Skate Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

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Kinda Funny Gamescast: Skate Review (October 8, 2025)

Podcast Hosts: Tim Gettys, Greg Miller, Mike (SnowBikeMike), Barrett
Episode Theme: In-depth review of Skate (Early Access), discussing gameplay, progression, monetization, and the community’s reaction.
Main Purpose: To give a detailed hands-on assessment of the new Skate game, cover community and reviewer critiques, and discuss where the game stands at its initial early access stage.

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Episode Overview

The Kinda Funny crew dives deep into their impressions of Skate, EA’s long-awaited return to the beloved skateboarding franchise, now released in early access as a free-to-play live service title. They break down gameplay feel, microtransactions, progression systems, cultural vibe, and compare it to earlier Skate entries as well as competitors like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Fortnite. The discussion is candid, filled with nostalgia, some skepticism, and clear affection for skating games.

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Key Discussion Points

1. Initial Impressions and Gameplay Feel

• Greg Miller and Mike have sunk 25–30+ hours into Skate, exploring on different platforms (Portal, Ally, PC, etc.).
• All agree the core skating “feels awesome.”
  • Greg Miller (13:49): “The stuff you’re hearing is all great criticism, but for me it comes down to how skate feels in the sticks. It feels fucking awesome. It is a blast... The skating is so good.”
• Skate 4 left many fearing a “Fortnite-ification” but the moment-to-moment boarded movement and physics still capture the sense of flow and skateboarding challenge that made the previous entries classic.
• Sound design is especially praised for immersion: “The sound of the skateboards is phenomenal. The clicking, the clacking, me grinding, what it sounds like, my wheels hitting pavement. Like, it immediately takes me back...” (Greg, 15:01)

2. Progression, Content, and Pain Points

• Core issue: progression is almost entirely cosmetic.
• Players chase “rep” levels to unlock boxes of gear (boards, shirts, hats, etc.), with microtransactions looming as the motivator for certain prestige or branded cosmetics.
• There’s a lack of old features: no true “Hall of Meat” mode, missing staple tricks (hand plants, darkslides), and an absence of story/career modes that encouraged fans to play for more than dailies and loot boxes.
• Seasonal events are beginning (“Skateoween,” “Seven Ply Maple Harvest”), keeping the world fresh.

Notable pain points:

• Over-the-top, off-board antics make it feel more superhero than skater:
  • “I really do not like the over the top, off the board flying from skyscraper antics... It's just not really that fun.” (Mike, 18:21)
• Early access means missing features but hope remains:
  • “For an early access game... there’s a lot to love here right now, despite the many flaws.” (Greg, 16:52)

3. Monetization & The Store

• Store and microtransactions are a major talking point, with branded bundles (like a Dead Space set) seen as dramatically overpriced:
  • “The prices are outrageous. The Isaac Clarke bundle is $35!” (Mike, 23:09)
• Hosts acknowledge the store is visually enticing—real skating brands, neat cosmetics—but lament that the coolest stuff is locked behind steep paywalls.
• Loot Boxes:
  • “I just don't like the loot boxes... where there's probably eight pages and there's like six to seven different loot boxes that contain eight to 11 on each one.” (Mike, 26:56)
• Free progression is possible, with lots to unlock just by playing, but there’s a feeling that the old model (everything earnable through play) is missed.

4. Live Service, Battle Pass, & Event Structure

• Skate’s live service model means new content (tricks, cosmetics, events) will roll out over time.
• The battle pass is divisive—some hosts like the cosmetics available, others aren’t motivated by what’s on offer.
• Skepticism over the longevity and sustainability of the model, but optimism if events are done well: “If this game can maintain and if this game can be relevant next Halloween, maybe they figured it out. Maybe that's how they do it.” (Greg, 42:13)

5. Tone, Vibe, and Skater “Culture”

• Criticism from old heads/reviewers about “losing the counterculture, punk spirit” by making a city totally constructed for skating (instead of rebellious takeover).
• Dialogue and voice acting are widely panned by the hosts:
  • “The writing in this game, in this world, is abysmal. The voice acting is not good.” (Barrett, 30:15)
  • The use of terms like “footy” (footage) comes across as forced/kitschy.
• For the hosts, the loss of real-world skater “edge” is partly offset by just enjoying the game as a fun podcast or hangout experience.

6. Comparisons with Previous Skate Titles

• Skate’s biggest detractors miss the “career mode” or a deeper single player context found in earlier entries.
• Barrett (47:35): “Those original games that was about building up your, you know, you being a pro skater, you know, shooting pictures for the covers of magazines... Those kind of missions and that structure and that progression is something that I miss.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Greg Miller (15:27): “Skating in Skate is great. The sound of the skateboards is phenomenal. The clicking, the clacking, me grinding...”
• Mike (18:22): “I could spend eight hours here... Now I get hit with kind of a wall and I question, well, what am I doing now when I can’t progress X amount of story or where I want to go, right with all the challenges? ... I really do not like the over the top, off the board flying from skyscraper antics.”
• Tim Gettys (17:52): “Is it free to play?” (Greg: “Yeah.” Mike: “15 million players jumped in.”)
• Greg on negative reviews (15:53): “I do think the IGN 4 out of 10 is kind of crazy... Skate is still great to skate in. It is so much fun to skate in this game that I can’t see coming in and dogging on it because I don’t like the visuals or I think V is annoying...especially for an early access game.”
• On the Store’s pricing (23:11):
  Mike: “The prices are outrageous. That Isaac Clark bundle is $35.” Tim: “Wait, wait, wait.”
  Greg: “At no point am I saying it’s worth it, ladies and gentlemen!”
• Barrett on progression (28:01):
  “I think everything around that presentationally is struggling... the whole progression is just unlocking clothes and skateboards... I fundamentally just don’t find that very interesting for a game like this.”
• Barrett on the writing (30:15):
  “The writing in this game, in this world, is abysmal. The voice acting is not good.”
• Greg on community and expectations (42:40):
  “I’m an OG Skate fan too... For me, skate was always about being the skater and doing the thing... But that wasn’t what it was all about for me. For me, it was the game feel... With all due respect, you saying you’re the reason it’s back... They’re back because of Fortnite and because they think they found an angle.”
• Mike’s Final Thought (53:19):
  “I just love playing it, Tim. That’s the problem—I just have so much fun playing this game and it’s not a problem. It’s a really good time and I like playing Skate... I’ve always wanted Skate for a long time since Skate 3 and this is the game that feels good to play.”
• Barrett’s Takeaway (54:26):
  “Just, you can have a great time with an okay game. And, you know, sometimes I have a great time with an okay game.”

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Segment Timestamps

• [07:55] — Start of Skate review
• [08:18 – 09:42] — Overview of game, publisher, stats, and upcoming events
• [13:40 – 18:22] — Main impressions, Greg and Mike’s time spent, “vibes”, gameplay feel
• [19:47 – 23:37] — Missing features (Hall of Meat, tricks), microtransactions, store pricing, and cosmetics
• [26:56 – 28:41] — Loot boxes, progression, and complaints about reward structure
• [30:15] — Soundtrack, voice acting, writing, and Skate's tone
• [39:00] — Comparison to previous games, why not just play Skate 3?
• [42:40] — Listener questions & the “soul” of the new game versus old skater culture
• [47:35] — Barrett’s take on missing career/progression, mission structure
• [53:19] — Final thoughts from Greg, Mike, and Barrett

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Verdicts & Wrap-Up

• Greg: 7/10 (“good”) — “Feels great to skate...for a foundation, I’m in love with it and I’m excited to see where they could go.”
• Mike: 7/10 (“good” with potential for 6 or 8) — “So much fun, but pain points and microtransactions hold it back. Store and battle pass need work, but I just love playing.”
• Barrett: 6.5/10 (“okay”) — “Foundational gameplay is great. Everything else, especially progression and writing, is lacking, but still enjoyable as a chill, podcast game.”

