Skate

I've only played it twice, but I can tell you this now: I love this game. I’ve always been a fan of the Tony Hawks series, but I only ever played it on the PC, so I was a bit apprehensive of learning the controls to Electronic Arts’ Skate. But it’s fantastically simple, and the tutorial on the demo is easy to follow. The FlickIt system works a treat, and is easy to master.

Graphically speaking, it looks good – but please bear in mind that this is only the demo version that I’m trying, which means that I’m restricted to staying within the recreation ground. And, of course, the lack of HDTV obviously impairs my judgement. But compared to Tony Hawk’s 3 – the last skating game that I played – the graphics are fantastic.

The demo has an annoying 30 minute time limit, and then after that you need to reboot the game and redo the tutorial, which is tedious once you know what you’re doing.

I can’t wait to get my hands on the full copy of this game, and get customising skaters, boards and tricks, and exploring the vast city that is promised.

My rating: 7.
Will I buy the game: Definitely.