Skate 4 laat toch nog wel even op zich wachten (de game verkeert kennelijk in ‘pre-pre-pre-alpha‘ staat), maar dankzij een playtest die onlangs plaatsvond, hebben we wel wat nieuwe stukjes (onofficiële) informatie verkregen op Reddit.

Enkele opmerkelijke zaken: Skate 4 zal gebruikmaken van de Frostbite engine, oftewel de in-house engine van EA. Verschillende EA-games, zoals de volgende Mass Effect en Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, lieten deze engine links liggen omdat deze wat problematisch was. Skate 4 stelt dus wel vertrouwen in de engine.

Daarnaast leren we ook dat een gebied in Skate 4 ‘Fun City’ zal heten en zal bestaan uit een mix van bekende gebieden uit eerdere Skate-games en nieuwe toevoegingen. De community zal ook een belangrijke rol spelen in de game, want user-created content zal ondersteund en aangemoedigd worden. Je kan je eigen skatepark ontwerpen en er zullen videotools beschikbaar zijn om leuke filmpjes mee te maken.

Er werd heel wat info gedeeld, dus lees gerust de volledige lijst eens na.

  • Playtest was still untextured as in the recent trailer and the leak some months ago
  • Runs on Frostbite Engine
  • Map: Test map was called “Fun City”. Seems to be only a small test section of the full map
  • Test map was a mixture of new areas and old untextured areas from the original games. Community Center from Skate 1 was included even with details like the mini-ramp where we all learned pumping. So maybe “San Vansterdam” could be the third redesign of San Vanelona. But it could also be a completely new city with some of the original map pieces which were only included for the playtest.
  • One spot “The Space Store” had a giant sculpture of Saturn
  • Bus stops are fast travel points. Yes, literally bus stops. You can see their icons on the map image above
  • Three different controls presets: Classic, Streamlined, Experienced.Could maybe replace the difficulty settings and be more suitable for different playstyles ranging from ultra-realistic to arcade insane Skate 3 like tricklines. There were also controls dedicated to PC players.
  • Two camera options: high and low camera angle. Could be switched instantly by pressing the right stick
  • First time in the Skate series where you can choose to push with the sticks. Can be turned off.
  • Character customization: In the playtest there were some different shirts and cap colors which could be equipped and in the final game it’s crucial to progress in the game and improve your skills in order to unlock new clothes and items. For example you need a certain skill level to purchase clothes from Dime.
  • You can have coloured griptapes
  • Career: Tester compared the career to Tony Hawks Proving Ground. It’s all about Skating, sharing & creativity. Followers mean something.
  • Playtester thinks he played the “online career” and that a seperate but similar experience is being underwraps.
  • Emotes will return. No big surprise, since Skate 2 already had emotes long before it became a trend to implement emotes in every game.
  • Players are not mute. They have voices but in the playtest they only said “cheers” and basic stuff related to the emotes. We don’t know if we will have a fully voiced character with own dialogue in cutscenes.
  • There will be a home skate park. Your “home” or private skate park is essentially the training park you build in the tutorial and from there on you have to actually fully build it.
  • There are crafting material and blueprints for skate park items
  • There is an in-game currency that you earn by completing challenges, objectives and collectibles. You can use this currency to buy clothes and other items like crafting material
  • Video editing confirmed. You can buy frames and stickers for your skate videos.
  • The most liked pics and videos will show up on billboards.
  • There is a level system which goes up to level 100. It’s tied to different aspects like creating, having fun (skating) and sharing videos and pictues
  • No miracle whips, dark catches, finger flips for now at least. Will most probably be in the final game.
  • No sign of Hall Of Meat mode yet. We don’t know if it will be added later.
  • Ragdoll physics are more ragdolly compared to Skate 3 where the ragdoll physics were really stiff
  • Instead of being respawned out of thin air, you will actually see an animation how your player get’s back up on their feet
  • You can roll and slide when you are on foot
  • There is some kind of spectator mode where you get teleported to a neat location or other players will be teleported to you. I guess it’s what we see in the trailer at 00:39 where we see the crowd cheering. (Hopefully they spectators will be in a kind of passive mode, so that the game will not become a griefer festival of ruining other players lines by throwing their boards at them or blocking them in any other way)
  • There were around 60 people on the server. The laggyness smoothed once the player count was reached.
  • There was no player collision in the playtest
  • “Owning” and “Killing” spots returns and is extended by “Shut it down”
  • The game feels slightly faster than Skate 3 in terms of push speed and and overall speed. But we should not worry about the realism, it’s only SLIGHTLY faster.
  • If you go REALLY fast it will be incredibly hard to control your board
  • Realistic audio like traffic noises and birds chirping were already implemented
  • Estimated Helloween release date, because a lot of stickers and decorations were Helloween themed. Either 2022 or 2023, he does not know, but 2023 seems more realistic, considering the game is still in pre-pre-pre alpha