Overall:

Skate Early Access delivers on pure skating fun but is hampered by free-to-play trappings, microtransaction pricing, and a lack of deeper single-player or narrative structure. It excels as a podcast/chill game for skating sessions with friends, with hopes high for future content and live service events.

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For Listeners:

If you love skating games and can tolerate modern free-to-play quirks, there’s fun to be had—even if you’re an old-school Skate diehard. But if you crave deep solo content, community-driven creative tools, or a progression system with more substance than cosmetics, you may have to wait and hope for future updates.

Transcript

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[Mike]

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[Greg Miller]

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[Greg Miller]

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Look at what you've done to yourself.

[Greg Miller]

For a new plant to grow, the seed has to die.

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[Greg Miller]

Close your eyes. Exhale. Feel your body relax. And let go of whatever you're carrying today.

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[Greg Miller]

And breathe.

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[Greg Miller]

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How many discounts will you stack up? Tap the banner or visit usaa.com autodiscounts restrictions apply.

[Greg Miller]

Foreign.

[Tim Gettys]

What's up and welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Tuesday, October 8, 2025. Of course. I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Snowbike.

[Greg Miller]

Mike.

[Mike]

Tim. What up, big dog?

[Tim Gettys]

What up, big Tim?

[Mike]

So is it Pikmin or not? Okay, now we just adding Pikmin into the video. What's the deal?

[Greg Miller]

What?

[Tim Gettys]

What does that mean? Mike?

[Mike]

What's the deal?

[Tim Gettys]

What's the deal possibly mean? Is it Pikmin or not? It's Pikmin.

[Mike]

I didn't see it come from the Nintendo video though.

[Tim Gettys]

What do you.

[Mike]

What Nintendo? YouTube.

[Barrett]

Well, because they posted it on Nintendo today.

[Greg Miller]

Today.

[Mike]

I'm not on that.

[Greg Miller]

Michael's getting the stream ready during games.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm not on that app.

[Mike]

Get the out of town.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you didn't see this.

[Mike]

New Pikmin.

[Tim Gettys]

New Pikmin, baby. I'm in, baby. I'm in.

[Mike]

Dude.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, man. We also have Greg Miller.

[Greg Miller]

Hello, Timothy. How are you?

[Tim Gettys]

I'm good. How are you? How's the Portal doing?

[Greg Miller]

Portal's doing great as always.

[Tim Gettys]

How much Portal play are we getting these days? Now that you are more of a ally boy, I.

[Greg Miller]

You've been getting a lot of Portal play. Skate yeah, yeah. I mean, if I'm doing skate, I had done my Raw as we've been talking about the Xbox Ally too much on shows. So the Rog Ally X what I have. Right. I booted that originally when Skate dropped and installed Skate wasn't happy with low settings on that and trying to go up. I wasn't thrilled with how it looked. So I've just been doing portal for Skate and I've been doing a lot.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I like that. Can't wait to hear about. It's what we're talking about today. It's gonna be exciting.

[Greg Miller]

It is. I was playing with Mike last night. I was portaling.

[Tim Gettys]

Wow.

[Greg Miller]

I was in bed.

[Mike]

Jen saw the invite come in. I had to join.

[Tim Gettys]

We had to join.

[Greg Miller]

Me and Bear were already out there. Harsh in the gnar. So snow Mike. Mike's online. I'm like, let's go. New season, new man.

[Tim Gettys]

I love that. I hope you do too, because this is the kind of funny games.

[Greg Miller]

Can I address a comment that's gonna be in the comments right away? Okay. Sorry. I know you're just getting going.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

A lot of people out there are going to yell at me and say, greg, it finally happened. You're not using your Animal Crossing mug. I am using Pumpky, the old standby Pokemon. The problem here, I was having a rough morning. You can hear all about it on Greg Way. So I stopped at McDonald's to eat my feelings and I got a ginormous iced coffee there. And I've been. It's turned my day around. All right. It's turned my day around like a turkey leg turns a Disneyland day around. And the problem was, though, it was starting to taste like paper because they gave me a paper cup and so I had to get it out of the paper cup. But my Animal Crossing mug, too small for the amount of coffee I'd left. So Pumpkin got put into service today. The Animal Crossing mug still remains. Nobody get mad at me.

[Tim Gettys]

Don't get mad at him, everybody. I'm sure it was on the tip of your tongues. Each. Every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games, live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. Speaking of those podcast services, we are having a lot of podcast issues. I'm trying to get to the bottom of them. Uh, something changed with the distributors back end channel that we use. So Pocket Cast seems to be getting an issue. And there's a couple Spotify issues specifically with episode 2000. If you have other issues, please let me know, contact me somehow. I'm at Tim Getty is on all social 41 5. No, don't do that. But Tim Gettys. Let me know if you're having any podcast issues because I'm trying to nip this shit in the bud because I'm going to be real. I'm annoyed and I don't like it. But we'll get to the bottom of it, I hope. If you love what we do, support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcast to get all of our shows ad free. Watch us do them and get a daily exclusive show for chance to be part of the show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. Another thing I always say if you are having podcast issues, the first thing you should try unsubscribe, resubscribe and that hopefully well do something. It seems to work. What it does. I don't know, maybe it pings the system, you know, doesn't that sound right, Mike? It'll ping the system.

[Mike]

I do that all the time, Tim. All the time.

[Greg Miller]

This guy listen to kind of funny content.

[Tim Gettys]

A little housekeeping for you if you're 11. We are an 11 person business. All about live talk shows. Games Daily was all about Nintendo, tc, Pikmin again. Now it's like more confirmed. It's actually the Pikmin.

[Greg Miller]

They're there.

[Tim Gettys]

The fact that anyone who's questioning the Pikmin part of it is delayed.

[Mike]

I was questioning it, but I mean what.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, what it turns into.

[Mike]

But then I believe it now. Now I'm a believer now. I'm excited. You're a believer now. Now give me, give me Pikmin 1 through 4 in an ultimate bundle.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh no, no.

[Mike]

$160. I'll buy it.

[Greg Miller]

I don't care.

[Mike]

Give me what I want. I don't care what you do.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh my God. After this for streaming, Kingdom Come Deliverance too. You excited about that?

[Mike]

During to the audience.

[Tim Gettys]

Of course you are.

[Mike]

Kids, here's the deal. Because Andy won for you audience, I'll do it. I'll be the one to play Kingdom Come Deliverance too. Greg started the thank you because he was like, yo, we got to get talking about this game. And I said, greg, I'll follow up. I'm 12 hours in and I'm only getting deeper. Okay, I got Mutt. I got my buddy Mutt.

[Greg Miller]

You got Mutt, you gott back.

[Tim Gettys]

They know what he's talking about.

[Mike]

And I'm getting money. I was very poor in the game. And you have to. You have to get a 9 to 5 job to get money.

[Tim Gettys]

What's your job?

[Mike]

I'm a blacksmith apprentice.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, yeah?

[Mike]

You feel good about pounding horseshoes? Making some bad swords? I'm sometimes making axes and then I sell it to the guy and it says that it should sell for like 38 to maybe 42. He offers me 12 and I'm like, deal. I got to do it, Tim. I need money.

[Tim Gettys]

You got to do it, everyone. If you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg way is an 18 minute epic to Mental breakdown from Greg.

[Greg Miller]

Hey, everybody, it's me.

[Tim Gettys]

It's going around, isn't it? Oh, man. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and lady the sob 20. Like, what scares me is that it's a mental breakdown. And like, KF podcast yesterday wasn't a mental breakdown. Like, is this a real one? That was a fun one.

