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Avinash Bali of the Tech2 blog recently got to speak to some of the head honchos at EA’s meet the makers event in Singapore.

Amongst other questions about forthcoming EA games, he dropped the question about the possibility of a Skate 2 announcement coming soon:

I asked him what plans he had for Skate since (a) it was very well received; and (b) there’s no way in hell EA’s letting a successful game get away that easily.

Once again, he gave me that smug smile and said that the guys back at Black Box would kill him if he said anything. But there was something about his smile that said “Yes we’re working on one but I can’t talk about it or they’ll kill my family”. So yeah, I’m guessing we can expect a “formal announcement” in the near future.

As can be expected, with the recent announcements that Activision will be evolving the Tony Hawk franchise in the wake of the sales information versus Skate – EA will be keeping anything to do with Skate 2 close to its chest until an announcement is made.

I suspect that we will see a similar game to Skate but with more customisation, dynamic environments including weather effects and also the ability to get off the board – which the majority of people are asking for!

Via Tech2.com 

Dangerous Dave has posted a helpful set of screenshots to aid us in making up our own mind about which version of EA Skate is visually better – Xbox360 or PS3.Dave notes how IGN reviewed the same game on the 2 different consoles and scored the Xbox 360 version at 9.0 and the PS3 version at 8.8.

The reason? The 360 version had slightly better graphics according to them.

PS3:
Graphics: Lots of aliasing and blurring mix with some spotty framerate issues. San Vanelona is still a hot city, but it has some zits.

Head over to Dangerous Dave’s site and review the images. Work out if IGN are blind, stupid or paid/funded by Microsoft and then come back and let me know what you think!

Still pictures do not tell the whole story!