Skate 4, officially titled "skate." (seriously, EA?), arrived on Steam in Early Access yesterday. The reaction has been swift and harsh. Full Circle's reboot of the beloved extreme sports sim franchise is getting hammered with negative reviews bashing it as "mostly empty, soulless, and constantly remind[ing] you to spend money" and "everything i didn't want." But then I see incredible clips of players doing ridiculous nonsense and I immediately become transfixed.
Skate 3 came out well before our current age of social media brain rot, but clips of Jesus shredding to Pearl Jam have still made it the stuff of internet legend. I have no idea if Skate 4â€"excuse me, I mean "skate."â€"will be able to rekindle the same grungy magic of a lost skater age, but I can say, based on some of the new clips going viral, that it does not seem like an entirely lost cause.