[Greg Miller]

This was not. It's. It's just me venting about a million different things and then going to McDonald's.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, there you go.

[Mike]

Get it out.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, you gotta let it out.

[Mike]

You gotta let it out.

[Greg Miller]

I don't want to go to therapy. I have a podcast for that called Greg Way.

[Tim Gettys]

What'd you get?

[Greg Miller]

I do the. I do the two sausage burritos. Oh, one. Because you get one off the dollar menu then. But the coffee was the addition to. I really just needed the giant iced coffee.

[Mike]

Got it.

[Greg Miller]

And it's the easiest one on my. My route once I decided that this would turn my day around. And I was right. Everybody. Eating your feelings works today.

[Tim Gettys]

We're brought to you by Factor, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, start with.

[Greg Miller]

Speaking of eating your favorite feelings, Let me tell you about factor of the show,

[Tim Gettys]

Skate baby. This is the review by Greg Miller.

[Greg Miller]

It's our review period. We didn't. I was. I bounced a bunch of headlines off Bless yesterday. And he's like, yeah, you're trying too hard. Just call it skate review. We never reviewed it. We did first impressions, like, oh, brillian. Me and Mike, we've been out there.

[Mike]

We're there day one. We miss Greg's thoughts and we're excited to hear about him now.

[Greg Miller]

Well, yeah, I want your. Now you get to score it too. Mike. I want to hear where you're at with this early access, baby.

[Tim Gettys]

Before you get into all that, I want to. I want to give you some little facts here and read a little bit of the. The review so far. Of this video game the developers Full Circle publisher Electronic Arts. The Steam description is as follows. Experience improved Flick. It controls the rich physics based skateboarding gameplay that provides those only in skate moments and offboard exploration for full freedom in the online multiplayer world of San Van. Early Access began on September 16, 2025. Season 1 dropped yesterday October 7. More than 15 million players have dropped into Skate since the game launched into Early Access less than three weeks ago. We have some upcoming events Skate o ween come in October 21st through November 11th. Then the seven ply maple harvest from November 18th to December 2nd.

[Mike]

That's some lore drop for you.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, about this.

[Mike]

Big deal on the lore. You read that about the.

[Greg Miller]

Of course I did. Of course. I of course built this document for you and dropped you this in there because I think if you're not paying attention, it's interesting how committed they are to skate. Being a living breathing world already with a season and then two events already. Like they're actually doing stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, I'd hope so, right? A month in. Not even a month in. Three weeks in, right?

[Greg Miller]

Why? But I mean like I remember Avengers where they just promised stuff that was gonna happen and never did.

[Tim Gettys]

Gotcha.

[Greg Miller]

How many other battle royales drop and like they have a season but they're not doing it anyways? I'm just pointing out that do sound like somebody's coming through the roof.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I don't know. There's no Metacritic score. It's TBD because of Early Access, but some highlights so far steam reviews are mixed. 66 positive. Dominic L at the sixth axis says skates about vibes. It always has been. And that's immediately the most compelling thing about this new version. Out in the city of San Amsterdam. You can do what? Whatever you like. Want to find the best line through an interesting set of benches and plinths? Go for it. Want to climb to the top of a skyscraper? Launch yourself off? You could do that too. Want to just poodle around? We're just dropping words here. This said he said pls and poodle in the same review. Good for you, dude. That's awesome.

[Greg Miller]

You don't want to hear Lucy James what's a Plinth?

[Tim Gettys]

Listen to music and make your character look cool. That's also an easy and welcome option. Skates always acted as the antithesis to Tony Hawk's pro skater. Time constraints, ridiculous combos, blast furnace locations, or plenty of fun. But they only capture a very slim and utterly unrealistic vision of skateboarding. Skates always aim to capture the lifestyle focus on one trick, hanging out with friends, the sheer difficulty of pulling off that one trick, and that's what you're getting here. IGN gave it a four out of ten, calling it bad. Luke Riley wrote, if I said there weren't times while playing the new Early Access Skate when I found myself hooked on clearing a task or engaged in executing an impromptu line I challenged myself to make, I'd be lying to thanks in large part to its smooth controls. It's true that cruising around in Skate does have the capacity to tickle the dusty part of my vein brain that still delights in booting up skate 2 every now and then, just to turn back the clock, noodle around and unwind. However, these moments are fleeting. Skates just so aggressively different in tone, style and spirit from its ancestors that any brief trance I found myself in was constantly broken by its embarrassing dialogue, trite art style and sterile mobile game style progression. Arming Skate with a faithful facsimile of the incredible feel of the old games means little if the rest of its constantly turning me off. Unfortunately, Skate is so fundamentally irritating and unsatisfying in every other way that there's currently no appeal here whatsoever for me to play this over any of the originals, old and creaky as they may be. I don't know what Skate will look like in 12 months time or when it's no longer in Early Access, but it's left a horrible first impression. The fortnight ification of Skate may well be the most disappointing thing to happen to skate culture since Razor Scooters. All right. Oh fucking right.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, they'll stand for the slander of the game, but not a race Scooter.

[Tim Gettys]

There's a. There's an age process. You know what I mean? Get the kids in, get them to the skate park with the scooters.

[Greg Miller]

Don't even get me started. I'm sure we're going to come into the skate culture arguments that are happening here where you talk about how much a fucking olds mad at this game.

[Tim Gettys]

Christian Donlin at Eurogamer in an unscored take says, I love a lot about skate and more I suspect, than a lot of people, but even I can sense that there's something missing here. How can I explain this? Okay, don't get upset, but Skates perhaps the least cool game I've ever played. And I mean this in in the main as a compliment. What? And I mean this in the main as a compliment. Skate isn't trying too hard and it wants to be friendly to a large audience And I suspect it's also made by people who have lived long lived enough of their lives to know that you miss out on important stuff in the pursuit of being cool for the sake of being cool alone. But Skate is set in a city that everyone loves, a city that's basically designed for skating. That means that some of the punkier side of skating, the repurposing of an environment that's built as. As if you don't exist or don't matter, is absent. I'm sure there's a really good point being made there. I don't fully understand it. I love it pretty much making the

[Barrett]

counterculture, the culture in like this weird corporate homogenized setting, which I understand.

[Greg Miller]

It's the idea that so many people are drawn to skating because of course, it is the renegade, cool whatever thing. And this is a world built around skating. So then it's fundamentally just like I'm. You make your character look like whatever you want. So an old lawyer could be next to whoever skate. You know what I mean?

[Mike]

Like.

[Greg Miller]

Like this isn't like the cool thing to do in this city that you're rebelling against.

[Tim Gettys]

Whatever. I don't want to.

[Greg Miller]

There's a lot of Franklin. There's a lot of arguments here.

[Tim Gettys]

Who do I start with? Mike? Greg. Hi.

[Mike]

Let's start with Greg, because we haven't heard.

[Tim Gettys]

Greg.

[Mike]

We've heard from me before. I've streamed it a bunch. But Greg, you know you've been playing a lot of this.

[Greg Miller]

I have.

[Mike]

And I do need to know, like, what is your vibes with this game?

