Imagine a place centered on skateboarding. A place where you can do just about anything relating to skateboarding. Form skate teams, socialize with others, design graphics/items, and sell related equipment, and skate in huge environments …with no interference from security guards or police.

This game is great. If you don't want your kid to hear the very few swear words you could just go into the settings and turn off the voice dialogue. I think this game should be available for everyone to play.

Electronic Arts confirms that the next installment in the Skate franchise will ship in May 2010, offering players the definitive skateboarding co-op experience.

Skate 3's offline portions feel flat and sterile, but its deeper online focus helps bring more meaning to every facet of the game.

This is not a huge leap forward for the series but at the same time I don't think it had to be. There are some gripes I have with the size of the new environment but when it comes down to it there is no question in my mind that this is the best skateboarding experience available right now.

This review comes from UK magazine PSM3, which for UK readers can be found here for this single issue, or here for a subscription. Abov...

Online and offline team challenges; Intuitive; deep and fulfilling controls; Park editor and advanced replays

Incoherent single-player structure; Doesn't feel like you're making significant progress; Can't tell if challenges will be easy or hard

I suppose it was inevitable. As if obeying its own universal law of thermodynamics , entropy has set in the Skate universe. For all of the series' original freshness and innovation back in 2007 , Skate 3 has succumbed to the same decay over time that the Tony Hawk series has.

Ambitious online play; Deep clan support

Heavily limited competition areas; Flawed team events