Wow. I am tired from staying up late playing the Skate 3 demo over and over again. Shame they kept the timeout option on there – but you can’t have everything.

I have not been experimenting with too many new features, such as holding RB (on the 360) and doing and ollie to perform a darkslide. I did pull it off a few times and it was pretty cool. The university area is also really nice to skate round and there is plenty to do on this demo, including Beat The Meat and various tasks to complete grinds or tricks.

I also created my first video upload too! Check it out:

I tried the online play but it did not work for some reason, so I was left to board slide and grind those massive rails all the time on my own

The demo does seem a little different to Skate 2. It feels different somehow although the animation has been improved. I like that you get to choose which camera angle you see yourself from and the Hardcore mode is… well… hardcore!

Overall I am impressed. It is not too different from Skate 2, so I am looking forward to skating new areas and locations as well as discovering all of the new features and options.

Have you got the demo yet? What did you think?

Although EA have had plenty of time to sort it out since Skate 1, their online website system is still really causing me issues.

I made this video to test if I was actually able to upload stuff before buying the Filmer Pack and the 2 most recent sets of downloadable content, the San Van Classics and the Drydek Fantasy pack.

The issues I have with EA’s online service are as follows:

• My XBOX Live account is associated with an email address I no longer use or have access to.
• I know my XBOX Live account password and used the same one for the EA skate reel logins and stuff – but it won’t recognise the password – therefore I have to get it reset, but I can’t get to the email account to get the email about it being reset.
• I have created another account on the EA site using a different email address – and had to have the password reset as it will not recognise any that I have – but after I reset the password and log in – it just says “system error” or some crap like that.
• Xbox gamertag names are case sensetive when you search
• It always pops up with the “what country at you from” window – every bloody time!!! I just X it in the corner to get through otherwise I get dumped somewhere weird.

From memory, I think that I had similar issues with Skate 1 too when trying to use the Skate Reel system. At least now I can get to the videos and images I have uploaded – but can never log into the Graphics Creator though due to these crappy password/username/error message issues.

Pants.

I just came across this video showing a great little tutorial for adding a fish eye effect to your EA Skate Reel videos.  I would have thought that Skate 2 would have come with a few more video editing effects that allowed for a better fish eye lens filter to be applied.

Perhaps this will be some extra, extra downloadable content?

I have yet to download the Filmer Pack (as I am a tight git) so will not be able to test this feature/hack.  Let me know how it goes if you manage to get it working.

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I would also be interested in seeing if anyone has been able to apply a fish eye style effect after they have download the video using Adobe After Effects or something.

I know that the EA Skate Reel is not the best format for sharing your compiled images, videos and experiences – but at the moment it’s all we have.

The fact that it is still in Beta is, in my opinion, admittance by EA that they have not really spent any time sorting it out.

With the issues people have logging into the Skate Reel site, linking their gamertags and finding their videos it’s not surprising that the site has not crawled out of Beta yet.

What would you change about the site to make it a better experience for all?

Here is a great YouTube video by Piktro showing how he uses DownloadHelper, an add-on extension for Firefox and this FLV to MPEG converter program to grab his videos from the EA Skate Reel site.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnKAQWbDzAs[/youtube]

Of course, you will need to Get Firefox first – but this is excellent work!

More information can be found on the YouTube page for this video.