[Greg Miller]

So, yeah, I've probably put in since getting back 30 hours into skate. PlayStation clock says 25. I've had. I've been on the razor blade 16. I've been on the Allies. We were talking briefly for one that night and then the port. Whatever. Doesn't matter. I've been all over the place with it. The stuff you're hearing is all great criticism, but for me it comes down to how skate feels in the sticks. It feels fucking awesome. It is a blast mic as you nod your head to run around and skate in Skateboard. It is an early access game. There are plenty of pain points. There are plenty of things that are missing, lacking, whatever. I think they've already been to some respects, interestingly tweaked coming into this next season and what they've added there in terms of a score. I've gone back and forth a lot on it where it's like for me personally, is it a 65 or is it a 7. And that might not sound like a big difference to people, but for me, am I saying it's okay or am I saying it's good? I feel when I start making excuses for why I want to make it a 6 5, I'm really bringing in other people's arguments that I don't share with it. So I'm giving this a 7 out of 10. I'm saying this is a good video game. I think the skating is so good. I think the skating is probably great, if not even better in this game. It is what you're doing with it, how much there is to do, how quickly maybe that wears out or doesn't as you go and how much freedom you have to find your fun. There's a whole bunch to talk about in this review, as I'm sure we will, but skating in skate is great. The sound of the skateboards is phenomenal. The clicking, the clacking, me grinding, what it sounds like, my wheels hitting pavement. Like it immediately takes me back to what I loved about skate 1, 2 and 3 and why I was so obsessed with those games. And every night I am excited to turn it on whether it be for all right, I did whatever redacted for review. I'm going to get a couple challenges in and I'm going to, you know, do the do my dailies or whatever or if it is, I'm going to sit there and just play for four hours, whether it be on the TV or on the portal or whatever. Like I am so happy to be skating in it. I totally get why other people are turned off by it, but I also think we're at a risk of and I'm sure we'll get into the deeper thing. So many people reviewing this against what their expectations of Escape 4 were and I think a lot of people what Escape 4 was would have been versus what this is as they've tried to restart this and make it a free to play game which inherently is going to change a whole bunch of stuff. I think criticisms are all fine, but like I do think the IGN 4 out of 10 is kind of crazy. Again, it's video games reviews. Everybody can have their opinion and I'm not saying Luke doesn't back it up for why he's coming at that, but I really do feel like if I can take you on a walk Tim, take me. As you know I was the grand poob of the antlers at Mizzou. The crazy sports fans that the university doesn't want to exist that scream very mean Things at players and prank phone caller hotels and yada, yada, yada. At the end of my junior year, I passed the baton to a very nice gentleman named Michael Booth, who I love to this day. Of course, he was now the new puba of the Antlers, the leader. And I my senior year was, you know, just hanging around, still doing it. You get mid year reviews as an antler, which are basically, you're getting roasted in an email and all this stuff. And I remember my mid year review was Booth going, miller, what happened to you? You don't come to this thing. You don't drink anymore. You don't. You don't drink. At the Giant, I was still drinking my fucking face off. But, you know, I wasn't like at the party or whatever. But basically he ended it with, you're still good at games, I guess. And he met going to the games and being an antler. And I remember reading that review and I'm like, what the fuck am I being reviewed on if I'm good at? I'm still great at being an antler at basketball games, but I'm not doing the ancillary hanging out fun stuff. I feel a lot of those reviews are falling in here. Skate is still great to skate in. It is still so much fun to skate in this game that I can't see coming in and dogging on it because I don't like the visuals because I think V is annoying, which I do and have turned her off. Like there's a million things going on. But especially for an early access game where we are going to be seeing this. I can't wait to see what it looks like in six months, what it looks like in a year, what it looks like when Saudi Arabia comes in and shits all over it and definitely ruins it. There's a lot to love here right now, despite the many flaws. And so I say it's a 7 out of 10. But Mike, how much have you played and what would you say?

[Tim Gettys]

So real quick, I want to know, is it free to play?

[Greg Miller]

Cool. Yeah.

[Mike]

15 million players jumped in. Greg, you said that so well. And I echo everything you have. I'm very excited to get more into the pain points because I can go from a six to an eight at any given moment. The problem is, is when I'm playing the game and I have my favorite album on, I'm on Spotify with the best soundtrack, cranked all the way up and I'm skating. It's a great game. It's one of the greatest games Around. It's one of the greatest feelings ever that they somehow captured in this skate franchise. It is so much fun to play moment to moment and just get lost in it. There are a lot of pain points now on the free to play early access side. That makes it go from man. I could spend eight hours here, and I just want to attack this giant open world and all these checklists, all of these moments that I used to have from skate one to skate three. Now I get hit with kind of a wall and I question, well, what am I doing now when I can't progress X amount of story or where I want to go, right with all the challenges? And that kind of brings me down a little bit. I'm at a flat seven. Good is right. That's where I go. I could give you six. Okay. With some of the pain points, some of the vibes. I really do not like the over the top, off the board flying from skyscraper antics. At first, I was kind of into that. I liked that after a couple of weeks with this game, that has definitely gone to the wayside. I don't really care for the challenges that that make me Superman. Three blocks down the road and fall into a planter or a tree planter, fly into the docks. Like, it's just not really that fun. But when I'm on the skateboard and I'm doing grinds, I'm doing manuals, I'm doing fun tricks on the ramps, it's an absolute blast to play. I do wish we somehow found hall of Meat. We don't quite have that. It is more, hey, just fly over there, fall into a tree. We're close enough, you know.

[Greg Miller]

And so for people who don't remember Mike, what was hall of Meat?

[Mike]

Hall of Me was a really fun mini game in the skate franchise where you would huck yourself off of the skateboard off of these giant jumps, and then you would fall down and crash land in. The point totals were how bad you landed. We had the fun how many bones you were breaking. And the bones would break. And so, like, that was really cool of like, that was fun. It felt skater culture back then, right? When we talk about NFL Blitz, the league, and we had those moments of like, oh, wow, Mortal Kombat. That guy ripped his heart out. Well, now I'm skater, you know, Coach Frank over here, and I've snapped my leg in five places. It's really fun to see that we're not there anymore, right? It's 2025. We're in a different world here. And so it just doesn't feel the same. But when I'm skating and I'm with friends and we're doing challenges or we're just vibing around, I have a good time. You know, here's a crazy one for you. We're going to go back and forth on this. The store is really good. The prices. The prices are outrageous. The prices are outrageous. But man, oh man, how much would

[Greg Miller]

you pay for a dead space bundle?

[Tim Gettys]

Timothy, you can be bundle.

[Greg Miller]

Isaac Clark kind of. It's like cardboard versions of it. So it's not like, you know, the suit, it's made to look like it kind of.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you're really selling me here.

[Greg Miller]

For the record, I'm not trying to sell you. I'm trying to give you the honest appraisal of what. Yeah.

[Mike]

Space.

[Greg Miller]

Well, this is, this is what it looks, right, Dustin?

[Mike]

Larry, I love it. I think it's great. I think they nailed it. And so the Destin Legary costume has been fantastic. The character creator has been fantastic. I've really enjoyed putting on different outfits. I really wish that the microtransaction side of things was not priced the way it is. I do wish a lot of this was just in the game. Like we used to have one through three. Right. Destin and so there's just an. That we'll get back into on that one. You know, a lot of the tricks, there's tricks that are missing that I am surprised that are not there. Right. Like where the hand plants, where's the dark slide when I want to flip the board upside down? There's just like some odd moments here of like we had one through three. I know this is early access. It's free to play. But like, how do we not have certain tricks in the game that were like staples of the franchise? Like, it's just very odd that we chose a couple of these moves that like just are clearly not in there. What happened here?

[Greg Miller]

I mean, I think it was the early access. Let's get it out. Right. Because they, they have, they have said they're adding moves. They're adding more moves. They've said and they are confirmed. Yeah.

[Mike]

But they're happy to charge me 35 for a bad looking dead space skin.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, I'm not put the dark slide in there. They're going to. They say and they're going to do it for free. All the moves will be free to everybody. You don't have to worry about buying

[Tim Gettys]

those off the store.

[Mike]

So.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay. I'm a little, a little confused, Mike, because you Started saying that. It's a great store, Tim.

