SKATE's game world is billed as "reactive" - largely through your interaction with non-skaters. Think jocks, businessmen and grannies, who all react uniquely to your actions - although it's not yet clear how this will affect play. No trick will look the same, since they depend on your angle of approach, speed and fluidity of analog movement - so, for example, you can perform a three foot grind while wobbling all over the place, or a ten-foot grind at high speed with effortless grace. If it works, Tony Hawk's tricks will look mechanized by comparison.
Plus, you'll have a choice of "career'" path, from beginner, to amateur and pro, to full-on icon - you can choose fame, or infamy. Basically, this means you can either earn your glory by mixing it with the professional crowds and dazzling at specially-organized events, or just hang out with the street crews and wallow in underground kudos. Either way, it's likely you'll end up plastered to the front of some in-game skate mag, in a similar vein to Need for Speed: Carbon.
SKATE aims to capture the heart of skaters, rather than stealing the busy fingers of Tony Hawk players. It's defiantly hardcore, but even casual gamers should be able to share the satisfaction of perfectly landing a signature trick on an unchartered piece of scenery, leaving a conquering scuff mark. Will it succeed? We'll find out in the late summer of 2007. But as any skater will tell you, it's not about mainstream plaudits, but sticking to your guns and standing out.