[Mike]

The brands so far that they've brought in, from girls to creatures, have been very good. Vans as well. The. When you see the cosmetics, you look at and you go, fuck, I could wear that. I want to wear that. Oh, shit. That's a really dope hat that I would love to put on my outfit. Oh, man. Like, I would love that board. Those are some great wheels. Here's the issue. The trucks, those are $3. The wheels, those are $2. That orange flannel T shirt that you've seen Snow Bike Mike Rock, I would Love that. That's $5. That Isaac Clark Clark bundle is $35.

[Tim Gettys]

Wait, wait, wait.

[Mike]

Yes. $35, and it gets you some really good stuff.

[Greg Miller]

I was gonna say the one thing. No, no, that's bad. It is bad.

[Barrett]

Very bad.

[Greg Miller]

The one thing. It is bad. I just want to make sure we're representing it correctly, because it is a board, it is trucks, it is wheels.

[Barrett]

Like, everything you see through the wall stickers.

[Greg Miller]

It is a gesture. At no point am I saying it is worth it, ladies and gentlemen. Now, I am not saying it's worth the 30. $30 or whatever you said.

[Tim Gettys]

There's some great stuff here. So what's the great stuff?

[Mike]

Gesture is fantastic. They do the skeleton stomp, and it looks very good compared to all the other gestures. The board is sick. Tim. There's a profile icon that is super nasty in this. This whole package is so well done. But this should be 17 to $20 max, maximum. Fortnite lowered everything to where it's like, that's the right number. 33.

[Tim Gettys]

This is $5. This is $5. And I'd still.

[Mike]

That is 15.

[Greg Miller]

Says the man who freaked out when he bought Leonardo in Fortnite.

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, real talk. I'm here now with the K Pop Demon hunters in Fortnite, and, like, I really want them, but I'm also. I haven't been motivated to turn it on to buy.

[Greg Miller]

I'll let you know. I turned it on because Ben saw and I looked at the prices, and I was like, oh, there. I think we just helped them in the mode, Ben. I was like, I'm not. I'm not being. 30 bucks for the case.

[Tim Gettys]

Is that what it is?

[Greg Miller]

It's 33 of them together. And it might be more than that. I forget.

[Mike]

And so here's the deal.

[Tim Gettys]

Still probably good.

[Mike]

The store is very good. The battle pass is very good as well. And so I am sitting at a 6 to 8 at any moment. I'm having a great time playing Go.

[Greg Miller]

Just the one thing to come in on to the store aspect of it. Let's take away even the buying things with actual money. I think they do a great job of that. What you're doing is you look at your map and have all these icons. You go out and you do the challenges. You do the thing right and you're rewarded with the orange points. I forget what they fucking call those. Which are the in game currency which you then can go on. You have these loot boxes, but it's, you know, you know what you're going to get and you can get if you put it in all 10 items. You're going to get all 10 items.

[Mike]

And.

[Barrett]

But what you're unlocking in those free loot boxes or whatever is like, now you have a green board. Oh, now you have a black shirt. That's rare for some reason.

[Greg Miller]

For the record, if you're not. I don't fully agree with Barrett like that. Yes, that's accurate. But then that's where I got my slime board, my Ghostbusters caution tape top. It's not like it's all. First off, we all have different wants and needs out of any costume we want. If you. Barrett, if you want to toss up the. My final form thing, this is all from the boxes. I didn't pay for this stuff. Maybe I paid for the red glasses. I forget. But, like, I was able to make a goofy ass Greg Miller. This is what I wear when I'm fucking on stage doing stupid stuff at packs.

[Barrett]

Right.

[Greg Miller]

And my ghostbusters board, like, I got all of that out of the boxes now, you know, like, there's plenty of. There's an overwhelming amount and I think this. I think this does work for everybody. An overwhelming amount of shit in all of these boxes where it's like, never going to wear that. Never going to wear that, Never. Oh, got this cool, like that kind of thing of like. But it's also the. That spigot of outfits has kept me from spending too much. I bought the van sweatshirt store because I wanted a normal sweatshirt when I started the game. And I bought the shades in the store.

[Mike]

I'm on both sides. I am with Barrett on a lot of this part. It's like the free stuff is great. I have a whole free outfit that I wear a lot of the time. Right. I like to change the outfit on the fly quite often. It's really, really fun.

[Greg Miller]

Can I jump back here too? One of my biggest pet peeves for going forward in early access. Give us fucking loadouts. I hate the. I should be able to go up on the radio wheel and select from 10 different. I want to look like this with this board right now. I hate the fact of like, oh, like last night when we all teamed up, I was like, oh shit, I'm gonna go make my board look like the kind of funny board. And I made it the blue top and the pink bottom and the blue wheels. And I was like, why can't I

[Tim Gettys]

just quick save this?

[Barrett]

But they'll probably work. Work to that. I. I don't. That seems like a lower priority thing.

[Mike]

I just don't like the loot boxes of like it is my. I've earned this through playing your game. I don't like that. It's like, hey, here's 11 items in a loot box. We're not even going to show you 10 out of the 11. We'll just show you one and you're rolling the dice right. And like, sure. The whole point of the game is I'm going to play a bunch of this. So I'll unlock them all. But there's like tiers to it where there's probably eight pages and there's like six to seven different loot boxes that contain eight to 11 on each one. And I'm having to pick and choose which one I kind of guess I think I might like. But no, go through a bunch of

[Greg Miller]

square and you can see everything in the loot box. So you know what you're looking.

[Mike]

Well then I get, you know, six of those items I don't care for.

[Barrett]

Right?

[Greg Miller]

Sure.

[Mike]

I don't need that odd downrail to build.

[Greg Miller]

Here's the interesting thing. If you. If you wanted to just go in and pick and choose what you want, then the entire. What you're doing in this game in terms of progression would be gone. Like the entire point of this game right now, Tim, is to increase your rep level which then gives you access to the different boxes to then go and try to get these boxes.

[Mike]

Well, that's the early access, free to play problem of all of this.

[Barrett]

And it's not an interesting progression I think for this game overall. Gameplay overall I think is very solid. Just to jump in here, I would personally give Skate Early Access so far a 6.5. I think it's okay. That foundational gameplay that we have known and love in Skate one through three like it. They were able to bring it into the. The modern day and setting and make it feel as good as we remember it feeling. I Think everything around that presentationally is struggling. I think they have definitely improved a little bit on the music since we first started playing, like since launch of Early Access. Like we were rocking to some 90s music last night where, you know, season

[Greg Miller]

one dropped a whole bunch of new tricks.

[Barrett]

Yeah. Like I'm listening to Jane's Addiction and Sonic Youth and all this stuff and not like a bunch of stuff that feels very, like generic in terms of soundtrack. I think the store is sucks. And I think everything around the progression of this game being based around either the free part of the store or the store itself is just not very incentivizing because the whole progression is just, you know, you unlocking clothes and skateboards, which I know is just the free to play kind of season model of these type of games, but I just fundamentally just don't find that very interesting for a game like this. I think, like, Mike, you bringing up. Oh, the store is great because of all these brand stuff. I get that. But like, that should be the baseline for any skateboarding game is to have, you know, vans and, you know, to have all of these skateboarding brands that should be part of just like the basic stuff, you know, and have the store itself be more of the maybe not all, you know, brand deal, dead space type of things, but other goofier things that we can bring into that world. Um, yeah. And, you know, I have not. I've turned off all voice stuff and story stuff since like day two because it's so bad.

[Greg Miller]

It is so skaterized as you go through here.

[Barrett]

We got to get the footy.

[Mike]

The.

[Barrett]

The writing in this game, in this world is abysmal. The voice acting is not good. And it's like, really? And to know that these are actual real life skaters voicing fictionalized characters, it makes me question, like, why not just have them voice themselves and introduce a bunch of new people to a newer generation of skateboarders? Right. Why not? Why is Tim Robinson not in this game as a new coach? Frank. Right. Like, there's just so much around the solid core gameplay that while I'm playing it, you know. You know, we had our session last night and it was really fun. We found some lines that frustrated me to no end, but it was still fun to try to learn them.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

But then everything around it, whenever I'm away from skate, I am not thinking about skate, which is unfortunate, but I hope, I hope they maybe get there at some point.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay, sorry, I want to keep talking about all this. We have some super chats. We have some other things and Greg's going to say something. But right after a word from our sponsor. This episode's brought to you by Factor Ball. Always feels like there's just so much going on, so much stuff to do. Shorter days, busier routines, back to school. It's all just a lot. That's why so many of us here at Kind of Funny Love Factor. Their chef prepared dietitian approved meals make it easy to stay on track and enjoy something comforting and delicious, no matter how hectic the season might get. On many occasions, Factor has come to completely saved both Greg and Jen when they needed it most. Choose from a wider selection of weekly meals, including premium seafood choices. We're talking salmon, we're talking shrimp at no extra cost. Eat [e-mail] kindafunny 50 off and use code kind of funny 50 off to get 50 off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. That's code kind of funny 50 off@factor meals.com for 50% off your first box plus free breakfast for one year. Get delicious ready to eat meals delivered with Factor offer only valid for new Factor customers with code and qualifying auto renewing subscription purchase.

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[Tim Gettys]

Greggy, what you got? For me?

[Greg Miller]

Nothing. I want to piggyback off what Barrett was saying with a bit of a contrarian take of like for me in just the kind of gamer I am. I guess the rep level and unlocking the boxes and chasing a piece of clothing does work for me right now. I'm, I'm, I just want to get the skeleton sweatshirt From Gilchrist box 7 or 8 or whatever it is, right? But I'm still working my rep up to unlock that box to do the thing, blah blah, because I keep getting Distracted and getting pulled into other missions. And yet to that, I think there's an interesting takeaway, too, of what people wanted out of Skate. And I think when we were talking about it leading into it, right, and it being free to play, one of the things I said was, hey, I'm not necessarily against it just because it's free to play. I hope it's not, you know, ruin my good time being money grubby, blah, blah, blah, blah. I was like, I hope there's dailies to go do, and then I hope it's just fun to skate or whatever. So the amount of times I've turned it on and I find myself not doing the missions to get the rep tokens, and it is just exploring. It is just finding a line, grinding down this, oh, can I do that? Oh, I never noticed, like, there's a. The back to the reviews that were talking about the game being a vibe. I feel like there's a definitive vibe here that I know so many people like Luke were like, yo, this isn't skater culture. I hate this fucking vibe. For me, the neon, just rolling around, skating vibe is that nice palette cleanse. Back to what Mike was saying, too, of, like, in Barrett, you know, I went in there and I had such a better time once I turned off vo and I then also turned off their music, which is better now with the 90 stuff. They got Ice Cube. Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Nathan Robinson in the chat says they removed 25 songs when they added the new eight songs.

[Barrett]

Oh, interesting.

[Greg Miller]

Stupid. Well, I mean, I do wonder if

[Barrett]

it's going to be a seasonal thing, though, where it's like they. They pay for, you know, licensing for a certain amount.

[Greg Miller]

But it's also just the fact of, like, for this kind of game and to vibe around and do it for me, it's so easy to kill the music, turn on Spotify on the PlayStation and play what I want to play. And, like, I'm not giving it credit for that or anything. I'm just saying, like, what I'm looking for of, like, I'm just gonna do this and be chill and vibe and go do this. It works for me. And right now, checking with me in a month and a half if I'm still grinding on boxes or whatever, even though that Halloween shit, you know, I'll be all about, I gotta get all that Halloween crap when that drops, albeit. But yesterday dropped the battle pass. And the battle pass, I do think is one of those, like, we had founder passes, right? So. And there's a free track to the battle Pass. And there's a paid one. We had founder passes, which gets us the battle pass to begin with. When I looked at it yesterday, I went through every page of that battle pass. This. As much as I love skate and love skating, this would have been a battle pass I never would have spent money on. Because for me looking at it, I look at him like, other than the. The. It's one of. It's just like fortnite where you play it. You unlock the bucks as you play. So it's like I'd be making. You could make money back from it or whatever. Same thing with helldivers. There's nothing in this that I would want. And so I think that's to what Barrett's kind of talking about on the current loot boxes they have in there. For me to be able to identify things I do want in those keeps me going. But then for a battle pass, I'm not going to give next season two. I'm gonna have to look at that battle passing. Oh, I actually want this. And it's worth going for.

[Tim Gettys]

A GDN says it's 21 new songs that just spread around different stations. So not eight.

[Mike]

That battle pass hurts me. I really like the battle pass. I'm on the opposite side. I love the battle pass. I think there's some great cosmetics that fit my vibe. I really don't like seeing where they're like, we're going to give you real world money back. And it's like, here's 25, which is 25 cents. Here's a dollar 25. You're like, what are we doing here?

[Greg Miller]

When they remove the actual amount of money, you look, you go, 70 sand van bucks. That's pretty good. I guess I'm making money playing 25.

[Mike]

Like, 25 is 25 cents in the real world items.

[Greg Miller]

Here's what I've been trying to figure out. Help me out on this.

[Mike]

Help me.

[Greg Miller]

Do I need your help right now, Mike? To do math, which I've never been good at.

[Barrett]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Yesterday they dropped this dead space bundle. Yeah, 33. Whatever. Right. And I'm like, oh, fuck. I like.

[Tim Gettys]

Streets were clamoring for this one, by the way.

[Greg Miller]

Well, I mean, they liked it a lot in Skate 3 when it was free, but that was a $60 game. But I digress. I saw that. I was like, oh, man, that's so fucking dumb. And I looked at how much money I had and I was like, you know what it's from? I have the money from the founders pass or whatever. Fuck it. Buy it. I bought it. Then I had money left over and then everybody's bitching about the prices. Understandably so. I myself included, and I was like, wait. So I did this math. I went on Xbox where it says the founders pass came with 2,800 sand van bucks.

[Tim Gettys]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

I've put no real money into this game. So how did I have 2,800 sand van bucks to start last night, bought something for 3350 sand van bucks and still have right now 1525 van bucks.

[Mike]

That's how much you have right there.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

On the purple one, you see that 25.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Mike]

Slap in the face,

[Greg Miller]

pink, purple, whatever. Just don't get confident.

[Tim Gettys]

25 cents doesn't deserve screen space.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah. But my question, I don't understand. Were we from the missions getting San Van buck somewhere?

[Mike]

Not that I've seen though I thought

[Greg Miller]

from those in tutorial missions you were getting it.

[Barrett]

I thought a couple of them, they

[Greg Miller]

gifted 500 at the start says camera.

[Mike]

I've already given them a lot of money. I've been paying. I've been paying a lot.

[Greg Miller]

I've put no real money into this. So I don't understand how I had

[Mike]

what I might be 60 to 80 in.

[Greg Miller]

60 to 80 in money.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Mike]

And I mean I like it. It's. The problem is I like this game and I like some of the outfits that they're selling.

[Tim Gettys]

I have a question here. If the problems with this game seem to just be a lot of like the, the new modern stuff, why not just play the old game? Is this game play significantly better than the old game? That, that's a question. Like I, I understand that there's a lot of things like those old games are great, but. But Baron, maybe you are the best person to answer this. Like gameplay wise, you're saying you like the gameplay of this new skate. Does it modernize in ways that like the old games are just too old and they need that?

[Barrett]

I mean it's tough to say. Like the last time we played Skate three was work from home era backwards compatible on Xbox. So I think it's one of the. It's a tough thing where I think that's the only way you can play that on a modern system. Correct me if I'm wrong, Mike. With Xbox, backwards compatibility with skate 3. So I don't. If you only own a PS5 or what have you. Like, I think this is the only way to play a skate right now is this. So that's where it's like if you're really jonesing for that it's free to download and it's free to play around and fuck around for a couple hours and so like I think there's that there but if you do have access to like the you know backwards compatible skate three and you're looking for more of that experience like I don't know if this does anything like super significant to like make it feel two things

[Greg Miller]

from the chat Olive party says yes it's better because the speed now is what you remember it being old skate games are so are too slow now that's all of party who we know so that and then the other one that went through was to this my qu where's all this money coming from that I have it's getting your level of rep I get you to get you get there so my point being that like it is one of those games you can you could have bought dead space for free if you didn't put into the founders pack based on what I had because I have what I wrote here. I've yeah Somehow I've made 2075 Sand Van Bucks or whatever the fuck they're called.

[Tim Gettys]

So obviously they're focusing on the microtransactions in the stores and like that is what this game is. They made that decision. There's no going back from that at this point. Do you think that there is saving the game from a gameplay perspective of like do you think that they're going to be adding things that are worthwhile Greg to keep you playing this game or is the fun that you've had now the seven that you gave it now kind of your journey with this

[Greg Miller]

game and that no I'm gonna still be around and I and I you know maybe I'm too maybe I'm being naive stuff like Skate O ween which is a terrible name but a Halloween skate event like I'm gonna be all about that because I love that holiday and I'll be back for the the seven ply festival or whatever. I don't know sounds goofy. I imagine there'll be a Christmas activation all that jazz and maybe hopefully the season two battle pass and not to mention season one added new stuff to the world. I don't think it's like you know something insane Tim that would grab your attention and make you go play it but if they're going to be changing the world that level I would imagine it'll and I do I a you know people are bummed there's no career which of course me too right But I Do expect there to. There's mission chains right now, as annoying as they are of use your footy, do this thing, blah blah. I imagine there'll be new mission chains that are added. I wouldn't be surprised if they do guest skaters there and do something like that as we all bitch and moan about what we do and don't like. Like I expect to be brought back into this game beyond what I expect it to also be, which is I put it down for two months for reviews or whatever. And then one night I'm like, oh man, grind. And I get back into doing whatever. Or season two Battle Pass has something I really want on there. A Ghostbusters shirt at the very end. I'm gonna fucking go crazy for or whatever.

[Tim Gettys]

Do you think Ghostbusters makes into this game? Legitimate question.

[Greg Miller]

No, I don't. No, no. Do you?

[Tim Gettys]

I mean, I've learned that to never say no. Ghostbusters always finds a way.

[Mike]

Anything that's in Zoomies or Hot Topics, finding a way.

[Greg Miller]

It's one of those things. If this game can maintain and if this game can be still relevant next Halloween, maybe they figured it out. Maybe that's how they do it.

[Tim Gettys]

We got some super chats I want to get to. Ozzy Olivo says, I think the reason OG Skate fans are upset is because we're the reason skates come back. Skate comes back in the first place for us barraging EA and comments. And then they gave us a microwave version of Skate with no soul. Obviously. Very valid thought there. You're not wrong.

[Greg Miller]

And again, I'm not trying to do this. I would toss out. I'm an OG Skate fan too. I was just not a. I'm not an. I'm not a skateboard culture fan, I guess where that's what draws me to it. For me, skate was always about being the skater and doing the thing and it was fine to be surrounded by, you know, these skaters in the real life, whatever. But that wasn't what it was all about for me. For me, it was the game feel, if that makes sense. Where I was more there for the video game, the skateboard video game, the skateboard life. I just also think that, like, with all due respect, you saying you're the reason it's back, it's like. Well, no. Like we took a long time off of this where you didn't get Skate four and it had to be that. No, they're. They're back because of Fortnite and because they think they found an angle to get this everywhere. Everybody hating But I don't believe that though.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, you know, when they announced it, if the microtransaction free to play stuff definitely felt like a pivot. Right. Like when they first announced this game it was Skate four. It was going to be Skate four. And then somewhere along the line they're like and it's not going to be profitable enough for us. So we need to take.

[Greg Miller]

I mean and that's the thing of course is as soon as EA it's 2025 right now of course. But even EA announcing this in 2021, 20, whatever it was when they do that, it's EA the company you voted the worst company in the world every year running for five years. It's like did we expect this to buck the trend of them like not do to give you this game that was blah, blah, blah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, absolutely I did. Because we're talking about an EA at that time that was starting the Hazelight situations and making Yarny unraveled or whatever it was and like focusing, I mean and respawn. Yeah, I know. But no, I do think that like the, that when they announced Skate that really felt like hey, we're giving you

[Mike]

all this one Dragon Age Mass Effect.

[Tim Gettys]

It's like, yeah, that was all the same.

[Mike]

And here we go.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And so it's. I, I do think that the, it, it. The story of Skate to me fell off a cliff immediately once it was like, oh, it's just called Skate and it's gonna be this free to play thing. I was like, there's no way this like pants out for making the long term fans happy for what this is gonna be.

[Greg Miller]

Oh sure.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, it's not Skate four. It's like I think that they are even admitting hey, this is not.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, they are very clear. They have a FAQ where they're like this is not.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, that's a choice.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah it is. And I think. But I mean again like I think EA would have canceled Skate 4 and killed it in the crib. Like this is the way to get to it. And the fact that it is still the skate gameplay awesome. The fact like you know this is going to sound crazy probably but you can go back and watch the games dailies where skate would come up in conversation. Right. This is beyond a shadow of the doubt. The best case scenario for a free to play skate like they could easily be doing. Yeah. Oh, you want the hand plants. It's in the battle pass and you got to pay the money. Oh, you want this? We are going to nickel and dime you you want clothes, period there on the store, you start as just Jonesy skin from Fortnite and that's all you get. Like they could have been super, super shitty about it. Right now. It is a free to play skate game that feels awesome. If you just wanted to skate and jump in and go, you could go do that. You could unlock a bunch of shit without ever giving them a dime. Which I again, I hate microtransactions. I don't love that everything's paywalled. But we are talking about the fact they are giving you a free to play skate game that is a skateboarding game that is fun to play. And I think that is very impressive that they didn't fuck this up. Beyond that, where it's like not fun to play and it's egregious and it doesn't work. And like, especially again for the seven of what I think this is of, here's the foundation now, what they're going to build on this and what it's going to look like in a year and where we're going to be in two. Like, who the fuck knows? I'm not going to do that. But for what they've done, I'm like, oh man. Like I've seen every man or a video game company fuck something up like this. And they didn't fuck this up. It might not be the skate 4 you want, but they didn't fuck it up.

[Barrett]

And then for the 65 that I would give it, like, I still like again the word okay. Like I don't think this is terrible. Like, oh my God, they've ruined what skate means or what have you. You know, this is a solid podcast game. Like I was telling Greg 100 this morning, you know, it's one of those. I, I had like a video essay or something on last night on my phone, so I didn't want to pull up a video game that was like story based or anything. So I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna boot up skate. And that is what it is to me right now. I'm just bummed that I don't have a sense of real progression pulling me into it outside of cosmetics. And I think that's the big thing missing for me. You know, like the, those original games that was about building up your, you know, you being a pro skater, you know, shooting pictures for the covers of magazines, even if you don't have the license for why am I breaking out? Yeah, like something made up to do something like that, you know, filming, like you doing A line, but, like, filming and cutting footage, not footy footage for, like. Like a video compilation or something like that. Like, those kind of missions and that structure and that progression is something that I miss. And I don't know if that'll ever be realistically put into a free to play.

[Greg Miller]

See, I'm not right.

[Tim Gettys]

Now you tell me footy's footage.

[Mike]

Yes.

[Barrett]

Yes.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, you didn't know that?

[Greg Miller]

Again, I want you to know. Hold on. Everybody clear comments for one second. Yeah, Tim, you need to know that they talk about it in the game the way I do the B.S. that's blue sky. Hey, get the footy. That's footage, by the way. Like, we understand.

[Barrett]

It's funny, Tim. The writing is abysmal.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett]

I need you to watch, like, some of the tutorial missions where they're walking you through stuff, because it's like, what are we doing?

[Tim Gettys]

Greg, sorry to cut you off there.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no, you're fine.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm.

[Greg Miller]

The point's long gone for whatever I was trying to say. I don't.

[Tim Gettys]

Deshaun says, the story about being a court building a city for skaters feels so antithetical to skate culture, which has always been very counterculture to me. Herd Skateboard says, hey, guys. Appreciate all you guys do. Loving my Forever game. Greg and Mike sent you both friend requests in hopes of skating with y'. All. KFBF community sesh soon. Love to everyone at kf.

[Greg Miller]

Who was it?

[Mike]

I accepted every request, and it's awesome that friends just join me all the time.

[Tim Gettys]

H E R D I don't like

[Mike]

doing challenges with friends because it just becomes a mess.

[Barrett]

Yeah, it's weird. Yeah.

[Mike]

It just doesn't feel. See, I don't. It's not fun.

[Greg Miller]

I disagree. I had fun with you guys last night just watching it.

[Barrett]

It's fun to do together, but there's something about, like, it not tracking, like, everybody doing in, like, a way that makes sense. Like, we were playing with Uncle Death last night. Shout out to Uncle Death. And there was one line that was, like, pretty tough. And they cleared it first, and they mastered it first. But then on my screen, it showed, like, everything that Uncle Death had done as checked off. But I was like, but I want to see what I have and haven't done yet. It's just, like, weird little presentational stuff like that that I think they need to tweak.

[Greg Miller]

That's fair.

[Mike]

Yeah. I wish I would be able to watch people as well. Like, I completed, and then I just kind of stand around and I just skate aimlessly.

[Greg Miller]

Can you not spectate?

[Mike]

Maybe but like I'm not it just there's something about like having a group in a multiplayer sesh where this is just doing challenges. I want skate, I want own the spot. I want us to be rallying around each other. This just feels like we're just doing challenges but like separately at the same time.

[Greg Miller]

You're not wrong.

[Mike]

Feel like we're together at all.

[Greg Miller]

See I I, you're not wrong. I, I, I, I do feel together. I felt together with you guys last night when I did see oh Uncle Death grinded like oh we need to do or whatever and yeah I think there's no in game chat but again in the world of party invites and discord I don't know how much and I'm not the chatter so whatever but like I felt together with you guys last night.

[Tim Gettys]

Alex J. Sandoval says can you say more about the experience of recording footage and cutting and editing a video to share conference spectate and share different angles.

[Greg Miller]

You can spectate. You can spectate each other in your world. So I would imagine. I haven't tried in a co op game to go spectate but there's a trophy which I got for spectating 50 people and I just went through and spectated. So yeah, it should be fine But I'm not 1000% sure the the video editor they have in there, it's clunky like I use it for screenshots where I'll just do that and then there's a trophy for exporting footage which I find so cumbersome I haven't even bothered with. But I've seen a lot of people complain about it. It's there, it's not great and they did some update with it yesterday that people aren't happy with.

[Barrett]

Yeah and people in chat are saying that the video editor might be getting more updates soon. Yeah, it's not interesting. And again like the video editor stuff in the original games was more for like the in game stuff that you were doing for like reels for your skate career or whatever. This feels very much of like them trying to capitalize off of oh a lot of kids were making skate three tick tocks. Yeah, let's build something around that and it just doesn't really feel fully fleshed out.

[Tim Gettys]

Any final thoughts on skate as it is currently and where you might want to see it?

[Greg Miller]

Greg, A seven right now out of ten. A good game I think a game though I love like a much better game like I again I think every game you're going to come at with your own perspective and what you want. This game is delivering so much of what I want out of a skate game. It feels great to skate. You know, when I am coming down the hill, I jump up, I grind down, I land it. I do a little 360 spin or whatever. My. My T shirts, my little crop tops flopping in the flapping in the wind or whatever. And I have that. I feel the momentum of the turn. It's like, God, this feels good. And that's what I wanted out of this. I wanted a game that I could turn on and get lost in or for 15 minutes or 5 hours or whatever. They've delivered that. That said, I think, yeah, you know, you're bumping into a lot of different walls and things and just loot boxes. And once I get my skeleton T shirt and how skate of wean what like what it keeps going for it. How that'll dictate how often I'm turning it on and coming back for dailies and stuff. Right. Like I'm swimming in the orange currency right now because I'm just saving up to get to the next box to drop a million. I don't know. But for a foundation. I'm in love with it and I'm excited to see what happens and where they could go. I have optimism for where they could go again. Even though this isn't skate 4 and so many people are bent out of shape about a million things that it is or isn't right now. I do believe that people working on this game and I think the proof is in how it plays. Understand what skate is. And I've seen so many people mad that this Update didn't fix X1. It's like it's early access. It's update one like this. And this is the stuff you're working on long before it gets to public. I think give them the chance. I do think you see something similar to hall of Meat. I do think you see something similar to hey, we need to capture foodie. Maybe they'll say footage for your skate cover or whatever. Like they know what skate was before this and they want to honor that as they go again. It is. Will EA allow them? 15 million players is nothing to sneeze at. But let's see how many people stick around. How many people actually give them money. Mike.

[Mike]

I just love playing it. Tim. That's the problem is I just have so much fun playing this game and it's not a problem. It's a really good time and I Like playing skate. I have always wanted skate for a long time since skate three. This is a game that just feels good to play. It is my game. This is the game that I like to play. And I'm happy that it's back. I enjoy my time with it. I'm happy to come and go. I never feel bad about it. I am interested in the season pass and the things they're doing. It looks like they. They'll hold the season pass for me, allowed to progress it for into the next season. Which is cool.

[Greg Miller]

That is cool. It's like the Helldivers battle pass. You never lose it.

[Mike]

Very interesting one there. I really, you know, if I had my finger on it all. I'm excited to see what you do with skate a ween Christmas, Thanksgiving, these holidays, these fun moments that you can build in these living, breathing worlds. I think Fortnite is a really interesting one of like, what they do with moments like that. And I've always had a good time of like, man, this would be cool to put up a bunch of Halloween decorations. How do you really nail that, make that fun? I'm. I'm in on this game and I really enjoy it.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, there you go, everybody. Let us know in the comments below. Bear, you have final thoughts.

[Barrett]

Just you can have a great time with an okay game. And, you know, sometimes I have a great time with an okay game.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. And it's free. Have a great time with an okay free game. Check it out. Let us know what you think in the comments below. Have you already played it? You liking it? You're not liking it? What do you want to see? I want to hear it all. We are about to do a kingdom come deliverance. Mike's trying to make some money.

[Mike]

Could be game of the year. We'll find out people who know.

[Tim Gettys]

Find out everybody.

[Mike]

You told me it is.

[Tim Gettys]

Love the pandering, Mike. Until next time. Love y'.

[Greg Miller]

All.

[Tim Gettys]

Goodbye.

[Greg Miller]

I got this off the battle pass.